Dubai man misses ill-fated flight due to workload

DUBAI - A Dubai resident, who was supposed to go to Mangalore to help his son get admission in an engineering college, missed the ill-fated IX 812 that crashed early Saturday because his boss piled on extra work.

Kunhikannan Chandu, 51, manager of the Lulu Hypermarket in Al Qusais, was to take the flight that crashed soon after landing at the Mangalore airport, killing 158 people.

His manager, however, directed him to postpone the trip due to urgent work commitments.

“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.”