Edcase

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/3725662.stm

We were supposed to be staying there.

We chose instead to go to Cornwall last week as we were worried about A) being so close to israel and B) flying towards / back from the Middle East.

Looks like the best decision I ever made.

Have to say I'm quite freaked out by it, anyone had anything similar happen?

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Jesus Ed, that's scary An old ex's father was booked on Pan Am Flight 103 on 21st December '88, the one that exploded above Lockerbie. He changed his mind about taking the flight which was probably the best decision he ever made, he then got shot a year later and nearly died - I can't decide whether he was born lucky or unfortunate...

lpski1

Two of my friends who were married last sat are on their honeymoon in Egypt, im really hoping they werent staying at the Hilton. yet to find out exactly where they went.

scoobypreza

I'm not suprised your freaked out I would be too.

My friend and her family were booked on the Zebruger Ferry (spelling???) but they arrived late and missed it. Lucky escape for them thats for sure.

cath

Edcase

Fingers crossed they are OK. My friends are currently taking theirs on one of the hurricane ravaged islands in the Carribean, poor buggers.

Andy Hall

I should have been working in the building opposite where the IRA bomb in the City went off. Luckily the job got canned at the last minute so I was at home.

Also should have been on the train that crashed in south london (88 i think) I left the office and realised I had forgotten something, popped back into the office to pick it up and got the call saying my meeting had been cancelled. This was in the days before mobiles so that would have been it.

2 lives down 7 to go :0

Freak

was that the clapham rail crash? nasty

I should have been on the train that crashed at paddington a few years back- had missed it so stayed home. lucky methinks, as i always sat near the front of the train

Not me- but my dad was on the tube in kings cross station as the fire started- 1987 i think it was ( i was 7 at the time). Last train out i believe

lpski1

I was driving down Fenchurch street when the IRA blew up the Baltic Exchange in St Mary's Axe, was going to choose Leadenhall street, which would of been right on top of the blast. !

just thought, i was 5 stops past on the way home, when the IRA blew up the buildings at docklands and South Key station.

hmmm i can see a pattern forming here.

lpski1

phew, have found out, they are not staying there and are currently on a cruise down the nile

fast bloke

Living in Belfast, most of the late seventies and all of the eighties were what ifs. I have twice left pubs minutes before a shooting. I was in a bank once while an armed robbery took place. I didn't notice a thing and walked out the door to be confronted by our equivalent of a swat team

Andy Porter

I was due on the train that crashed in Purley in the late eighties, lucky I was offered a lift an hour before the train.
Also in Birmingham a few years ago when that bomb went off, well actually it was just the detonator, we were pissed and said what a poxy bomb, hardly heard it, then heard on the news the boot full off explosives didn't catch luckily

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

I got a train to Victoria, then got on the tube to Kings Cross. When I got off the IRA bomb had already gone off at Victoria, although it was announced as a security alert (that was common in those days). When I eventually got to my lecture at Hertfordshire Uni (Hatfield Poly in old money) oblivious to the news, my parents had already phoned through to confirm I was there and alerted the head of Dept when I hadn't yet arrived.

So when I burst throught the classroom door half an hour late, I was asked if I had seen the Head of Dept yet. "No." "Well I suggest you see him straight away".

I trudged off to his office thinking I'd been done for plagerism. Again.

Nicci

Back in 1988, I went on a cruise (no I am not old, I was 14 at the time).
Ship was hit by a tanker. It sank
I survived

Would have preferred it to be a what if? moment.

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Bloody hell Nicci Where was that? How did you survive? Did anyone die?

Nicci

Yes people died. Made front page of all the papers because it was a cruise made up of british school children. We were supposed to spend a week exploring the Med.

I was helped onto a tug boat and taken back to land (we were near a harbour in Greece).

My parents got to find out about it through a newsflash on ITV, when at the time there was no word of survivors.

The anniversary is on 21 Oct, so I tend to be a bit edgy then.
Tony Blair awarded my school with a bravery award for us, stupidly 10 years on, so I haven't even seen it.

I will never go on a cruise again, even when I am old.

BTW, my dad cleaned up (sadly collecting body parts) after the Paddington rail crash (fireman).

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Was that the Jupiter? I do remember something about it, how awful for you

Nicci

Yes it was the Jupiter (well remembered).

Sadly quite a few people commited suicide after as they just couldn't cope.

I think it made a change from plane crashes that year anyway.

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

I went island hopping in Greece a couple of years after, we started out from Piraeus and had one particularly bad ship and crossing, the Jupiter accident wasn't far from my mind during it.

GarethE

iTrader: (1)

My bother and his wife, with my nephew and neice (aged 2 and 10 months at the time) were living in Saudi Arabia until just before Christmas last year. He put in a request for the company to bring them home as the situation was getting worse by the day, which they did.

They lived on the compound in Khobar where hostages were taken earlier this year - the terrorists stormed the entrance near to the villa they used to live in. The first western victim was shot virtually on their former doorstep.

My sister-in-law rang friends still living out there as the news broke and could hear the gunfire in the background as they hid under the stairs.

The TV coverage show a chinnook (sp?) helicopter dropping troops off to deal with the incident - that was almost on top of their former home.

I can't imagine how I would have felt knowing my family, especially with the two young children, had been caught up in that had they stayed out there. Thank God he put the request in and the company complied with his wishes.

Buzzer

I was in the Summerland complex...................... Strange how dates stick in your mind even when you are young

Leslie

You always expect a few of those in military flying and I have had a few too! Lucky enough to get away with it though.

It is known professionally as "sixpence/half-a-crown time"

Les