It is amazing what social media now allows us to see and know about our loved-ones’ lives and whereabouts. It is unlikely that knowledge is a comfort for this man’s family as he is now suspected to be among those killed in the latest Malaysia Airlines tragedy.

Warfare is a messy and horrifically tragic thing. This is particularly true in our current times when weaponry is so advanced that it can destroy thousands of peoples lives from half a world away with one click of a button. While everything is still speculative at this stage, it seems that the shooting down of flight MH17 was one such horrific act.

This tragedy is made all the more poignant by the recent disappearance of another Malaysia Airlines plane – a disappearance which this man joked about on Facebook just before he boarded the aircraft that was imminently shot down.

The passenger, whose name has been withheld, posted a picture of what is thought to have been flight MH17 with the caption: ‘If we disappear, this is what the plane looks like.’

While friends and family initially posted warm messages of farewell and wishes of a happy holiday, the messages soon turned to grief as they realised what could be the fate of this man.

While it has not yet been confirmed that this picture is indeed of the doomed aircraft, it seems probable based on the time of his post.

The Donetsk People’s Republic had said on June 29 that they took over a Ukrainian military base that had Buk surface-to-air missiles, but wouldn’t say how many.

Igor Strelkov, the military commander of pro-Russian rebels Donetsk People’s Army, reportedly admitted that he ordered the missile strike against the Malaysian jet on his VK account, according to the Kyiv Post, but later deleted the post.

All is definitely not fair in love and war for this man and the other 297 passengers and crew, none of whom are presumed to have survived the crash.

Read more details at Metro.