Family of 3 narrowly avoids boarding Malaysia Airlines flight

AMSTERDAM (KABC) -- A couple, who was traveling with their baby, and planning to board the doomed Malaysian Airlines jet are now counting their blessings after changing their plans at the last-minute.

The family was heading home from Amsterdam and almost always flies Malaysia Airlines. But on Thursday, they say there was only one seat left on Flight 17, so they decided to switch to a later flight on KLM.

What at first seemed like a slight inconvenience was really a blessing in disguise.

"You get this sick feeling in the pit of your stomach," the husband said.

"We were supposed to be on that flight and it's obvious that something is watching over us and said 'no don't get on that flight," the wife said.

While there are some uneasy feelings about boarding a plane so soon after the tragedy, the couple believes the skies are now safer than before Flight 17 departed Amsterdam.

"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," the husband said. "I know my wife doesn't feel like that. Probably the last thing she wants to do now is fly, especially to Kuala Lumpur."

The couple says they feel very sorry for the families of the 298 people who were killed when the plane was shot down by a missile near the Russia-Ukraine border.