A French medical professor visiting Brazil with his wife tried in vain to convince Air France agents to get them aboard Flight 447 — that there were no seats available seems to have saved their lives.
On Monday, as news broke of the plane’s disappearance from radars and likely crash in the Atlantic Ocean with 228 on board, would-be passengers expressed their emotions.
“It was a miracle. We should have been on the plane,” said Claude Jaffiol who said he and his wife Amina “did everything” but failed to get on the full flight.
“We were very lucky,” added Amina.
Brazilian tourist guide Vera Regina Bastos said God saved her life.
She was leading an excursion of seven people that was supposed to fly to Paris on Sunday but their trip was delayed by one day.
“We had planned to fly on May 31, but we changed our mind. God saved us,” said Bastos.
For those whose loved one made the flight, Monday was a day of anxiety and grief.
Helen Pedroso said her fiancé was on his way to Germany to pick up documents for their wedding in Brazil.
Harald Maximillian Winner, 44, was supposed to take a connecting flight to Berlin after arriving in Paris.
