Mason Wells, an American survivor of the attacks in Belgium, seen in an image before the bombing (left), answers questions during an interview (right) in a hospital in Ghent, Belgium, on March 25. Photo: (Left) Facebook, (right) AP

American who survived Brussels, Paris and Boston terror says he’s ‘lucky’

By Yaron Steinbuch

March 25, 2016
A 19-year-old Mormon missionary emerged unscathed from the Boston Marathon bombings and Paris attacks — but wasn’t as lucky in Brussels, where he suffered severe burns and other injuries.

The Utah teen, Mason Wells, was standing at a Delta check-in counter on Tuesday when the first blast went off just feet away, he told CNN.

“My body was actually picked up off the ground for a moment,” he said. “My left shoe was blown off and a large part of the right side of my body got really hot and then really cold and I was covered in … a lot of blood that wasn’t mine.”

Wells’ first brush with terror occurred three years ago at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, where two bombs killed three people and injured more than 250.
On Nov. 19, he was in France, but not in Paris, where ISIS jihadists went on a rampage, killing 130 people and wounding hundreds.

Lying in bed with his burned face wrapped in bandages, the Eagle Scout said he was “lucky” to be alive after suffering shrapnel wounds and a ruptured Achilles tendon.

“I actually felt the explosion on my right side, I could feel the blast,” he said. After that, he added, he saw many injured and dead people.

He said he managed to run toward an exit when the second bomb went off.

“My parents always told me that everything happens for a reason,” Wells told ABC News about his close calls. “I don’t know why I was in those places. I believe that God’s plan is a lot bigger than maybe we imagine.”


Wells and two other American Mormon missionaries — Richard Norby, 66, and Joseph Empey, 20 — were escorting a fellow missionary, Fanny Clain, 20, as she prepared to leave for an assignment in Ohio.
Norby and Empey, who suffered second-degree burns, underwent surgery for shrapnel wounds, ABC News reported.

Clain, who is from Reunion — a French island in the Indian Ocean — was badly burned, AFP reported.
Wells told CNN his thoughts are with those who suffered worse injuries.

“My own feelings are just for the people that are out there,” he said. “I hope that they’re doing OK. I’ve just wanted to pray for them.”