Student Escapes MH17 Death After Last Minute Flight Change

A 20-year-old Australian student narrowly escaped dying on the doomed Malaysian Airways flight MH17, after she changed her travel plans at the last minute. Bec McDonald from Geelong in Victoria was due to fly home on the plane, but just days before take-off her brother found her a cheaper alternative.

She initially flew home via London to save money, but ultimately it saved her life as well. Miss McDonald only found out how close she had come to being killed when she was on a stopover in Kuala Lumpur. The psychology student was on a one month tour of Europe organised by Contiki, which ended in Amsterdam last week.

At the end of the trip she planned to take MH17 back to Australia until her travel agent brother noticed that the company offer a free connecting flight to London. Having access to a free flight to London enabled McDonald to book cheaper flight back home, as the route between Britain and Australia is much more popular and competitively priced. 

This meant cancelling plans to be on board the plane that was ultimately shot down by a surface to air missile, killing all 298 people on board including around 80 children

Bec McDonald told the MailOnline: “I didn’t realise the gravity of it until I got home and my family were really overwhelmed to see me. It was definitely scary.

“I was quite scared to get on a plane normally. I’ve never flown more than five hours before and I was by myself.

“Everyone says, ‘You’ll be fine, it’s so unlikely that anything will happen.’ And to know that happened while I was in the air, it was pretty scary.”

As reported on Breitbart London yesterday the shooting down on MH17 has caused outrage across the world, and led to a hardening of attitudes towards Vladimir Putin and Russia. The Prime Minister David Cameron said in the House of Commons that he did not believe Putin intended Russian separatists in Ukraine to shoot down the jet but the Kremlin was still guilty as they supplied the weapons used. 

There are now likely to be even tougher sanctions again Russia, and a strengthening of NATO’s position in central Europe.