Dad of Leeds Uni student killed in MH17 plane crash speaks about seeing son for last time

The father of a Leeds student killed in the MH17 plane crash has spoken out about seeing his son for the last time.

Simon Mayne, the father of University of Leeds student Richard Mayne, has given an emotional account of waving his son off at the airport.

Richard, 20, was one of the 298 people killed in the July 2014 Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 disaster.

When the Boeing 777 was hit by a ground-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine, Richard was on his way to start a year of studies at the University of Western Australia in Perth.

Ben Pocock, a student at Loughborough University, also lost his life in the tragedy.

Richard’s family still feel the pain of the loss. Simon shared emotional memories of their last moments together at Birmingham Airport, where he was due to fly to Amsterdam to catch MH17 onwards to Kuala Lumpur.

Simon recalled the last time he saw his son: “He goes to the gates, passport gates, and his mum is stood there looking at him.

“She thought he just wasn’t going to say goodbye.

“He got through the gate…he got through the gate and turned around and just gave his mother this wonderful big smile, saying really, ‘shut up mum but I love you.'”

Richard’s brother, Will Mayne, saw the initial reports on Twitter and came “charging down the stairs” to alert Simon.

Initially, Will hoped the flight was to Brussels rather than Amsterdam, but his father confirmed the worst possible outcome, according to Metro.

The family then saw news reports of the crash.

via YouTube

Most Read

This video of Lacey from MAFS and her mum at the club has leaked and I don’t know how to feel

Erm, so Lauren’s ex made his own Love Is Blind headshot and it’s all really bizarre

The Apprentice’s Jonny Heaver opens up about birth mark that’s made him so much ‘stronger’

Simon described the devastating images: “I saw pictures of wreckage, burning, it was like something out of Dante’s Inferno.”

Richard, who was a passionate rugby player, was characterised by his family as a young man who loved adventure.

His year overseas offered him the opportunity to expand his horizons and further his academic goals, marking an exciting new chapter in his life.

Following the attack, The District Court of the Hague convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian national of murder in absentia, ordering their arrests after a trial concluded in November 2022.

Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky and Leonid Kharchenko were handed life sentences but remain at large because Russia refuses to surrender them.

A fourth defendant, Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted because of a lack of evidence about his role in firing the missile.

At the time of the tragedy, all four held senior positions in the DPR, which is the name of the unrecognised breakaway territory formed during the 2014 Russian military aggression against Ukraine.

The Dutch court found that they, “in association with others”, had committed murder 298 times and caused the aircraft to crash.

The families of the victims, including the Maynes, are still seeking answers and a full accounting of the circumstances surrounding the attack. They have called for further investigation and justice for those responsible.

Will Mayne has spoken of the necessity for the families to have the truth about what happened.

The documentary, Murder in the Skies: Who Downed MH17?, highlights the efforts of Eliot Higgins and Bellingcat in uncovering evidence related to the disaster.

Featured image via YouTube