Dubai air crash survivor wins $1MILLION six days after walking free from burning jet
Mohammad Basheer Abdul Khadar won the jackpot just months before his planned retirement
A MAN who survived the terrifying crash landing of an Emirates plane in Dubai has become an instant millionaire after winning the lotto just six days after the crash.
Mohammad Basheer Abdul Khadar was on board the EK521 flight when it crash-landed at the Dubai International Airport last week, forcing 300 people to run for their lives.
But the Indian national's luck in surviving the plane crash didn't end there with his ticket number 0845 drawn in the Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire at Concourse A, winning him a cool $1million - about £766,000.
The cool winnings come just four months after the grandfather planned to retire.
He said: “I have been working in Dubai for 37 years, and I have always felt like this is my country. I live a simple life, and now that it’s my time to retire, I feel like God gave me a second life when I survived the plane crash, and blessed me with this money to follow all this up by doing good things."
The Emirates passenger jet crashed in early August, sending the 282 passengers and 18 crew to run from the plane.
Footage showed the moment the aircraft then exploded into a fireball on the runway, sending huge metal panels from the plane into the air.
The grandfather said surviving the Emirates plane crash had been a "miracle", saying: “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.”
The 62-year-old told he had bought the ticket while on the way to holiday in Thiruvananthapuram in India's south.
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But the winnings don't mean Khadar will retire early, with the man determined to continue earning his way until his scheduled retirement.
It was the 17th time he had bought a ticket, a tradition he had started whenever he travelled to his home country.
The Dubai expatriate works as a fleet administrator with a car dealer group in Dubai.
He said he had been living in Dubai since 1978 but planned to return to India to help peopl ein need.
Khadar said he was blessed to have won the jackpot, saying he wanted to help those who were less fortunate than he.
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