Discussion
My Nan as a young woman worked at a factory somewhere in Redditch (?) assembling shells and the like during the war. As you can imagine, it was dangerous work, but the work ethic was extremely strong. Despite this, she was ill enough one day to be off work. The lady that took her place on the line was killed when a faulty component she was assembling exploded... this was years before my mum was born, so I’m lucky to be here!
In the early 90s, I was working for Rover and we were doing a dealer roadshow to introduce some new kit. The Ireland portion was a great chance for us all to try Guinness and generally have a good time.
Me and a mate were driving loaded up Rover 800s, whilst our managers flew in to meet us. First up was Belfast, and we stayed in this lovely hotel, but near a very dodgy area - huge gates and guards etc. I realised I’d forgotten toiletries so the hotel desk gave me directions to the local supermarket. Got there fine and collected what I needed, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the stares I was getting. Got hopelessly lost in the way back, and ended up in a white Rover 80 on UK plates driving through some of the estates you’d see on the news, with big murals, fences, half bricks across the road. Never felt more of a target in my life... never been happier to find the hotel!
Next day we were due to drive to Dublin for the next event. Managers were meant to join us in the cars, but one had his birthday so his boss said they’d take the train and have the first class breakfast. Left them to grab a taxi into the city and we drove down.
They were very late arriving that evening, and we’d not got mobile phones so had begun to get a bit worried. When they did turn up they told us about their interesting day. Taxi was just approaching the station when there was a huge flash and bang. Whole street full of dust. A hotel that was just about to reopen after being rebuilt from a bombing had been targeted again (I think it was The Europa Hotel). They were far too close for comfort. Taxi driver said he’d lived in Belfast all his life and had never even heard a bomb before then. Whole city was closed off, so it was a bit of a bugger to get the train down.
On the way home, very tired and in a big heavy car on a damp road, I came up to a roundabout somewhere in North Wales a bit quick, locked up (ABS failed!) and bumped up and over the roundabout. Amazingly, the car was undamaged. Woke me up though!
Happy days!
In the early 90s, I was working for Rover and we were doing a dealer roadshow to introduce some new kit. The Ireland portion was a great chance for us all to try Guinness and generally have a good time.
Me and a mate were driving loaded up Rover 800s, whilst our managers flew in to meet us. First up was Belfast, and we stayed in this lovely hotel, but near a very dodgy area - huge gates and guards etc. I realised I’d forgotten toiletries so the hotel desk gave me directions to the local supermarket. Got there fine and collected what I needed, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the stares I was getting. Got hopelessly lost in the way back, and ended up in a white Rover 80 on UK plates driving through some of the estates you’d see on the news, with big murals, fences, half bricks across the road. Never felt more of a target in my life... never been happier to find the hotel!
Next day we were due to drive to Dublin for the next event. Managers were meant to join us in the cars, but one had his birthday so his boss said they’d take the train and have the first class breakfast. Left them to grab a taxi into the city and we drove down.
They were very late arriving that evening, and we’d not got mobile phones so had begun to get a bit worried. When they did turn up they told us about their interesting day. Taxi was just approaching the station when there was a huge flash and bang. Whole street full of dust. A hotel that was just about to reopen after being rebuilt from a bombing had been targeted again (I think it was The Europa Hotel). They were far too close for comfort. Taxi driver said he’d lived in Belfast all his life and had never even heard a bomb before then. Whole city was closed off, so it was a bit of a bugger to get the train down.
On the way home, very tired and in a big heavy car on a damp road, I came up to a roundabout somewhere in North Wales a bit quick, locked up (ABS failed!) and bumped up and over the roundabout. Amazingly, the car was undamaged. Woke me up though!
Happy days!
Edited by 595Heaven on Tuesday 7th July 08:03
wibble cb said:
To this day I have no idea what made me dab the brakes when I did, but I am glad I did.
