MALAYSIA AIR DEATHS: THEIR LIVES CUT SHORT

Are we going to die, Granddad? It hardly bears imagining what torture must have gone through the mind of Nick Morris in the brief instant between life and death after a missile tore through Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine.

If he was conscious when it struck, he must have known that there was no hope for himself or the three grandchildren he was shepherding home to Perth in Australia after a family holiday in Amsterdam.

Mo, 12, Evie, 10, and Otis Maslin, 8, were among the 80 children killed in the attack. They were being brought home by their grandfather for the start of the school term in Australia while their parents remained in Amsterdam for another few days.