Flight change saves Trini from Malaysian airline crash: A LAST minute change of flight plans is what saved the life of Trinidadian Suzette Moses-Burton who was scheduled to be aboard the ill-fated Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 which crashed after it was shot down over east Ukraine last Thursday. All 298 persons on board were killed. Moses-Burton, the executive director of the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+) who is based in Amsterdam, was on her way to the 20th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014) which commenced on Sunday last. She, along with five colleagues, were booked to travel on MH17 on July 17 (last Thursday) to arrive in Melbourne a day later. However, Moses-Burton made last minute arrangements to arrive in Melbourne on a different flight. In a Skype interview with Newsday early yesterday morning, Moses-Burton explained that a decision was made to have her sister and corporate communications specialist Esuyemi Ogunbanke, join the communications team. “(Esuyemi) was leaving Trinidad to arrive in Melbourne, via Los Angeles on July 17,” Moses-Burton said. “So once I looked at my itinerary and realised I was scheduled to arrive on MH17 on July 18, I thought it would not have made sense.” “So I left on July 16 instead to arrive in Melbourne the following day. It resulted in me going ahead of my colleagues who were on the ill-fated flight.” Included among the five were leading Dutch HIV researcher Prof Joep Lange who Moses-Burton described as her mentor. Moses-Burton, former HIV/Aids programme manager in St Marteen, told Newsday the MH17 flight which she boarded in Amsterdam on July 16, arrived in Kuala Lumpur but her connecting flight to Melbourne, also aboard a Malaysian Airlines plane, was delayed by six hours because of mechanical problems. “I had communicated with my family that there was a delay. And when we eventually left, my family knew that I had just left on a connecting Malaysian Airlines flight. When the initial reports came out about another missing or possibly downed Malaysian Airlines flight, there was not any certainty at that time of where the flight originated from. “So that, of course, caused a lot of concern and anxiety for my family. So consequently, when I arrived in Melbourne I realised there were several attempts to reach me.” Moses-Burton said she was confused about the apparent urgency of the messages she received from her family. “It really had me wondering because I have travelled for business for many years. It was shortly after 2 am on July 18 that I started to discover and learn that a Malaysian Airlines flight originating from Kuala Lumpur had gone down. It later became apparent to me that it was the flight I was originally scheduled to be on.” Read More VIA The Newsday ow.ly/zuj0s instagram/p/qyup-YPelV/?modal=true
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 11:57:25 +0000
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