11-Year-Old Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 17 victim Miguel Panduwinata, had an eerie premonition of the crash

Miguel Calehr

Miguel Calehr was a seasoned traveler at 11. Travelling from Amsterdam unaccompanied by his mother Samira Calehr to visit his grandmother in Bali was nothing out of the ordinary. He was going with his older brother Shaka 19, who had just completed his first year in university as a textile engineering student. Their other brother Mika 16, didn’t get a seat on the flight. He was booked on a flight to Bali the following day after his brothers departed.

Miguel left, Brother Mika, Mother Samira and Shaka his oldest brother

Tons of fun with their grandmother and the beach awaited them. 48 hours prior to boarding Malaysian Airline Flight MH17 for the first leg of their journey, Miguel began acting and expressing his reservation about his upcoming flight.

A day earlier, while playing soccer near Amsterdam, Miguel, had burst out: ''How would you choose to die? What would happen to my body if I was buried? Would I not feel anything because our souls go back to God?''

During the night before his trip, Miguel clung to his mother for no apparent reason. She interpreted his action as early nostalgia.

The next morning, Calehr and her friend Aan rode on the train to the airport with her sons. At the check-in counter, Shaka, realized he'd forgotten to pack socks. His mother promised to buy and send them with brother Mika.

As they got to the customs check-in, Miguel and Shaka gave their mother a bear hug. She stood there watching them walk towards passport control. Suddenly, Miguel turned around and ran back, throwing his arms around his mother.

''Mama, I'm going to miss you,'' he said. ''What will happen if the airplane crashes?''

''Don't say that,'' she said, squeezing him. ''Everything will be OK.''

Big brother Shaka assured his mother. ''I will take care of him – He’s my baby'' he said.

She watched the two boys walk away. But Miguel kept looking back at her. His big brown eyes looked sad. She did not leave till they vanished from her view.

At 12:15pm Flight MH17 took off. It was supposed to have lasted for 11 hours and 45 minutes. Unfortunately, it lasted for just two hours.

Calehr had just finished buying Shaka’s sock when her phone rang. It was her friend Aan. ''Where are you?'' he screamed. ''The plane crashed!'' She fainted as she got home.

Still shocked by the tragedy that has overtaken her family, A tearful and grief-stricken Ms. Calehr cried: ''Why didn't they take my life? They are still young, they still have a future. Why? Why the children? Why not me?'' She thinks about how Miguel seemed to sense that his time on earth was running short. She imagines Shaka's dream of becoming a textile engineer, gone. Miguel's dream of becoming a go-kart race driver, gone.

Calehr’s brother Harun told CNN his nephew Mika was being ''very brave'' - like his mother and grandmother.

''It comes in waves,'' he said. ''One minute they're completely distraught and inconsolable, and the other minute they're smiling and reminiscing and talking about the fun things that the boys did: the good things, the fun times, the memories.''

The boys' grandmother, Yasmine Calehr, said the family was heartbroken.

''Everybody is crying, everybody is losing something that belonged to them, but we feel like we have lost ourselves as well.''

Harun said they were now focused on ensuring the boys' remains are repatriated to the Netherlands, where they can be given a proper farewell.

''As devastating as this process has been, we would like to have a grave, something to put into a grave, some remains or possibly the bodies intact to come home,'' he said.

Sole surviving brother Mika says he has lost his ''best friends'' but insists the bond he has with Miguel and Shaka will go on beyond the grave.

''It feels like they're already one with me now,'' he said. ''They're my best friends, they're my brothers, and I feel like they're going to watch over me forever.''