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?

[azureline**]

Your soul is a chosen landscape
Where charming masqueraders and bergamaskers go
Playing the lute and dancing and almost
Sad beneath their fanciful disguises.

All sing in a minor key
Of victorious love and the opportune life,
They do not seem to believe in their happiness
And their song mingles with the moonlight,

With the still moonlight, sad and beautiful,
That sets the birds dreaming in the trees
And the fountains sobbing in ecstasy,
The tall slender fountains among marble statues.

[goo**spew]

---

@i-need-a-martini wrote:

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.

---

Martini, is that a true story? I only ask, because of all the near misses on September 11, this is one of the more extraordinary. I am a spiritual person and I believe you're friend's spirit brought on the fainting spell to save her life.

Seth Macfarlane, who hosted the Oscars, was supposed to board the first plane that crashed into the World Trade Centre but was ten minutes late for his light. He watched the plane crash into the building while at the airport gate waiting for his next flight.

It's interesting you used the words "Septmeber 11 bombings." Perhaps, you like me believe it was a controlled demolition that brought down the buildings?

[goo**spew]

---

@azureline** wrote:

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.

---

Really? Most crimes of that nature, pre-meditated out in the bush, illicit a "never to be released" sentence. I bet if the woman had been murdered, they would still be in jail. I will never understand the Titanic syndrome "Women and Children First". Why is a woman or child's life worth more than a man's - especially a man who worked all his life to provide tickets on the Titanic? A grown man has earned his life and shouldn't be put last - in court or sinking ships.

[goo**spew]

---

@azureline** wrote:

Your soul is a chosen landscape
Where charming masqueraders and bergamaskers go
Playing the lute and dancing and almost
Sad beneath their fanciful disguises.

All sing in a minor key
Of victorious love and the opportune life,
They do not seem to believe in their happiness
And their song mingles with the moonlight,

With the still moonlight, sad and beautiful,
That sets the birds dreaming in the trees
And the fountains sobbing in ecstasy,
The tall slender fountains among marble statues.

---

Azureline, are you having a nervous breakdown?

[twinkles**stars]

---

@goo**spew wrote:

---

@azureline** wrote:

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.

---

Really? Most crimes of that nature, pre-meditated out in the bush, illicit a "never to be released" sentence. I bet if the woman had been murdered, they would still be in jail. I will never understand the Titanic syndrome "Women and Children First". Why is a woman or child's life worth more than a man's - especially a man who worked all his life to provide tickets on the Titanic? A grown man has earned his life and shouldn't be put last - in court or sinking ships.

---

Without women there would be no men.

[azureline**]

No, I am not at the moment, all is well in my world, just busy.

The poem.. clair de lune and your implied suggestion that the poster is not who she says she is?

Never to be released..........I think you will find that is a newer concept than was in the 70's.

[goo**spew]

---

@azureline** wrote:

No, I am not at the moment, all is well in my world, just busy.

The poem.. clair de lune and your implied suggestion that the poster is not who she says she is?

Never to be released..........I think you will find that is a newer concept than was in the 70's.

---

Oh, you could be right re "never to be released". It makes me shudder to think those men could be on the streets free again. I've often wondered if I've ever spoken to a serial killer or know anyone who, unbeknownst to me, has committed a heinous crime. You have been in that situation and I'm just glad you survived to tell the tale. 

[goo**spew]

---

@twinkles**stars wrote:

---

@goo**spew wrote:

---

@azureline** wrote:

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.

---

Really? Most crimes of that nature, pre-meditated out in the bush, illicit a "never to be released" sentence. I bet if the woman had been murdered, they would still be in jail. I will never understand the Titanic syndrome "Women and Children First". Why is a woman or child's life worth more than a man's - especially a man who worked all his life to provide tickets on the Titanic? A grown man has earned his life and shouldn't be put last - in court or sinking ships.

---

Without women there would be no men.

---

So true, men's lives aren't worth more than women's and children's but they aren't worth less either.

[goo**spew]

---

@mainecoon1 wrote:

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.

---

Mainecoon, I wonder what saved her? Personally, I take very little interest in the passengers around me, especially on short-haul flights (although I'm becoming slightly more observant since 2001) .  I'm confused why your friend feels survivors guilt. If I was in a plane crash and all around me died, I would think I was one lucky bugger but I wouldn't feel undeserving for being "chosen" out of a bunch of strangers to survive. If the surrounding passengers were family and friends, yes the guilt would be there but unfortunately, I'm usually sitting next to a yoghurt guzzling fatso on one side and a crying baby on the other, so you do the math 😉

[goo**spew]

Steven Fry tells a story about a friend of his who worked at the World Trade Center. The night before the plenes hit he had a birthday party. His mum gave him a shirt he thought was revolting, and while on the underground heading for work, he discovered the shirt in his bag and decided to get off a few stations before his own and exchange it at the store where his mum bought it. While in the store, the first plane hit his office square on. Later his friend remarked, "If my mum had good taste, I would be dead."