The shortcut that the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 took before it was shot down over Ukraine reportedly saved the airlines 28,000 dollars at the cost of 298 lives.

According to News.com.au, the Transport Workers Union highlighted the figure and the data was used by National Secretary Tony Sheldon to seek international support and force air safety regulators to halt commercial flights passing over areas of conflict.

Sheldon said that the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is the global safety watchdog with primary responsibility for issuing safety warnings on commercial routes.

He said that ICAO crisis talks after MH17 simply resulted in an agreement to meet again next year, adding that the ultimate decision on air routes is still being made by the airlines themselves and that means cost would always be calculated against risk.

Meanwhile, he also lauded Qantas’ recent decision to avoid flight paths over Iraq conflict zones. However, he asserted that while the move was caused due to public and union pressure, regulators and airlines should have taken the decision as a matter of safety and principle instead.

Malaysia Airlines’ flight MH17 with 298 people onboard was shot down on July 17 while flying over Ukraine.

Mo, Evie and Otis Maslin and their grandfather Nick Norris were returning from a holiday in Amsterdam, where their parents remained, when their plane was shot down over Ukraine.

‘When their innocent bodies were blown from the sky, I stretched my arms as high as I could and screamed for them,’ their mother, Rin Norris, told the crowd of 1,000 at Perth’s Scotch College.

The mother of three, who was reduced to tears when remembering her children and father, was speaking publicly for the first time since her and husband Anthony released a statement about the ‘hell beyond hell’ they were living through following the crash.

“Now I see them only in my head. I can’t touch them, I can’t feel their warmth. I can imagine the memory of their bodies close to mine and the love in my heart will always be open for them. My arms will always be reaching for them.”

The father of the children, Anthony Maslin told service goers that his children had travelled to numerous countries around the world, cramming more into their short lives than most people do in their lifetimes.

He described his children, aged 12, 10 and 8, as ‘unblemished, innocent, perfect souls’.

A short video message from the three children to a long-time friend they were meant to meet during the holiday was screened at a service.

A Malaysian film star, who has roots in Sri Lanka, was on the ill-fated MH17 with her family.

Subhashini Jeyratnam, 38, an actress, dancer and TV star was onboard the flight along with her only daughter and Dutch husband.

Just two days before taking the flight she had celebrated her birthday in Amsterdam.

They had gone to Amsterdam to visit her husband’s family and show their 21-month-old baby girl, Kyla Maya Jey.

She was a resident of Kuala Lumpur.