Dubai : A Freak Misunderstanding Saves Steven Rego's Life

Daijiworld Media Network - Dubai

Dubai, May 22: For Steven Rego (16) the carelessness  (if one call it so)  on the part of her mother Sheela Rego while booking the ticket resulted in giving a new lease of life.  The family was woken up early morning by the telephone calls from anxious relatives back home in Mangalore as they found Steven’s name among the list of passengers who had boarded the ill fated flight that had crashed in Mangalore this morning.  It was just by fluke that he did not board the flight due to a misunderstanding of the timing of the flight. 

Steven was in Dubai for a vacation visiting his parents and brother in Dubai after completing his 10th from St Philomen’s in Puttur.  His mother Sheela Rego actually wanted to book the ticket for 22nd May.  Since the flight was scheduled early morning of 22nd she got confused and thought the flight was for tonight. But this bungling resulted in saving the family of Steven from a big tragedy. 

Speaking to daijiworld from Dubai a relieved Steven said “I think I am fortunate to have missed the flight which actually saved my life.  In fact my mother is very meticulous about such things and has never made any mistakes.  I think I was destined to be alive by this mistake on the part of my mother.  But my heart goes out to all those people who have lost their families and loved ones in this tragedy and thank god for keeping me safe and sound”.

The Rego family belong to Urwa parish.  Steven is the second son of Anthony and Sheela and they have an elder son Shelton who is doing his university studies in Dubai.  In fact the family is getting calls from all quarters including the media which wanted to get details from the family.  Since his name was found in the list of those passengers who were to be on flight anxious relatives wanted to know the details and to the relief of all Steven is found safe and sound.  Sheela says “it is nothing but a miracle in our family mainly because it is freak misunderstanding.  Destiny worked in our favour and saved us f.rom a big catastrophe”. 

 “In fact I was sleeping soundly when my parents came and woke me up in the morning informing me about my name being in the list of passengers on board. Only then did I realize my life was saved by a freak misunderstanding which can be termed as fluke”, says a completely relieved Steven. 

Now the family has to book another ticket to come back to Mangalore. At the moment the entire family is relieved and tension free for having saved a family member from the jaws of death. 

Two Dubai residents lucky to miss flight that crashed

Dubai/New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) Two Dubai residents have thanked their lucky stars they didn't board the Air India Express aircraft that crashed in Mangalore Saturday. One had to change his travel plans due to his office workload while the other simply mistook the timing.

Kunhikannan Chandu, 51, manager of the Lulu Hypermarket in Al Qusais, was supposed to go to Mangalore to help his son get admitted to an engineering college. But, he missed the ill-fated flight because his boss piled on extra work.

"I had booked my ticket to fly to Mangalore on Saturday morning. I was going to help my son with his admission to engineering college.

"However, I was told by my manager that I could not go because there was too much important work to get through. I postponed my flight to Saturday evening and then I woke up to this terrible news," Gulf News quoted Chandu as saying.

"God has blessed me and my family; he intervened to save my life. I feel really shaken but I told my general manager this morning that he had saved my life."

Theresiamma Philip was also incredibly lucky as she mistook the timing and missed the Flight IX 812.

"I can't believe how lucky I am to be alive," recounted Philip to NDTV news channel.

"I was to take the flight, but mistook the a.m. to be p.m. and missed it."

"I was ruing having missed my flight when my daughter called up from Mangalore and asked me to put on the news. They were flashing the news, but even then I could not connect the two. It was only a little later when it dawned on me that it was my plane which had crashed."

At least 159 people were killed Saturday when Air India Express aircraft flying in from Dubai crashed while landing at Mangalore's "table top" airport. The plane overshot the runway and plunged down a cliff.

Only one woman on AI Express survived

Mangalore, May 22 (IANS) Sabrina Nasrinhuq is the only woman of the 31 women on board the crashed Air India Express plane to escape alive.

Sabrina managed to escape through an opening in the Boeing 737 from Dubai as it overshot the Mangalore runway and plunged about 300 metres down a cliff, killing 159 people.

She suffered minor injuries. She and six male passengers managed to escape from the plane.

The other survivors are: Putturismail Abdulla, Joel Pratap D'Souza, G.K. Pradeep, Krishnan Koolikkunnu, Mayankutty K.P., Ummer Farook Mohammed.

Of the 166 people on board the flight, including six crew members, 106 were male, 31 female, 19 children and four infants.

• Mangalore Plane Crash - Complete Coverage : Click Here