Barry Sim and his wife Izzy were told there were not enough seats on the plane for them and their baby so they switched to a later KLM flight.
Up to 10 British passengers were last night feared to be among the 295 people killed when a the Malaysia Airlines plane was apparently shot down on the Russia-Ukraine border.
Asked about his response to the crash, Mr Sim, from Scotland, said: “You get this sick feeling in the pit of your stomach [...] We started getting butterflies. Your heartbeat starts going.”
Mrs Sim added: “There must have been someone watching over us and saying ‘you must not get on that flight’.
"But do you know what, at this moment we are so glad to be on that KLM flight rather than that Malaysia Airlines flight," she said.
Mr Sim said: "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."
Mr Sim said he was “philosophical” about continuing to “go about your life”, saying that he believed the couple should take the KLM flight, despite his wife’s misgivings about the danger of another crash.
There were reportedly 23 American passengers, and at least four French nationals on the Malaysia Airlines flight.
Graphic images and footage showed a pall of smoke, charred wreckage and bodies at the crash scene in the rebel-held eastern Ukraine village of Grabovo.
Other photographs from the scene showed charred and mutilated bodies as well as passengers’ passports that had been recovered from the wreckage of the downed airliner.
One passport had been opened poignantly showing the photo of 13-year-old Dutch girl who is believed to be among the dead.
Images also included piles of suitcases and bags piled up at the crash scene.
Witnesses say body parts are scattered over a distance of 15km, suggesting the plane broke up in mid-air.
The upper floor of Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport was closed off reserved for family and relatives of passengers on flight MH17.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who had been attending a European Union summit in Brussels, headed back to the Netherlands to deal with fallout from the crash.
Flight MH17, which was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew and took off from Schiphol airport shortly after lunchtime yesterday.
The plane appeared to have broken up before impact and the burning wreckage — which included body parts and the belongings of passengers — was scattered over a wide area.
A spokesman from the Foreign Office would not be drawn on reports that up to 10 British nationals had been on board the plane.
“We are aware of the reports and are urgently working to establish what has happened,” he said.
Asked about the reports, the spokesman added: “Our first priority is to establish if there are any British persons on board but we are not in a position to go beyond that line.”
The Foreign Office is in talks with consular teams in Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur to obtain passenger lists to establish how many UK nationals were on board.
Among those feared dead is a Dutch man who posted a photo on Facebook of the plane on the tarmac just hours before the crash.
Initially, friends commented on the photo wishing him happy holidays. But their messages turned to ones of concern once news of the crash broke.
Based on the number of flights leaving Amsterdam’s Schipol airport, and the timing of his Facebook status, it is feared he was on the fated flight.
His cousin later posted the flight number beneath the picture and shortly after friends began leaving messages saying ‘rest in peace’.
Another said that his girlfriend was on the flight with him.
A close family friend of Captain Eugene Choo Jin Leong, the captain of the crashed plane, told The Telegraph last night: “We are still holding onto hope because, up till now, no official has contacted us to let us know what has happened. All that we know about what happened is from the television.”
Source: Telegraph
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