6 days after crash, survivor wins jackpot

Six days after a man miraculously survived the Emirates plane crash that crash landed in Dubai airport he has won a million dollars on the lottery.

Mohammad Basheer Abdul Khandar, one of the survivors of the shocking crash landing less than a week ago, is now celebrating winning the mammoth total from the Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire, the Mirror reported.

Khandar had bought the ticket on his way to a holiday with his family in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala during Id. The 62-year-old Indian said he bought a ticket whenever he travelled back to India. This was his 17th attempt at the airport lottery, the Mirror said.

Speaking to Gulf News, Khandar said it had a "miracle escape" from the Emirates plane and that this win may have been the reason he was saved. "I value the escape as a more precious gift from God and I knew God saved me for some specific purpose. Probably this is it," he said.

Khandar hit the jackpot - worth £766,000 — just four months before he was due to retire. But he has no plans to retire any sooner. "I will continue to work till I can. Nothing else can give you the satisfaction of your hard-earned money," he told Gulf News.

He told Gulf News: "If you ask me about my plans, I obviously want to help the children in Kerala who are less fortunate than others and need some financial help and medical support”.

"I don't want to give it to a charity or build a business, I want to go out and find people who really need help and give them money. I was poor, and I know what people go through."

Khandar was one of the 282 passengers on board the Boeing 777 when it crash landed at Dubai airport on a journey from Thiruvananthapuram, India, on August 3. Despite the fact the entire top half of the Boeing 777's fuselage was burnt off, only 13 passengers were injured and one firefighter was killed.

Meanwhile, the cause of last week’s crash-landing is still not clear.

Emirates chairman, His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, said he didn’t want to “jump to conclusions” about what happened because the investigation is ongoing. But he said the fire started after the plane landed, and there were no signs of security problems.