In an unbelievable coincidence and unfortunate tragedy, the Burrows family of Australia have lost four family members in the recent Malaysia Airlines disasters, two in the disappearance of Flight MH370 in the spring and two on Flight MH17 that was shot down yesterday in Ukraine.
Back in March, Kaylene Mann’s brother Rod Burrows and sister-in-law Mary Burrows were among the assumed victims on board Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Friday morning Kaylene and her family heard that her stepdaughter, Maree Rizk and her husband Albert, had been killed along with 296 others on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.
Statement from Burrows family
“It’s just brought everyone, everything back,” said Greg Burrows, brother to Kaylene and Rodney. “It’s just … ripped our guts again.”
He said his family was struggling to understand how they could be struck by such horrible luck on two separate occasions with the same airline.
“She just lost a brother and now a stepdaughter, so…” he said of his sister, his voice trailing off.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 likely shot down by Ukrainian rebels
Nearly all sources agree that the Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down by a surface-to-air missile based in eastern Ukraine. However, both the Ukrainian rebels and the Ukraine government deny shooting the plane down.
However, a recording of a conversation between a man identified by Ukrainian media as a Russian military commander and a rebel fighter was released earlier today, and the two men are heard discussing the a jet shot down over eastern Ukraine immediately after Malaysia Airlines MH17 came down in between Krasni Luch in Luhansk region and Donetsk.
A man going called Bezler can be heard saying in one of the calls: “Just now a plane was hit and destroyed by the miners group.”
Igor Girkin, alias Strelkov, the commander of the pro-Russian Donbass People’s Militia, is reported to have posted on a Russian social media website that his rebels had brought down a plane in the Donbass region at 5.50pm (GMT+4), shortly before reports emerged the passenger jet was missing. The post has since been deleted.
