Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Passenger Took Photo Of Doomed Jet, Posts Image Of Boeing 777 To Facebook

UPDATE July 19: CNN reports that Cor Schilder is the name of the man who identified himself on his Facebook profile as Cor Pan, the Dutch national who posted a photo of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 on Facebook prior to boarding Flight 17 with a caption in Dutch that reads, “Should it vanish, this is what it looks like," a reference to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that vanished an hour after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 7. Contrary to media reports, the plane in Schilder's Facebook photo is not the one that was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday.

UPDATE July 19: Malaysia Airlines released the list of passengers that were on Flight 17. On the list is "Cornelia Tol," identified as a Dutch woman. "Neeltje" is the Dutch shortened form of "Cornelia."

Neeltje Tol's Facebook profile identifies her as in a relationship with Cor Pan, the Dutch traveler who posted a photo of a Malaysia Airlines jet with a caption that reads, “should it vanish, this is what it looks like." The couple, who owned a flower shop together in Volendam, are believed to have died in Thursday's attack on Flight 17. Cor Pan's Facebook post has been widely shared on the social network because of the seemingly prescient message that accompanied the photo.

The list of passengers does not include anyone going by the name of Cor Pan, but Cor Pan's Facebook profile name might not be the same as the one on his passport. As of Saturday, the image of a jet Cor Pan posted on his Facebook profile (see below) has been shared over 29,000 times and has collected 164 messages in Dutch expressing condolences. The plane in the photograph is not the one that was shot down Thursday. Click here to see the post. A Cor Pan Facebook tribute page has been set up here.

UPDATE July 18: Dutch national Cor Pan, believed to be one of the 189 Dutch casualties in Thursday’s shooting-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, posted a photo of one of the airline’s jets with a seemingly prescient message (scroll down for more). It turns out the jet in question is not the same one that was blasted out of the sky by a surface-to-air missile, killing 298 travelers from 11 countries.

Reader Darryn Letley points out: “If you look at the registration on the nose wheel, you will notice the letters ‘RC,’ meaning that the registration of that plane is 9M-MRC. The plane that crashed has the registration 9M-MRD. Both planes are the same type, Boeing 777-200 registered to Malaysian Airlines.”

The plane in the photograph departed Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur on July 11, almost a week before Thursday's attack on a civilian aircraft, according to flightaware.com. Dutch national Cor Pan posted the image to his Facebook on Thursday morning, but the plane in the image is not the one that was shot down over Ukraine en route to Kuala Lumpur. It’s possible the image Pan posted was one he had taken at some earlier date. His Facebook profile suggests he’s traveled to Southeast Asia in the past.

So far, only seven Dutch nationals have been identified as crash victims and Cor Pan is not among them. Meanwhile Pan's Facebook photo has been shared over 23,000 times and has collected 164 tribute messages. Facebook user John Pan, identified as a cousin, has posted images strongly suggesting Cor Pan and a girlfriend, Neeltje Tol, are among the victims of flight 9M-MRD.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday morning that Pan and Tol were on the flight, but also said Pan "took a picture of Flight 17 and posted it on his Facebook page."

Original story begins here:

One of the 295 people who perished when a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 went down in eastern Ukraine Thursday – possibly shot down by a Buk surface-to-air missile – took a photo of what could be the doomed jet moments before he boarded in Amsterdam and posted it on Facebook with a darkly humorous one-liner.

“Should it vanish, this is what it looks like,” said the caption (in Dutch) of the jet posted on the Facebook profile of Cor Pan, identified as a self-employed Dutch resident of Volendam.

By mid-evening European time, the post had more than 5,000 shares and 159 comments expressing condolences to “Cor and Neeltje,” presumably two of the victims of the crash.

Here's a photo of Cor and Neeltje from Neeltje Tol's Facebook profile:

No official list of the crash victims has been released. Distraught relatives of the victims were seen being escorted to a restaurant in an upper deck of Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport to shield them from the press, according to AFP.