World News for Students of English

28-07-2014 07:00

A Scottish woman of Asian descent along with her husband and their baby missed the Malaysia Airlines flight that crashed in Ukraine last night. She says she’s been given a second chance.

“I’m shaken. I don’t know what to do. I feel like physically sick. I was like from Hilton in Hague coming to the airport in the taxi, I was just crying.”

MH17 was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, carrying 298 passengers when contact was lost at an altitude of 33,000 feet (10 kilometres). According to US intelligence, it was reportedly shot down, as it flew near airspace deemed unsafe for passenger jets. There were no survivors from Thursday’s crash, which left wreckage and bodies scattered across miles of rebel-held territory near Ukraine’s border with Russia.

“I’m just thinking that I feel like I’ve been given a second chance. And so hopefully that we’ll get there safely and we’ll see my family again.”

The woman didn’t say why she missed the flight, but said she hoped her next flight wouldn’t be flying over Ukrainian airspace. Ukraine has accused the terrorists, militants fighting to unite Eastern Ukraine with Russia, of shooting down the airliner with a ground-to-air missile. The plane’s black box flight recorder which can give a bit more insight into what exactly happened has reportedly been recovered.

Difficult words: descent (origin), shaken (very scared), deem (consider), scatter (place in no order), territory (land), airspace (flying area above a place), black box flight recorder  (machine that records what the plane is doing when it flies), insight  (information), reportedly (according to what people say).

Source: www.itn.co.uk