Body language of cars...your subconscious picks up on this stuff.Had a similar one on the M6 about 15 years ago...driving home quite late on from work, middle lane, making progress, when a Xantia (remember them?) appears in my mirror then alongside me. We're just passing the exit for the M42, and for whatever reason i lift right off...only for him to swoop across all 3 lanes right in front of me (1-2 car lengths gap at most) as he realises he needs that exit!
fishermanpaul said:
Not up to the standard of some on here but...:
A few years ago I had a share in a Piper Turbo Arrow IV (4-seat, single engine, propeller, roughly 150mph cruise) out of Coventry.
Plan for the day was to fly to Earls Colne to pick up my Dad, Abbeville for lunch, drop Dad back off and then home. 4 legs each a bit less than an hour with a cruise burn of 12 gallons per hour. Factoring in a bit of taxi time and full power for take off - a rough 48 gallons required. I brimmed the two 30 gallon tanks to give the 4 hours plus 12gallons (1 hour) reserve - no need for more complex calcs or to pick up fuel en-route.
Lovely flights and lunch and I was coming back to Coventry having done about the times I'd planned for.
Now Cov at this time was quite busy with some based commercial operators, charter flights and bizjets. Us little boys were used to being told to play for a while while the big boys did their work so it was not unusual this time, on asking for join, to be told to hold at Draycote Water while 3 big boys were coming in.
20 mins of holding later I realised the radio had been quiet for a few mins and called up with my callsign to be greeted by a different Air Traffic Controller who asked me to pass my details - this meant there had been a shift change and previous ATC had forgotten to hand me over <sigh>. New ATC asked me to come a bit closer then hold as there were two more inbound - further 10 mins wait. Then a departure which sat at the threshold (i.e. blocking the runway) waiting airways clearance for 10 mins. So far 40 minutes hold out of, fag-packet calculation, 1 hour reserve... Wellesborne about 10 mins that way, Birmingham 5 mins that way for emergency diversions so tight but not terrible. I was then told another 2 inbound - at which point I finally explained the fuel situation and pointed out a 10 min hold meant I was asking for a diversion. She knew that meant paperwork explaining why I'd been forgotten so asked me to keep it tight and gave me permission to land. Landed OK, taxied to fuel and topped up.
Taxiing back to hangar I worked out, based on what I'd put in, that I actually had 7 gallons on board when I landed - so 35 mins at cruise.
Old flying Instructor helped me pushed the aircraft back into the hangar and I was having a whinge about the length of the hold - I got to the part where I said 7 gallons on board and he got a funny look in his eye...
FI: 7 gallons total?
me: yes
FI: This has the long range tanks doesn't it?
me: yeees... why?
FI: What the unusable fuel in this, with those tanks fitted?
me: 6 gallons... um... oh sht...
As he walked away he tapped my shoulder and said "Sleep well, Paul".
Reminds me of another pilot, also at Coventry (not me I hasten to add!). I used to fly with Almat at Cov, long before the airport closed and re-opened. I also had a share in a PA28 based there, before we moved it to Wellesbourne.A few years ago I had a share in a Piper Turbo Arrow IV (4-seat, single engine, propeller, roughly 150mph cruise) out of Coventry.
Plan for the day was to fly to Earls Colne to pick up my Dad, Abbeville for lunch, drop Dad back off and then home. 4 legs each a bit less than an hour with a cruise burn of 12 gallons per hour. Factoring in a bit of taxi time and full power for take off - a rough 48 gallons required. I brimmed the two 30 gallon tanks to give the 4 hours plus 12gallons (1 hour) reserve - no need for more complex calcs or to pick up fuel en-route.
Lovely flights and lunch and I was coming back to Coventry having done about the times I'd planned for.
Now Cov at this time was quite busy with some based commercial operators, charter flights and bizjets. Us little boys were used to being told to play for a while while the big boys did their work so it was not unusual this time, on asking for join, to be told to hold at Draycote Water while 3 big boys were coming in.
