The plane, pictured on
tarmac, took off from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport at lunchtime today and was
shot down hours later on the Russia-Ukraine border in an 'act of terrorism',
killing all 295 people on board.
Cor Pan, who is listed
on Facebook as living in Volendam in North Holland, uploaded the picture of the
aircraft with the caption: ‘If it disappears, this is what it looks like.’
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| Cor Pan and his girlfriend, Neeltje Tol |
The comment is believed
to have been a reference to Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 which disappeared
while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March.
After seeing the photo
friends initially went along with the joke and wished him a good trip, but
their messages quickly turned frantic when news of the crash emerged.
Posting underneath the
picture they asked whether his flight was the one that had gone down and said
that they were praying that it wasn’t true.
His cousin later posted
the flight number underneath the picture and wrote: 'Turns out our cousin Cor
was on this plane.’
Friends and family
members began to leave touching tributes to the Dutch traveller, with one
posting ‘rest in peace’.
Their posts also
suggested that he was on board the plane with his girlfriend Neeltje Tol.
One said: ‘Rest in peace
Cor and Neel this is surreal, with sympathy for family and friends.’
Another posted:
‘Terrible and unfair. Rest in peace Cor and Neeltje.’
Mr Pan, who lists
himself as 'self-employed' on his Facebook page, is thought to have posted the
image through a window at the boarding gate, just a few minutes before getting
onto the flight which took off at 12:15pm in Amsterdam.
The plane has the words
Malaysia emblazoned on the side and appears to be being refuelled.
A total of 151 Dutch
passengers are believed to have been on board the plane.
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