Double happiness: professional cyclists normally achieve unbelievable performances when they sit in the saddle day after day on a tour and cover hundreds and thousands of kilometers in wind and weather. In the case of Maarten De Jonge, his guardian angel did a truly incredible job. The professional had tickets for both Malaysian airline MH17 and MH370 accident flights. The former was shot down by a rocket over eastern Ukraine last week and the latter is still officially believed to be missing.
The Dutch professional cyclist Maarten de Jonge (team photo middle) is not completely unknown in Germany. In 2012 he drove for the Stölting team, in 2013 for Vorarlberg and since 2014 for the somewhat exotic Malaysian team Terengganu, which is why he has to travel to Asian regions more often.
He told the Dutch daily newspaper Algemeen Dagblad that he had rebooked his seat on flight MH17 shortly before departure because he could save 300 euros. "There was only one seat left, which I immediately reserved ," he reported to various Dutch media outlets. "So, wanting to save money saved my life."
Back in March, he had already escaped a plane crash; he almost ended up on the mysteriously vanished MH370 as well. "I also flew to Beijing, but spontaneously 50 minutes earlier. I can still picture the people from flight MH370 sitting in the waiting area, talking to each other. They departed from the same gate as me."