20 mins of holding later I realised the radio had been quiet for a few mins and called up with my callsign to be greeted by a different Air Traffic Controller who asked me to pass my details - this meant there had been a shift change and previous ATC had forgotten to hand me over <sigh>. New ATC asked me to come a bit closer then hold as there were two more inbound - further 10 mins wait. Then a departure which sat at the threshold (i.e. blocking the runway) waiting airways clearance for 10 mins. So far 40 minutes hold out of, fag-packet calculation, 1 hour reserve... Wellesborne about 10 mins that way, Birmingham 5 mins that way for emergency diversions so tight but not terrible. I was then told another 2 inbound - at which point I finally explained the fuel situation and pointed out a 10 min hold meant I was asking for a diversion. She knew that meant paperwork explaining why I'd been forgotten so asked me to keep it tight and gave me permission to land. Landed OK, taxied to fuel and topped up.
Taxiing back to hangar I worked out, based on what I'd put in, that I actually had 7 gallons on board when I landed - so 35 mins at cruise.
Old flying Instructor helped me pushed the aircraft back into the hangar and I was having a whinge about the length of the hold - I got to the part where I said 7 gallons on board and he got a funny look in his eye...
FI: 7 gallons total?
me: yes
FI: This has the long range tanks doesn't it?
me: yeees... why?
FI: What the unusable fuel in this, with those tanks fitted?
me: 6 gallons... um... oh sht...
As he walked away he tapped my shoulder and said "Sleep well, Paul".
Edited by fishermanpaul on Sunday 5th July 19:50
On one occasion, I was hanging around and socialising after a flight, when the guys asked me to give a hand dragging a Warrior up to the pumps for fuel. It had just landed, and needed a quick turn around, with full tanks for the next user. I put 191 litres of fuel into the Warrior. I recall this, because the aircraft had a usable maximum of 190 litres. The pilot who had been flying it is now a commercial pilot and instructor.
Fairly tame compared to some of these but around 10 years ago driving down to Sheffield on a single carriageway stretch of the A66 after Penrith. I looked into the distance and noticed a van slowly overtaking on my side of road. Managed to slow the hire Astra enough to get it a few feet onto the verge. Van missed me by less than a foot!
Had a ten tonne excavator swing its bucket at my head while i was on a apparent safe route. Ducked just in time.
Was being escorted around site and got taken under a section of slab just as they were cutting it out above my head.
Was in a site office with a large earth storage bin behind it got clonked and nearly buried the cabin.
Was walking across site when I tripped on some loose rebar and nearly impaled myself on some upright rebar that didn't have mushrooms on it.
And that's just a few instances off the top of my head at work; still 'elf n saffty gorn maaaddd and all that.
Was being escorted around site and got taken under a section of slab just as they were cutting it out above my head.
Was in a site office with a large earth storage bin behind it got clonked and nearly buried the cabin.
Was walking across site when I tripped on some loose rebar and nearly impaled myself on some upright rebar that didn't have mushrooms on it.
And that's just a few instances off the top of my head at work; still 'elf n saffty gorn maaaddd and all that.
foliedouce said:
On 19th August 1987 me and a school mate went to the outdoor pool in Hungerford whilst my Mum and Stepdad looked around the antique arcades.
We got out of the pool to get changed and another kid came into the changing room and said "a man's gone mad with a gun down the road"
Being young and reckless, we got changed quickly and ran down the road towards the "mad man", adults where shouting out of the windows of their homes for us to turn around, but we carried on.
Then we saw a load of police crouching behind a wall, then we heard gun shots fire over our heads......then we ran for our lives, scared s
tless.
Luckily we bumped into my parents walking up towards the pool to come and get us. We got back to the car as quickly as we could and left.
I remember it as if it was yesterday, what bloody morons we were.
RIP the 16 people he killed
Bloody hell!We got out of the pool to get changed and another kid came into the changing room and said "a man's gone mad with a gun down the road"
Being young and reckless, we got changed quickly and ran down the road towards the "mad man", adults where shouting out of the windows of their homes for us to turn around, but we carried on.
Then we saw a load of police crouching behind a wall, then we heard gun shots fire over our heads......then we ran for our lives, scared s
tless.Luckily we bumped into my parents walking up towards the pool to come and get us. We got back to the car as quickly as we could and left.
I remember it as if it was yesterday, what bloody morons we were.
RIP the 16 people he killed
I've always been fascinated reading about disasters and incidents such as some of those discussed in this thread, but for some reason reading about the Hungerford massacre always makes my blood run cold. No idea why but it just gets to me.
