I could have been on MH17

Bec Mc Donald can't help but contemplate ``what if'' after being booked on board doomed flight MH17. Picture: Peter Ristevski Source: News Limited

A POINT Lonsdale student knows she was only a whim away from a certain death on doomed flight MH17.

Relieved and grateful, Bec McDonald, 20, has told of how a late change to her travel plans saved her from joining the 298 souls lost when the Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down in east Ukraine.

"I'm a big believer in fate and I felt there was someone watching over me and looking out for me," Ms McDonald said.

But still, she can't help thinking about the 'what ifs'.

'What if' she hadn't "randomly" decided to stay a little longer in London.

When the Deakin University student disembarked from her later flight at Kuala Lumpur airport, Ms McDonald said she was met with "surreal silence" with the heads of hundreds of travellers turned to screens telling a story of devastation which no one could even begin to comprehend

Nobody was talking, and the sense of shock was palpable, she said.

"It was really quiet and there were just people staring at the screens in disbelief and I remember my mouth just dropping, and looking around and seeing everyone looking at the screens, and everyone being just so, so quiet," Ms McDonald said.

It was then she received a Facebook message from her travel agent brother, telling her the flight which had been shot down over Ukraine just a few hours' earlier was the flight she had originally been booked on.

"I didn't actually know that until my brother messaged me and said 'do you realise you were meant to be on that flight which just went down?' I looked through my travel documents and found it was true," Ms McDonald said.

Bec Mc Donald was booked on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, but changed flights to spend more time in London. Picture: Peter Ristevski Source: News Limited

The seat on MH17 had been booked but cancelled by her brother before being paid for, she said.

"I booked myself into a lounge and all that was playing on the TV was pictures of the wreckage. There were also notices coming across from Malaysian Airlines paying respect to the people who had died. I was there alone and I knew that in five more hours I had to get on a Malaysian Airlines flight to travel home," she said.

Ms McDonald's relief at seeing her father's face on arrival in Melbourne was overwhelming.

"I saw my dad and I just burst into tears," she said.

Home is the coastal idyll of Point Lonsdale, where the McDonald family are well-known and much-loved for their involvement in the local community, particularly sport.

The family has also recently lost a loved one to cancer.

Debris and objects found scattered on the ground where Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 fell from the sky in Rozsypne, Eastern Ukraine. Pic Ella Pellegrini Source: News Corp Australia

"I just can't imagine what it must be like for the family of people on that flight. It's so hard to put into words how I feel. I just can't believe it's happened to someone's family, and to know that I was meant to be on that flight. I keep thinking what if I hadn't changed that, just what if..."

The experience, coupled with the recent death in the family, has left her contemplating the fragility of life.

"I could have been on that flight, but I wasn't" Ms McDonald said. "Now I have to appreciate that life which has been given to me."

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