Brit was booked onto doomed Air India plane but had to change last minute plans

Owen Jackson,from Essex,pictured with his wife Phillipa,was due to fly on the doomed Air India flight (Picture: Owen Jackson)

A British dad said he was left in shock after learning the Air India flight he was due to take home had crashed.

Owen Jackson,from Saffron Waldon,Essex was on a work trip and needed to stay in India longer than planned so never boarded the plane that went down shortly after takeoff in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

The businessman changed to a flight leaving on Saturday – which would have been the same aircraft – and in a strange coincidence,was booked onto seat 11A.

This is the same seat as Vishwashkumar Ramesh,the sole survivor of the Gatwick-bound crash,which killed the remaining 241 people onboard and an estimated 33 on the ground.

Mr Jackson,who was visiting a call centre in the area,told The Sun: ‘It’s a shock. I’m more grateful than anything else – it is such a weird coincidence.

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Start your day informed with Metro's News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.‘You hear it every now and again about planes going down and you don’t really think much of it,but when it’s the actual aircraft you’re potentially getting on two days later,it does make you think.’At the time of the crash,Mr Jackson had not let his family know when he was due to fly back.He also didn’t find out about the accident until two hours after it happened as he was in meetings,therefore missing frantic messages from his wife Phillipa.Debris of Air India flight 171 (Picture: AFP or licensors)The plane protruding from the building it crashed into (Picture: AFP)She said the time before she managed to get hold of him felt like being in a dream,but had to hide her emotions as she was teaching children at the time.‘I still feel affected by it now,to be honest with you. For days I was just bursting into tears randomly,’ she said.She added,however,that her emotions were nothing compared to what those who had lost loved ones were going through.Meanwhile the flight’s pilot,Captain Sumeet Sabharwal,has been hailed a ‘hero’ after diverting the plane at the last second to swerve a block of flats.Although several people in the doctor’s hostel,which the plane ultimately hit,died,if it had struck the three storey block of flats all 18 families living there could have died.