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Flight change saves footballers

A soccer team narrowly escaped tragedy after they rebooked their tickets from doomed Germanwings flight 4U 9525 to three other flights.

“We were supposed to be on that plane,” sporting director Adil Kizil told Swedish daily Aftonbladet of the team’s close call.

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“There were four planes that left around the same time and that flew north over the Alps. Four planes and we had players on three of them. You can say we were very, very lucky.”

The team, Swedish third division Dalkurd FF from Borlaenge in Central Sweden, visited Catalonia and were due to return on the Germanwings flight which Tuesday crashed into the French Alps 41 minutes after taking off from Barcelona.

All 150 aboard died, including an Australian mother and her adult son from Victoria.

Dalkurd FF decided the layover in Duesseldorf would be too long so after arriving at Barcelona airport they re-booked themselves onto three other flights flying via Zurich and Munich.

“To all those who have tried to contact us in the past few hours we are home and we are fine. It was another plane. May they rest in peace,” goalkeeper Frank Pettersson wrote on Twitter.

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