Delayed flight saves Dubai resident
dubai — A Dubai resident on his way home to Nairobi, Kenya, could have been one of the 157 people killed in the Ethiopian Airlines crash — but fate had other plans. Ahmed Khalid missed the flight from Addis Ababa because of a delay in Dubai.
“(My flight) was from Dubai to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and then from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, but because of a delay in Dubai, I missed the first flight,” Khalid told the media.
“When I reached Addis Ababa, they told me to take the second flight instead, which I said was fine.”
Ahmed was assigned to an 11am flight but he experienced another round of delay. At that time, however, his waiting period at the Ethiopian airport was punctuated with chaotic scenarios: Airport staff members were shuffling back and forth and travellers were wondering why all their flights had been delayed.
“Everyone was asking the cabin crew what was happening, but no one was saying anything. They were just going up and down until one of the passengers saw on his mobile that the first plane which had just flew — like six minutes after it flew — it just crashed,” Ahmed said.
After learning about the news, Ahmed knew he had to immediately tell his father that he was still in Addis Ababa.
When Khalid Ali Abdulrahman, Ahmed’s father, arrived at the Nairobi airport around 10am to welcome his son home, little did he know a tragic news was waiting for him.
“A security person approached me and asked me, ‘Which flight are you waiting for?’ I answered him quickly because I wanted him to direct me to the arrivals, so I told him Ethiopia. And then he said: ‘Sorry, that one has crashed’,” Khalid said.
He was shocked, he said, but Ahmed called him up just in time.
“My son contacted me and told
me he is still in Addis Ababa and did not board that flight, and that he is waiting for the second one which has been delayed,” Khalid said.
The Ethiopian Airlines jetliner crashed shortly after it took off from Addis Ababa on Sunday, killing all passengers and crew on board. People from 35 countries, including two dozen UN staff members, were on flight ET302, which ploughed into a field 60km southeast of Addis Ababa, the carrier’s CEO Tewolde Gebremariam has said.
Yared Getachew, the doomed plane’s pilot was a senior captain with over 8,000 hours flying experience, an Ethiopian Airlines spokesman said. While it is not yet clear why the crash happened, the airline on Monday announced that the black boxes of the passenger jet had already been recovered.
“After a tedious search by the rescue and investigation team... Ethiopian Airlines announces that the digital flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder of ET302 have been recovered,” the state-owned carrier said in a statement.
A security person asked me, ‘Which flight are you waiting for?’ I answered him quickly because I wanted him to direct me to the arrivals, so I told him Ethiopia. And then he said: ‘Sorry, that one has crashed’.”
Khalid Ali Abdulrahman,
Ahmed’s father