British couple missed Malaysia Airlines flight due to lack of seats

A British family booked on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 were told they could not fly as there were not enough seats.

Barry Sim and his wife Izzy spoke of the "sick feeling" they experienced after hearing about the flight being shot down on the Russia-Ukraine border.

The couple, from Scotland, were travelling with their young child and were due to catch the flight from Amsterdam to Malaysia earlier that day but were forced to switch to later flight.

Speaking to Sky News, Mrs Sim said: "I'm shaken. I don't even know what to do. I feel physically sick.

"I was coming from the Hilton (hotel) in The Hague to the airport in the taxi and I was just crying.

"I'm just thinking that I feel like I've been given a second chance, so hopefully we will get there (to Malaysia) safely and we will see my family again."

Mr Sim told the Daily Telegraph: "You get this sick feeling in the pit of your stomach... We started getting butterflies. Your heartbeat starts going.

"There must have been someone watching over us and saying 'you must not get on that flight'."

Barry and Izzy booked a KLM flight and despite his wife's fear of another crash, Barry told the BBC: "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."

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur at an altitude of 33,000ft (10,000m) when contact was lost on Thursday afternoon and it crashed near the border with Russia in Eastern Ukraine. The 298 people on board are all believed to be dead.

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