As for my entries to this thread, mine are quite tame compared to most but here goes...
1) Several years ago, me and a mate were driving home from work in Birmingham fairly late on a Saturday night and I took a shortcut down a country lane near where we lived. A car came bombing over a crest towards us, then suddenly flashed its lights three or four times and veered across onto my side of the road. I was certain it was going to hit me head-on so just threw the car to the left and clipped the earth bank - amazingly the other car clipped my wing mirror and bent it back before speeding off. I stopped and checked the car as soon as I got to somewhere with street lighting and was surprised to see that other than the mirror (which bent back into place easily) there wasn't a scratch on the car. I wondered afterwards whether I'd have gone over when I hit the bank if my mate (a big heavy bloke) hadn't been in my passenger seat. No clue why the other driver did what he did, I can only assume either he was pissed or an animal ran out of the hedge in front of him and I didn't see it. I've never driven that way at night since.
2) Last year, was coming home from somewhere and entered a section of NSL road behind a car which had an armchair bungee'd onto its roof rack - for obvious reasons he didn't want to go much over about 35mph, but I was in no hurry and traffic wasn't too heavy, plus that road is difficult to overtake on anyway, so I sat behind him until we reached some traffic lights where I was turning right anyway. On the approach to the lights, some way back in the queue some d
head in a Volkswagen SUV decided he'd had enough of waiting so floored it down the outside of the queue and into the right turn lane of the lights to try and get ahead of the slow car...without seeing that I was in said lane waiting to turn right! Luckily a car in the queue to my left braked to leave a gap this idiot could go into, and he missed ploughing into me by about two inches. It shook me up as a close friend of mine was rather smashed up in hospital after a car accident at the time, and i was lucky not to have joined them.Also, I've noticed many people have said about having hundreds of missed calls and texts after an incident has happened somewhere...maybe this is one for the mental health thread, but I always feel like no one would reach out to me like that if I was in that kind of situation, maybe because I have lived a largely solitary existence in my life. Likewise, whenever any of my friends are in trouble, no one thinks to contact me and tell me and I only ever find out when I read it on social media - but that's not for this thread.
595Heaven said:
My Nan as a young woman worked at a factory somewhere in Redditch (?) assembling shells and the like during the war. As you can imagine, it was dangerous work, but the work ethic was extremely strong. Despite this, she was ill enough one day to be off work. The lady that took her place on the line was killed when a faulty component she was assembling exploded... this was years before my mum was born, so I’m lucky to be here!
Love it, what a life some of the old timers had!Edited by 595Heaven on Tuesday 7th July 08:03
My Nan worked at ammunition’s store during the war in Gretna. She used to tell me stories of going down to count the shells and finding all the lads sat playing cards on the crates of ammunition, all with fags in there mouth!!
This is an little article they did on her if anyone’s interested. She’s 100 in couple of weeks!
https://www.thescarboroughnews.co.uk/news/people/t...
Swampy1982 said:
Dibble said:
Go on, tell us the story...Dibble said:
I was pursuing a Metro, which barrelled through a red light at a crossroads about 50. I slowed down, made sure it was safe to go and set off. I had the full works going on the car. The bus to my offside had seen me and stopped, as had the car to the near side. The old chap in his Nissan Almera drove around the two stopped cars in front of him and T boned my near side, which span me through 90° into a private ambulance at the opposite side of the junction. This resulted in me spinning 270° the opposite direction, wiping out the near side rear wheel on the kerb and leaving me pointing back in the direction I’d just come from.
Oh my, sound rough. That being said, what was worse, the crash or the paperwork as a result...
I got suspended from driving police vehicles and was interviewed under caution, then a file was sent to the CPS, who eventually advised no further action against me (or the driver of the Almera). I also had to go to HQ Driving School for a check ride to make sure I was ok to continue driving. All fairly standard stuff, to be honest. The CPS decision took almost six months, I was back driving in under a week.
And yes, I had a solicitor present for my interview!
And yes, I had a solicitor present for my interview!
