Twice lucky: Dubai crash-landing survivor wins $1 million

The Man has won a jackpot of 1 million U.S. dollars after the crashing of flight incident.

The Dubai expatriate’s lucky ticket number 0845 was drawn in the Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire at Concourse A at Dubai International Airport, winning him United States dollars 1 million (Dirham 3.67 million), Gulf News reported.

The Indian national was among the survivors of the Emirates flight EK521, which crash-landed in Dubai National Airport.

Mohamed Basheer, a 62-year-old from India who works at an auto dealership’s body shop in Dubai, is taking it all in his stride, however.

According to the Gulf News, Khadar had purchased the ticket on Eid on his way for a vacation with his family in Thiruvananthapuram.

Khadar, who works as a fleet administrator with a auto dealer in Dubai, bought the raffle ticket when he was headed to his home in Thiruvananthapuram on Eid in July.

He described last week’s escape as a “miracle” and a “precious gift from God”.

The lucky victor was in shock upon hearing the news and commented: “I am blessed to have finally won with Dubai Duty Free and can’t wait to share the news with my family”.

Mr Khader, who works for a auto dealership now earns around 8000 Dirhams (£1,700) a month, though he has said he wants to use the money to help others in his native India. Though he now earns Dh8000 a month, Khadar remembers days when things were not so easy. However, he had to struggle a lot for the treatment of his 21-year-old son who became paralysed after an accidental fall just 13 days after birth. Some years back I had to take a loan of Rs1.8 million (Dh99,043) for a major surgery for him.

Addressing reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting here, Vijayan said besides thanking the officials, we will also ask the Dubai government to personally pay the government’s condolences to the family of fire-fighter Jassim Essa Al-Baloushi who lost his life during the rescue operation.

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Like most Malayali success stories in the Gulf, Khadar’s too is one that has had many twists and turns. “Nothing else can give you the satisfaction of your hard-earned money”, he added.