Mohammad Basheer Abdul Khadar survived the Emirates flight EK521 which crash landed at Dubai airport. He along with over 290 others escaped unhurt before the plane exploded into a huge fireball.
The 62-year-old grandfather won the equivalent of a million dollars after buying a winning lottery ticket. Khadar revealed that he bought the ticket before going on a family holiday to Thiruvananthapuram in the south Indian state of Kerala.
He was presented his winnings on Tuesday with lucky ticket number 0845, which was drawn in the Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire at Concourse A in the terminal.
He told Gulf News:
“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.”
‘I knew God saved me for some specific purpose. Probably this is it.”
Khadar said he will now retire from his car dealership work. He revealed further that ticket was the 17th he had bought over the years. He now plans to retire to his homeland – and help those less fortunate than himself with the help of his winnings.