Two Families Escape Disaster By Missing Doomed Air Asia Flight
The Susanto family escaped tragedy. (Susanto/Facebook)
Two families
are thanking their lucky stars that they missed their bookings on doomed
Air Asia flight QZ 8501 from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore, which
lost contact with air traffic control over the Java Sea yesterday.
A sick family
member saved the lives of Chandra Susanto, his wife Inge, and their
three children Christopher,10, Nadine, 7, and Felix, 5.
The family, who
live in Surabaya, were booked on the plane to visit Susanto’s
father. ”My father became ill so we had to cancel our flight,” Susanto
told Daily Mail Australia.
“We had been planning our holiday to Singapore since March 2014 so it
was a great surprise for us when we cancelled our holiday yesterday.”
Susanto learned
that his family had narrowly averted disaster only when his terrified
sister phoned to see if the family was okay.
"I am very
thankful to God for his mercy for me and my family," he said. "But I am
so sad and very sorry for the people on the plane.
"They were just
traveling to Singapore, maybe with their family, maybe for a holiday.
And now they are lost," he continued. "Our lives have changed. We are so
grateful. We have an opportunity to be the best people we can and to
help others. We are so thankful to God.”
It was a missed email that saved the lives of Ari Putro Cahyono and nine of his family members.
Cahyono and his
family had tickets on flight QZ 8501, which was originally set to take
off from Juanda International Airport at 7:30 a.m. local time. The
departure time on the flight was rescheduled to 5:20 a.m., but Cahyono
never read the email alerting him of the change. He and his family
showed up at the airport at 5:30am on Dec. 27 – 10 minutes after the
fateful flight took off.
Cahyono and family were booked on QZ 8501, just as the Susantos were, their ticket shown here. (Chandra Susanto)
The airline
offered Cahyono and his family seats on the next flight to Singapore,
but by then news of QZ 8501’s disappearance had spread. “Me and my
family then decided to cancel the trip,” he told Kompas.com.
One family
seems not to have been as fortunate — that of Chin-Man Choi. The British
man missing on Air Asia flight QZ 8501 reportedly bought his tickets at
the last minute. He is believed to have been traveling with his
2-year-old daughter, Zoe, to reunite with his wife and young son who had
taken an earlier flight to Singapore.
