Passenger Who Cancelled Family’s AirAsia Flight Tickets Yesterday: ‘We Are So Thankful To God’

A man from Indonesia is thanking his lucky stars, as well as God, having cancelled flight tickets for himself, his wife, and their three children, on AirAsia Flight QZ8501 which went missing today. The reason was that his father fell sick.

As reported by the Daily Mail, Chandra Susanto, from Surabaya, in Indonesia, had booked seats on Flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore which lost contact with air traffic control at 6:17 a.m. this morning,

“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,” Mr. Susanto said.

Mr. Susanto was supposed to fly with his wife, Inge, and three children, Christopher, 10, Nadine, 7, and Felix, 5, on the AirAsia flight, which had 155 passengers and seven crew on board.

As Susanto told reporters, “My father became ill so we had to cancel our flight. It was a difficult decision to make because my son Christopher was so disappointed. He had been looking forward to the holiday for a long time.”

But sometimes it seems bad news can have a silver lining; as a result of them missing the flight this family of five are still alive and well.

Mr. Susanto reported that he and his family had only heard about the missing flight when his sister called to see whether he and his wife were safe.

“I found out about the flight when my sister called me. She was so scared. She had seen the news on tv. I am very thankful to God for his mercy for me and my family. But I am so sad and very sorry for the people on the plane,” he said

Meanwhile, distressed relatives of those still on board, who are still gathered at Changi Airport in Singapore and Juanda Airport in Surabaya, Indonesia, are awaiting news from AirAsia.