When Wellington local Sally Pedron turned on the TV on Friday morning, she was shocked to see the wreckage of flight MH17 -a flight she could have been on had she left a week later.
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The plane was shot down in Ukraine, killing 28 Australians and 298 people overall.
"It was scary knowing that it could have been us," she said.
She was on a Malaysian airlines flight which passed over the same spot the incident occurred just last week.
Sally Pedron was travelling with her friend Nicole Matheson and they were already nervous about the previous disappearance of a Malaysian Airlines plane.
"It was always in the back of our mind," she said.
"It's a bit scary, we booked the flights a year and a half ago and when the first plane went missing we thought 'oh no' but we didn't want to change our flights so we flew over there and back and it was fine."
Ms Pedron said when she saw the news she was glad to be home.
The pair travelled to Europe and took part in an 18 day Contiki tour, visiting Prague, Munich, Florence, Rome, Venice, Austria, Switzerland and Paris