A New Zealand sailor is feeling relieved he wasn't on the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 this morning.
Mike Bullot, a sailor and the husband of the third MasterChef New Zealand winner Chelsea Winter, arrived to check in for the Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur flight the day before. He was told the flight was overbooked and he would be placed on standby, and that if a seat didn't become available he would be placed on the same flight the next day - the flight that has crashed killing all the passengers and crew.
After intial reports, the number of passengers and crew onboard the aircraft has been revised to 298.
Bullot was luckily allocated a seat only minutes before boarding and made it safely to Kuala Lumpur. He was explained to by check in staff that airlines are legally permitted to overbook seats by 20%. On Facebook this morning, he posted that his flight was 'well overbooked' and 'it's a good day to be alive'.
In a tweet of her husband's boarding pass, Winter tweeted that waking up to news of the plane crash was 'too close for comfort'. The tweet has since been deleted.
Today's flight travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in eastern Ukraine early this morning (NZ time) and is believed to have been shot down by pro-Russian separatists.
Source: Newstalk ZB and ONE News
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