SINGAPORE: When he was told an earthquake had occurred, Mr Ho Kwon Ping, seated in an airplane that had failed to take off "after some very large jolts", thought it was a joke at first.

As he took off from the ground hours later in the very same plane — and saw the extent of the damage to the Sichuan region — the executive chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings realised how lucky he was to still be alive.

Mr Ho was in one of two aircraft stuck at Chengdu's international airport when the 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck China on Monday, killing 19,500 and possibly more.

At Banyan Tree's first-quarter results briefing on Thursday, the signs of his distress from his brush with death gradually appeared as he spoke to reporters.

He called it a "life-changing experience" and tears welled up in his eyes at the end of the interview.

He remembered the panic felt by the passengers on the plane, stuck onboard as they were, for 10 hours, cut off from communication lines, except for intermittent SMSes bearing piecemeal information.

"People knew there was an earthquake, there were people dying, they knew there were BBC reports and so on, but you couldn’t call your loved ones,” said Mr Ho. But being stuck in the plane was "nothing compared to the realisation of how things could have been different".

In between pauses, he said, "If the earthquake had happened, say 30 seconds later, as the plane was about to take off, I think we'll all ... you would be attending my ... memorial service.

"It's this sense of how fragile life is and how everything is due to luck."

Mr Ho, who is also the chairman of MediaCorp Group, repeatedly commented how
"Dujiangyan was a beautiful city", his sense of grief palpable.

A frequent traveller to the region, he was on a business trip to the city northwest of Chengdu, to explore the possibility of a hotel project.

More than 900 students there are reported to have been buried in the rubble after the earthquake.

"We're lucky we haven't built anything there yet, but I know the beauty of the place, I know some of the government officials, so, it's particularly painful to see that place reduced to rubble," he said.

His company is shelving plans for a resort, but could be involved in a building project of another sort.

Given the widespread destruction to schools in the city, one area in which
Banyan Tree "would be very happy to play a role in" is the rebuilding of schools.

"The grieving is still in process, people are not even talking about reconstruction ... it's very early days, but we know what we can do," said Mr Ho. - TODAY