Family's lucky escape from doomed AirAsia flight

AS Christianawati raced late into Surabaya airport to catch her flight on Sunday morning, she felt like the unluckiest woman in the world.

Her 10-member extended family had been keenly anticipating their holiday to Singapore. The five children were going to try out the new rides at Universal Studios, and it would be the first trip away for the babies - her little boy just seven months old, and her brother's baby, who is 11 months.

But they missed their plane, QZ8501, by just minutes.

Christianawati's husband Ari Putro Cahyono had not checked the emails or received the phone calls from AirAsia informing him the flight would be leaving two hours earlier than the scheduled departure of 7.20am.

Even so, this Indonesian family came close. Ari and his brother-in-law arrived together in the first of two cars at around 5am, just in time to see another pair of latecomers race through the departure process and make it to the boarding lounge.

More on this at Brisbanetimes.com.au

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