SEPANG, July 19 – It was a heart-wrenching moment for a woman upon discovering that her daughter and four other family members could be among the doomed passengers of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH17 which crashed in Ukraine, near the Russian border late last night.
Known only as Datin Siti Dina, she said daughter, Sherliza Zaini, 45, boarded the flight with her husband and three children aged between eight and 15. “I was shocked, I only knew about the news when contacted by a friend. Then, I switched on the television to watch the CNN news at 12.30am today.
( A minutes silence was held in honour of the delegates travelling to an AIDS conference in Melbourne who were killed on flight MH17. Victorian Premier Denis Napthine, Proffesor Sharon Lewin, Robert Doyle, David Davis and Alischa Ross paid their respects)
“Only then, I realised that it was Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17,” said the distraught mother when met at the entrance of Anjung Tinjau in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) here today. According to Siti Dini, the family was scheduled to transit in Kuala Lumpur, prior to their flight back to Melbourne, Australia.
“Her husband is Dutch and they were vacationing together in the Netherlands before the incident,” she told reporters. Siti Dini said Sherliza’s brother-in-law in the Netherlands had confirmed that the family boarded the aircraft after he sent them to the Amsterdam Airport on Thursday.
Unlike other families, Siti Dini came to the KLIA alone, in the hope of obtaining the latest information on MH17. Since 7 this morning, several other family members have also gathered at the KLIA viewing area, but declined to be interviewed by the reporters.
( Lord Mayor of Melbourne Robert Doyle, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe, Victoria’s Minister for Health David Davis and the Premier of Victoria Denis Napthine stood solemnly outside the Melbourne Arts Centre)
MH17 was reported by a foreign media to have been “shot down” while it was cruising at an altitude of 30,000ft, and crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border last night (Malaysia time).
The plane was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 298 passengers, including 15 crew. MH17 lost contact with MAS at 12.15pm (local time) from waypoint Tamak, about 50km from the border between Ukraine and Russia.
– BERNAMA
