Malaysian Airlines Flight 17: Lack of Seats Saves British Couple’s Life from Crash

A man works at putting out a fire at the site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash in the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region, July 17, 2014. The Malaysian airliner was shot down over eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian militants on Thursday, killing all 295 people aboard, a Ukrainian interior ministry official said. REUTERS

While 298 lives were lost on Thursday when Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was hit by missiles from Ukrainian rebels, a few lucky lives were also spared because of last-minute decisions that these travelers would forever not forget.

Something which would normally anger air passengers, such as lack of available seats, was what spared the lives of British couple Barry and Izzy Sim and their baby, which made the Sims opt for a later KLM flight. Had there been enough seats in the ill-fated flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Barry and Izzy would have added to the 10 British passengers on board MH 17.

Barry said from Scotland, quoted by The Telegraph, "You get this sick feeling in the pit of your stomach ... We started getting butterflies. Your heartbeat starts going."

Because of the incident, Izzy believes someone is watching over them and told them not to get on the flight. She added that they actually are very loyal MH flyers despite the disappearance of the MH 370 on March 8 and Barry usually did not like flying via KLM, "But do you know what at this moment we are so glad to be on that KLM flight rather than that Malaysian Airlines flight."

Izzy is now wary of air travel, especially for jet bound for Kuala Lumpur.

A Malaysia couple wasn't as lucky because the wife was spared riding the MH 370 plane that until now is the subject of an international search, while the husband switched schedules with another flight attendant and perished on Thursday.

Read: Malaysian Airlines Flight 17: 2 Passengers Had Premonition of Impending Doom Moments Before Take-Off

But an Australian couple, Simone and Juan Jovel, was also spared from death because of a change of heart that resulted in their last-minute cancellation of their reservations for MH 17. The honeymooning pair arrived in Adelaide earlier than they planned to spare them from being jetlagged by Monday.

Flight 17 was actually overbooked and the Jovels were on standby. They found out only that they were flying on the same day, Wednesday, which is surely a day the Aussie couple would never forget all their lives.