Dubai man survives plane crash then wins Dhs3.67 million

He’s worked in Dubai for 37 years. He’s four months away from retirement. He was on EK521 last week. And he just won Dhs3.67 million.

Last week Dubai man Mohammad Basheer Abdul Khadar was in the Emirates plane that crash landed on a Dubai runway. This week he won Dhs3.67 million.

The 62-year-old grandfather is originally from India but has lived in Dubai for 37 years – he purchased Dhs1,000 a ticket in the Dubai Duty Free Millennium competition on Eid weekend as he flew out to Thiruvananthapuram to spend time with his family.

Khadar at work. Photo: Getty Images. 

As he flew back from that holiday he found himself on EK521, an Emirates plane that crash landed on the runway with 300 people on board. The reason for the crash has yet to be announced.

‘I LIVE A SIMPLE LIFE’

This week he found out that his ticket was the lucky one, wining him the Dhs3.67 million prize. There are only 5,000 tickets sold in the raffle, and this is the 17th time he’s entered the competition.

Khadar works as a fleet administrator with a car dealer group in Dubai – he earns Dhs8,000 a month, and has become a millionaire just four months before he plans to retire.

Khadar had a one-in-5,000 chance of winning the raffle. 

“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,” Khadar told Gulf News. 

He says he plans to help people less fortunate than himself with the money: “I don’t want to give it to a charity or build a business, I want to go out and find people who really need help and give them money. I was poor, and I know what people go through.”

Khadar struggled when his son became paralysed after falling when he was just 13 days old. He had to take a loan of Dhs99,000 for treatment for his son – which he has paid back over his career.

Will he stop working now that he’s hit the jackpot? No, he’ll wait till his retirement date.  “Nothing else can give you the satisfaction of your hard-earned money,” he told Gulf News.

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