Family who lost two members on flight MH370 have lost two more on MH17

[PeaceNikki]

An Australian family has tragically been hit by both Malaysia Airlines tragedies, having now lost four members through flight MH370's disappearance and flight MH17 being shot down over Ukraine.

Irene and George Burrows, from Bileola, Queensland, were still mourning their son Rodney and his wife Mary after their plane vanished without a trace over the southern Indian Ocean in March, and will now have to grieve for their step-granddaughter Maree Rizk and her husband Albert who were aboard MH17.

The couple were travelling home from a holiday in Europe when the plane was shot down, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, with all 298 people on board perishing in the tragedy.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/malaysia-airlines-family-who-lost-two-members-on-flight-mh370-have-lost-two-more-on-mh17-9614230.html

Heartbreaking.

[davidpdx]

1. That is unbelievably sad that they were hit by both diasters

[dembotoz]

2. time to fly another airline

you hear stories like this and you wonder what are the odds.....

so very sad

[mainer]

4. This shoot-down could have happened to any airline

It's just unbelievably sad for Malaysian Airlines to be struck with such a tragic coincidence.

I've flown Malaysian Airlines and found it a very nice carrier -- I have no hesitation about flying it again.

[AtheistCrusader]

7. Not so much.

Most if not all other airlines were avoiding that airspace entirely.

The OTHER crash, could have happened to any airline I suppose, but the shoot-down was a very isolated incident that could have been avoided by not flying over the Ukraine, as US carriers have been refusing to do for some time.

[mainer]

8. According to Washington Post, 300 commercial jets fly through that airspace

every day. Most serve long-haul flights between Europe and Southeast Asia, cruising between 33,000 and 37,000 feet. It's wrong to blame MH for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were directed there partly because of bad weather.

[AtheistCrusader]

9. I think WaPo is wrong.

Someone posted video of ATC traffic in another thread here, and it was pretty clearly being avoided.

[mainer]

10. You may be seeing post-crash data

which is posted here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/17/a-real-time-picture-of-how-flights-are-now-avoiding-ukrainian-airspace/

Airlines are NOW avoiding the airspace, after the tragedy.

And here's a quote that confirms it was a common flightpath:

"The European Cockpit Association, which represents pilots, released a statement saying that the route MH17 had taken was the most common one for flights from Europe to Southeast Asia."

[mainer]

11. And there's this.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/17/world/europe/maps-of-the-crash-of-malaysian-airlines-flight-mh17.html?_r=0

Only hours before the crash, weirdly enough, Russia closed the airspace.

You can see that Lufthansa, Thai Airways, and KLM (which had codeshare with Malaysia Airlines) all used that same airspace.

[AtheistCrusader]

12. My mistake.

I thought that was pre-attack data. I sit corrected.

[Paper Roses]

3. This poor family. Too much to absorb. My sympathy to them.

[malaise]

5. That is sad but there is no one in my family

who would have had reservations on that airline after Ft370

[etherealtruth]

6. How tragic for that family

Jeeze

[joshcryer]

13. Aussies are some of the most well traveled people on the planet.

Not sure what it is about their culture, but most travel abroad at least once in their lifetime, many several times.

[Liberal_in_LA]

14. omg

[R3druM]

15. Horrible