The FB status shared by a MH17 passenger minutes before the plane took off.

 UPDATE: Passenger who posted Facebook photo not on flight MH17.

Although Mr Cor Pan did indeed post the following photo to Facebook, he was not on board the flight MH17.

Some people who viewed the photo realised that beneath the planes front wheel, the letters “RC” are visible. MH17’s registration number was 9M-MRD, while Mr Pan was travelling on board 9M-MRC.

Pan was flying from Kuala Lumpur overnight, on flight MH194.

Earlier, Mamamia reported… 

It started as a Facebook joke.

“This is what it looks like in case it goes down” says his post.

And in a tragic turn of events it did.

A Dutch man who posted this image on his Facebook page is thought to be one of the passengers on flight MH17 which crashed overnight in Ukraine killing 295 people.

In a reference to the missing flight MH370 which has never been found Cor Pan posted the picture of his Malaysian Airlines plane just moments before his flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur departed.

Whilst not yet verified if he was on the passenger list, according to the Huffington Post, Facebook suggests it is genuine – confirming it was taken at Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam and showing it was taken shortly before the flight took off at 12:15pm local time.

His Facebook page has now been flooded with tributes from friends.

User Eric Buijs posted: “Rest in peace old friend”.

Cindy Visscher wrote: “Dear Cor rest in peace”.

Saul Jonk added: “Goosebumps …. rest in peace COR. unimaginable”.

For more on the downed plane  MH17 read this post here.