Lucky Dutch cyclist escapes death twice on MH17, MH370

Dutch cyclist Maarten de Jonge escaped death not once but twice by changing his travel plans. He was scheduled to fly on both MH17 and MH370. The former aircraft crashed over Ukraine border last Friday and the latter went missing in March.

Jonge was part of a small group of people who were scheduled to fly on MH17 but escaped the tragedy by cancelling/changing their travel plans, ABC News reported.

Newly married couple, Simone La Posta and Juan Jovel thanked their stars as they recalled the tragedy that they averted by cancelling their tickets on flight MH17. The Australian couple was returning from their honeymoon and was booked to fly on the aircraft on Friday. However, they decided to fly a day earlier.

Another couple, Barry and Izzy Sim along with their son, who had to change flights due to shortage of seats on the Malaysian aircraft, said they were shocked to know about the fate of MH17.

The Malaysian aircraft lost all contacts with the control room at 14:15 GMT as it flew towards the Russian border. It exploded in the Donetsk region after being hit by a surface to air missile. All the 298 people on board, including passengers and crew members have died.