BY DAVID V BARRETT
A TANZANIAN priest was among the passengers on the Air France jet that crashed in Toronto last week.
“I was actually prepared for death,” said Fr Ayub Mwampela. “I said, ‘God, we are dying. Save us God.’ That was my last prayer.” But then when the plane stopped moving flight attendants opened the doors and guided passengers out into the pouring rain.
Many were picked up by drivers on Highway 401, Canada’s busiest road.
“There were some good Samaritans who took us to the place where we could be directed where to go,” said Fr Mwampela. The passengers were put on buses and taken back to the airport.
“There were some people who were very angry, actually. I was telling them, ‘No, you should cool down.’” Fr Mwampela, who is studying at the Gregorian University in Rome, is in Canada for a two-month internship with the newspaper The Catholic Register.
Seeing reports describing the survival of all the passengers and crew as a miracle, Fr Mwampela added: “For me it is actually a miracle, and I am grateful to God that he heard and answered my prayers.
“When all of us came out of the plane safely... it was a miracle, I think.”