Narrow escapes

[chinwag.choker]

Have you ever had a close shave involving a famous disaster? For instance, the famous airbus crash that departed South America for France and ended up in the sea, no survivors. One woman who was late for the flight was interviewed about her relief. Two days later she was killed in a car crash in Europe. (I know, it sounds like the plot for Final Destination but if your google the story. it actually is true).

Fortunately, a friend of mine was a little more lucky. She had been a passenger on a first leg of a flight from Frankfurt that had been carrying the bomb that went off over Lockerbie. It wasn't her plane that exploded, I think the bomb was transferred to another plane in London that took off for New York. This happened in the late 80's, investigators said the bomb was so unstable it could have gone off at any time. My friend is still alive and well.

My story is not so exciting. My family, myself, hubby and three kids were passing through Hoddle St ten minutes before the massacre took place. We were coming back from the inlaws (I think it was a Sunday night) and my hubby wanted to watch the last ten minutes of some tv show with his dad but I had a headache and demanded that we leave. He has never argued with me since.

Do you have a narrow escape story?

[lurker17260]

Not me, but one of my nieces would normally have been on the underground train that was bombed in London except that she had had a big night the night before and had called in sick.

[voodoo**works]

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@azureline** wrote:

In the early 70's, my friend and I went on a date with 2 boys she knew from her hometown...........to the drive in, in Canberra. When we arrived there, they stopped up the road and asked us to get in the boot as they didn't have enough money to pay for us all to get into the drivein movie.

We refused and paid our own way in. Needless to say, we never went out with them again.

A few months later they were in the news for picking up 2 hitch hikers on the way to Sydney. They dropped them off to make camp for the night, sneaked back later and raped the woman and stabbed her husband to death.

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That's terrible, azureline! I assume they were sentenced "Never to be released"? Do you think, if you two girls had gotten in the boot, they would have taken you some place else or do you think the fact that your friend knew them, nothing would have happened but a free entrance to the drive-thru?

When I was a teenager which did the boot-hop to the drive-thru all the time - it never occured to us some psychopath would have us trapped if we did...

[voodoo**works]

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@mainecoon1 wrote:

in the 1980s I was a nurse in the British Army and stationed at Mill Hill Barracks in North London  I had been on duty all night and at 5am was relieved of duty, as I had been on night duty all week I was on leave for the next 5 days so at 6am I walked to the station so I could spend my leave with family  When I got to my home station around 8.30am my Mum was there to meet me to tell me I had to return to the barracks as a bomb had gone off and totally destroyed the male accommodation block.  I lost a close male friend and to this day wonder what I would have done if I had still been on duty  Even though we were trained for this kind of event the person that relived me of duty still suffers from guilt and PTSD to this day as she felt she could have done more and might have saved 2 lives.

On the other side a friend of my OH was due to fly to Northern Ireland to spend a week with her boyfriend, she decided to bring her flight forward by 3 hours.  The flight she was on crashed at East Midland Airport, killing over half on board, she was sitting in the middle of the plane and survived but everyone around her died.  We have not seen her for 18 years but the last time we saw her she was suffering from survivor guild as she could not come to terms with the fact she survived and all the people around her did not.  If she had flown on the flight she had originally booked she would have arrived safe and sound.  

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I remember this crash because it was totally avoidable. One of the engines caught fire, the pilots shut down the other engine which was working fine. It's always more tragic when people die because of others' incompetence.

[i-need-a-martini]

This didn't happen to me but my closest friend.

Whenever I travel with her the first thing we always do in a new city is to spend the first morning at the top of the tallest building so that we can get our bearings. 

She went to New York for her 40th Birthday and I had told her she had to do the same - head to the top of the viewing tower of the Trade Centre building.

She arrived the day before the September 11 bombings and was scheduled to go up that morning. But as she left a coffee shop 5mins away, she fainted outside. So the owner made her sit back inside whilst she recovered. On her way out the door 30mins later the first plane struck.

She had never fainted before or since.

[nicnacs_4u]

Not for me but my daughter.She and 2 of her girlfriends were in Bali at the time of the  Sari club bombing.They already had been there for 1 week and everynight they would hang out at the sari club.This particular day one of the girls injured her leg whilst bike riding and they all decided to stay at the hotel that night..they were all in the pool of the hotel when the bomb exploded..they all thought it was fireworks how wrong they were..they had made friends with quite a few of those who had lost their lives that night:-(sometimes I still think what if......

[azureline**]

I am not sure what would have happened re getting in the boot....... just pleased we refused, lol. "never to be released"? hmm...... no I don't think so.

[freddie*rooster]

My nephew was one of the Coogee Dolphine's killed at the Sari Club.

[sandym3369]

When I was young I was walking down a country road I realised there was a man behind me so I cut down a path that was along side a stream the guy followed me down I then realised I was trapped . I turned around and saw that the guy had gone under a bridge I realised that he was exposing himself I just kept walking . If he had been a rapist or a murdered I dread to think what may have happened to me.

[mainecoon1]

Voodoo you are right it was the plane that crashed into the motorway verge, when the enquiry was held they found pilot error due to them turning the wrong engine off.  Just a couple of more feet off the ground and they would have made it onto the runway the plane would still have crashed but probably with fewer lives lost.  It is amazing that on a very busy motorway there where no cars at the time of the crash otherwise the fatalities would have been much higher

Our friend was sitting in the middle seat at the centre of the plane on the left hand side as you look down from the tail end.  The 3 people in front of her, the 3 behind her, the 2 either side of her and all nine people that were sitting across from her died.  Just thinking of it makes the hairs on the back of my neck rise.

[azureline**]

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@how.about.another.price wrote:

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@clair.de.lune wrote:

Really? Yeah I'd have to google the name of the street,

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Of course you would, you didn't even live in Australia then, LOL!!!

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she isn't the real clair de lune.