Tales of tragedy, dashed hopes and relief

Tales of tragedy, grief, dashed hopes and relief surround the crash of the Boeing 737-800 in Mangalore.  While some of them are about people who missed the ill-fated flight by a whisker, others are about passengers who took the doomed flight at the last minute.

Among the many tragic stories about the crash victims, one is about Zulekha and her son Abdul Salam, who were returning to Kaup near Mangalore after eight years to meet Zulekha's mother. But the mother's dream of meeting her daughter and grandson was never fulfilled.

Praveen Sherigar, a resident of Matharu, was coming home for a double celebration. He wanted to attend his brother's wedding and his sister's house warming function.

Jayram, who hails from Bajal in Mangalore, was going to visit his ailing parents with his wife Chitra and son Rahul. In a cruel twist of fate, he could not get tickets to a flight two days ago, and was forced to board the Air India flight.

Steven Rego, 16, can thank his stars and his mother, whose mistake made him miss the flight to Mangalore. He was holidaying in Dubai with his parents and was supposed to return to Mangalore on Saturday. Although his mother had booked tickets for Saturday's flight, she got confused about the timing. She mistakenly assumed that the flight was supposed to take off on Saturday night and hence Rego missed his flight.

K Chandu, who was scheduled to travel to Mangalore for his son's admission, could not do so because of the additional work assigned to him by his boss.

Teresamma Phillip made a similar mistake as Rego's mother. She thought the flight was going to take off on Saturday evening and hence missed her brush with tragedy.