These were the words of Busselton war veteran Grant Henley after flying over a war zone last year.

The Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 had crashed in Ukraine after being brought down by a missile brought back these memories for Mr Henley.

He said he had taken a similar flight last year from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Mr Henley said when his plane traveled over Afghanistan air space passengers were instructed to close their window shades.

“It was only a small security measure but it goes to show how real the threat is when flying over restricted airspace, even at 31,000 feet,” he said.

Mr Henley is the Busselton RSL Vice President and served in the Solomon Islands. He said from a RSL perspective that anything endangering global security was always a worry. 

Malaysia Airlines has confirmed 27 Australian passengers were on board the flight and there are no known survivors.

Perth man Nick Norris and some of his grandchildren were among the 298 people who died when the flight was shot down.