29th November 2019.
I was making my way from grabbing a cup of coffee and sandwich from London Bridge station back to the office in the city across the bridge.
As I got to the opposite (northern) side I passed Adelaide House at the end of the bridge. Suddenly loads of police sirens were heard and some ditsy woman stepped out into the road...a police car travelling at high speed suddenly slammed its brakes on and she froze in fear knowing she just abruptly stopped them and didn’t look as she was crossing the road. I saw an armed officer swearing and screaming at her to move as he was sorting out his semi automatic in the passenger side; his driver swerved around her followed by another police car...and then another.
I rolled my eyes (as you do) and carried on walking uttering the usual “how can you be so stupid” to myself. Haha.
Got back into the office which was just around the corner. The TVs were showing a report that a guy was running around stabbing people on London Bridge. I just happened to walk on the right side instead of the left pavement on the bridge - had I not I would have likely been face to face with some jihadi nut job stabbing everyone...he was shot dead by the police as I blissfully walked away not hearing anything but sirens behind me.
I was making my way from grabbing a cup of coffee and sandwich from London Bridge station back to the office in the city across the bridge.
As I got to the opposite (northern) side I passed Adelaide House at the end of the bridge. Suddenly loads of police sirens were heard and some ditsy woman stepped out into the road...a police car travelling at high speed suddenly slammed its brakes on and she froze in fear knowing she just abruptly stopped them and didn’t look as she was crossing the road. I saw an armed officer swearing and screaming at her to move as he was sorting out his semi automatic in the passenger side; his driver swerved around her followed by another police car...and then another.
I rolled my eyes (as you do) and carried on walking uttering the usual “how can you be so stupid” to myself. Haha.
Got back into the office which was just around the corner. The TVs were showing a report that a guy was running around stabbing people on London Bridge. I just happened to walk on the right side instead of the left pavement on the bridge - had I not I would have likely been face to face with some jihadi nut job stabbing everyone...he was shot dead by the police as I blissfully walked away not hearing anything but sirens behind me.
Edited by Anubis on Wednesday 8th July 22:05
I’ve generally avoided close shaves (though once was knocked out of the way by someone leaving Tower Records in San Francisco in a hurry - turns out he had just robbed the place with a gun). But for others I know:
The OP mentioned the Hatfield train crash. My friend’s brother was on the train. He was an off duty BTP officer taking an earlier train home from London and is recorded as the first officer on the scene. He took the driver’s statement on the back of his cheque book (remember those?).
1996 IRA bomb in Manchester my (hadn’t yet met her at that point) girlfriend was in the city centre shopping.
7/7 a friend overslept after a heavy night out and just missed one of the attacked trains.
My FIL was in New York for work on 9/11having flown down from Boston the day before. The flight he took was one of the hijacked planes the next day....
The OP mentioned the Hatfield train crash. My friend’s brother was on the train. He was an off duty BTP officer taking an earlier train home from London and is recorded as the first officer on the scene. He took the driver’s statement on the back of his cheque book (remember those?).
1996 IRA bomb in Manchester my (hadn’t yet met her at that point) girlfriend was in the city centre shopping.
7/7 a friend overslept after a heavy night out and just missed one of the attacked trains.
My FIL was in New York for work on 9/11having flown down from Boston the day before. The flight he took was one of the hijacked planes the next day....
DaveGoddard said:
Bloody hell!
I've always been fascinated reading about disasters and incidents such as some of those discussed in this thread, but for some reason reading about the Hungerford massacre always makes my blood run cold. No idea why but it just gets to me.
<Snipped for brevity>
You might be interested in reading a book called 'Unnatural Causes' by Dr. Richard Shepherd'. (pm me if you want the publishers name and the ISBN).I've always been fascinated reading about disasters and incidents such as some of those discussed in this thread, but for some reason reading about the Hungerford massacre always makes my blood run cold. No idea why but it just gets to me.
<Snipped for brevity>
Back in 1989 I was stopped by a policeman and given a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt - A month later I was helped out of my upturned Ford Escort uninjured by a different policeman, probably because I was wearing a seatbelt.
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