A Greek man who narrowly missed his Ethiopian Airlines flight and watched the final passengers board says he argued with ground staff in Addis Ababa to try to get on the doomed plane.
He said a staff member told him not to protest, saying he should instead"thank God because I was the only passenger who did not board flight 302", which was still missing."I felt the ground disappear beneath my feet."
Mr Mavropoulos said the feeling passed and he started to think there must be a better explanation for flight ET 302,"some communication problem maybe".He said he attempted to search the internet for information on the flight and friends in Nairobi contacted him to say there was still no information 30 minutes after the flight had been due to land.
Boeing's newest version of its most popular plane, the 737 MAX, is again in the spotlight after another deadly crash minutes after take-off."Fortunately, there are SMS — from a close friend I learned that the flight crashed almost just as it took off and that the news was appearing on the Greek media."
Mr Mavropoulos said he immediately realised he had to contact his family and colleagues and tell them he had not been on the doomed flight."The moment I thought this, I collapsed because then I just realised that I was lucky to be there."
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