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British couple switches flight at last minute, avoiding tragedy

A British couple planning to fly on the Malaysia Airlines flight that crashed in Ukraine said they were “sick” when they learned of the flight’s fate.

Barry Sim, his wife Izzy and their infant were scheduled to take MH17 Thursday, but were told there were not enough seats for them. So the family switched their flight to a later one at the last minute.

“We were supposed to be on that flight. Obviously, something was watching over us and said, ‘No. Don’t get on that flight,’” Izzy Sim said. “Coming to the airport in the taxi, I was just crying. I feel like I’ve been given a second chance.”

U.S. authorities continue to work on finding out if any Americans were on board the plane, but some reports indicate as many as 23 Americans may have died on the plane.

There was no sign of any survivors from Flight 17, which took off shortly after noon Thursday from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 283 passengers, including three infants, and a crew of 15. Malaysia's prime minister said there was no distress call before the plane went down and that the flight route was declared safe by the International Civil Aviation Organization.