Couple counting their lucky stars no more seats available on MH17

A couple and their baby are alive today only because there were no more seats available on the ill-fated Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 which left Amsterdam yesterday, The Telegraph reported.

The couple an

d their child then boarded a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight, a few hours before MH17 was shot down.

Barry and Izzy Sim from Scotland now "feel sick" after learning that MH17 was shot down in Ukrainian airspace and everyone onboard was killed.

Barry told The Telegraph of "butterflies" in his stomach and his heartbeat racing.

“You get this sick feeling in the pit of your stomach... we started getting butterflies. Your heartbeat starts going.

"In my mind lightning never strikes twice in the same place, so I am still philosophical that you get on the flight and you go about your life.

"I know my wife doesn't feel like that. Probably the last thing she wants to do now is fly, especially to Kuala Lumpur," he said.

Barry said he was “philosophical” about continuing to go on with life, adding that he believed they should take the KLM flight, despite his wife’s misgivings about the danger of another crash.

Izzy said her family must have had someone watching over them, preventing them from boarding MH17.

She said Barry usually disliked flying with KLM and they are both loyal Malaysia Airlines (MAS) customers.

“There must have been someone watching over us and saying ‘you must not get on that flight’.

"We are very loyal to MAS and we always want to fly with MAS...But do you know what, at this moment we are so glad to be on that KLM flight," Izzy was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

MH17 flew out of Amsterdam, then crashed near the Ukrainian-Russian border last night, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

The plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile allegedly fired by pro-Russiana separatists in Ukraine.

Nine British nationals have been confirmed to be onboard the plane.

The Telegraph reported that graphic images and footage showed smoke, charred wreckage, mutilated bodies and piles of bags and suitcases at the crash site in the rebel-held eastern Ukraine village of Grabovo.

Witnesses said body parts were scattered over a distance of 15km, suggesting that the plane broke up in mid-air.

Passengers’ passports had also been recovered from the wreckage. One showed the photo of a 13-year-old Dutch girl.

Among those feared dead is a young Dutch man, who posted a photo on Facebook of the plane on the tarmac, just hours before the crash. He had added the comment that "here's what my plane looks like, in case it disappears", presumably joking in reference to the disappearance of MAS flight MH370 in March.

It was reported that his girlfriend was travelling with him.

Initially, friends wished him happy holidays as they commented on his photo. Their comments turned to concerned messages once news of the MH17 crash broke.

The Telegraph also reported that the upper floor of Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport has been closed off and reserved for the family and relatives of MH17 passengers.

Meanwhile, Australian media reported that the MH17 crash claimed at least 28 of its citizens. However, one couple, newlyweds from Adelaide, escaped when they decided to fly home early.

Simone La Posta and her husband Juan Jovel, who managed to get a flight out of Amsterdam one day earlier, told ABC Radio how close they came to boarding MH17 twice.

“We flew into Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam on the MH17 flight, the day before, so it’s a bit surreal to think that, you know, one day later and I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you right now,” she said.

“We originally had our itinerary to be on that (MH17) flight, but then we changed it, thinking we’d be too jet-lagged for work on Monday,” La Posta told the ABC host.

“Then there was another chance we could’ve been on that flight when we got to Schiphol Airport on Wednesday to check in. They had overbooked that flight.

"So we were on standby and we only found out, literally a minute before the boarding closed, that we were actually going to be leaving that day,” she said. – July 18, 2014.