Mother of Ethiopian jet crash victim says she tried to talk her daughter out of flying because she 'had a bad feeling'

The mother of a former Russian model who was killed when the Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi crashed this past Sunday, March 10, killing all 157 on board, has revealed that she had earlier told her daughter to not board the flight because she had a "bad feeling" about it.

According to Daily Mail, the mother of 28-year-old Ekaterina Polyakova, who was on the flight with her 28-year-old husband Alexander Polyakov, was worried about her daughter's and son-in-law's journey to Kenya and warned the pair to not get on the plane.

"I had a bad feeling," she said. "I tried to talk them out of this travel and of this flight in particular. But my daughter said that everything would be okay. I was very worried on the eve of their flight but could do nothing to stop them."

The Express reported that both Ekaterina and Alex worked for Russia's largest financial institution Sberbank as an accountant and coder respectively and that the pair, who loved traveling, uploaded a video of the ill-fated Boeing 737 Max 8 just eight minutes before it crashed.

In the video, Alex, a former Russian marine who was awarded a medal for participating in the 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, can be seen in the bus moments before boarding the plane looking tense and visibly worried. He smiles briefly for the camera before lowering his eyes down once again.

The footage also shows the Ethiopian Airlines flight on the tarmac at the Addis Ababa Airport, where the couple had a one-and-a-half hour transfer, with Ekaterina posting it with the caption, "1.5-hour transfer and we are flying to Kenya."

In another video documenting their journey, the couple can be seen during a stopover in Kuala Lumpur. "So we finally got to the summer," Ekaterina can be heard saying in the upload. "Hi to all winter people. We're sending you the sun. The sun of Asia, there, to the Russian winter. Cooold... Aaaa!"

Her last Instagram post read, "Exactly one year ago we headed to Asia, now we are flying to Africa. And in the past, we thought that a trip to Moscow was something special. Once again, it proves that we are the ones building our own limits and borders."

Friends of the couple, who reportedly married while in college and who loved planning and taking holidays in far-flung locations, paid tribute to them as news of their death was confirmed. Daria Malysheva said Ekaterina was a "very lively and kind-hearted person," telling the Express, "They were so young and so full of plans for their lives. I can't imagine what's happening to their parents now."

An investigation is underway into the accident, and authorities hope its black box, which was uncovered from the rubble, will provide some clue into why the Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed shortly after its takeoff.

Watch Ekaterina's upload of her journey to Kenya here: