 "MH17 and three ironical twists of fate")
Stories of destiny playing the devil invariably do the rounds whenever disaster strikes. Here are three such:
A swap turned out to be very lucky for his wife, but proved to be a disaster in his case. Sanjid Khan's wife, who was to board Flight MH370 that had mysteriously disappeared a few months ago, cheated death when she swapped places with a colleague. But in her husband's case, death emerged victor when the 41-one-year-old steward changed places with a someone else to board MH17. Khan was one of the 15 crew members who perished in the crash.
In another twist of fate, Dutch national Cor Pan had posted a picture of the plane before boarding. He wouldn't have realised that he would never ever get a chance to show it off to friends and relatives. As if to add insult to injury, The Guardian ran the picture with a caption that said: “Should it disappear, this is what it looks like.”
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Pan was travelling with his girlfriend who is also presumed to be dead.
Among the 298 victims of flight MH17 crash, were a large gathering of world-renowned AIDS researchers and activists heading for an international conference on the disease in Australia.
Among them was 59-year-old Dutch national and former president of the International AIDS Society, Joep Lange. A prominent HIV researcher, Lange's contribution to the field has been immense. Being one of the key researchers behind various HIV treatment trials, Lange was also taught medicine and was the head of the department of global health at the University of Amsterdam.
Both he and his wife perished in the crash.
The flight was carrying about 154 Dutch nationals, there were no Indians, according to the Aviation ministry. Many Air India flights, including the one carrying Prime Minister Narendra Modi were re-routed following the tragedy.