Survivor asked four times to move seats

ONE of the passengers to walk away from Thursday’s horror plane crash with only minor injuries had repeatedly asked for his flight seat to be moved to where almost all the fatalities occurred.

Dónal Walsh, 22, from St John’s Hill in Waterford city, is understood to have asked the flight crew up to four times if he could switch seats from the back to the front of the plane because the lack of space made him claustrophobic.

Crew members are believed to have brought refreshments to the young man — who also walked away from a road accident with his father in May — and asked him to remain in his original seat. Due to the fact that no one sitting at the back of the plane died, that decision may have been vital to his miraculous survival.