Alex Confait
"Alex was going to celebrate his 24th birthday...but now he is gone,"
Published: Mon 21 Mar 2016, 8:00 AM
Updated: Mon 21 Mar 2016, 3:58 PM
Seychelles national Alex Confait, a young member of the cabin-crew on board the ill-fated flydubai flight to Rostov-on-Don, was just 13 days away from his 24th birthday.
According to Seychelles News Agency (SNA), Confait was a native of Mont Buxton, a district on the outskirts of the Seychelles capital of Victoria, on its main island, Maha.
He had been flying with flydubai since August 2014, having previously worked for Emirates.
Confait's mother first heard the tragic news on CNN and called her husband Vincent as he was on the way to work on the nearby island of La Digue.
"I told her that Alex was not onboard and that he might be somewhere else. I told her wait and see," SNA quotes Vincent as saying.
"We were a bit worried though, because his mother had sent him a text message on Friday and he did not reply back," he added. "But sometimes he does not reply when he is flying or is somewhere else, so we thought that maybe he was on another flight."
The final confirmation of Alex's death came with a phone call from flydubai staff at 8:oo am on Saturday morning.
"Alex was going to celebrate his 24th birthday the 31st of this month, but now he is gone," Vincent Confait said.
The young Seychellois final Facebook post - dates from March 18 at 3:18 am - reads "the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams".
Among those to have offered their condolences to the Confait family was Seychelles President James Michel.
"We are equally effected in the wake of this disaster as one of our own Seychellois sons has perished along with many other souls on board," he said in a statement.
reporters@khaleejtimes.com