Man who escaped death TWICE: Cyclist was scheduled to fly on both MH17 and MH370... but changed his mind at the last minute

• Maarten de Jonge, 29, at the last minute changed his mind and decided to fly out of Amsterdam Sunday instead of Thursday
• The cyclist had been scheduled to travel aboard the flight that vanished without a trace over Indian Ocean in March 
  
• He still plans to take a Malaysia Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur on Sunday

By SNEJANA FARBEROV

PUBLISHED: 02:29 GMT, 20 July 2014 | UPDATED: 11:57 GMT, 20 July 2014

Dutch cyclist Maarten de Jonge is one very lucky man, having cheated death twice in the past four months. 

De Jonge was scheduled to fly aboard Flight MH370, which vanished without a trace in March, and he also had a ticket for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, which was downed by a missile this week over the Ukraine - but he changed his travel arrangements at the last minute in both cases. 

On Friday, the 29-year-old professional athlete issued a statement on his official site confirming that he was supposed to take the doomed MH17 flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur Thursday, but he pushed back his departure by several days.

Dailymail