Tech Support
December 7th 08, 05:05 AM
Here is a first hand story by a Flight Attendent on Lay Over in Bombay
when the Terrists struck. It is firsrt hand and not massaged by the
media.
This is quite long so if you don't have time to read just erase it.
Big John
************************************************** *************************
Subject: Northwest DTW F/A escapes the Brutal hand of ISLAM in
Mumbai]
Hi Everyone,
This is a firsthand account of the shootings in Mumbai from one of our
NWA Flight Attendants.
I replaced the names with ---- to protect everyone's privacy. I hope
that I did not miss any of the names.
Begin forwarded message:
Date: December 1, 2008 3:55:19 PM PST
Subject: Northwest F/A escapes the Brutal hand of ISLAM in Mumbai,
India
Dear Friends:
My apologies that this is the first response to all the emails I have
received as of this writing. I spent the last 48 hours up at the farm
with ....... after getting back to Milwaukee mid-day on Friday, and I
spent only enough time at home to get out of my uniform and pack a
small bag for my time up there.
This is going out to ALL the contacts in my on-line address book, so
another apology to those who may already be aware of the situation.
For those of you who don't know, I was on a layover at the Oberoi
Trident hotel in Mumbai when the attacks occurred there last Wednesday
night. Some of my memory of some of this is sketchy but here's what I
remember.
Had a great, uneventful layover...the usual, massage, lunch at Trishna
etc. Napped from about six pm to 9 pm. I received my 9:50 pm wakeup
call from reception, reminding me of my 10:50 pm pickup time. I left
my room for the lobby about 10:35 and saw one of my flight attendants
standing at the elevator bank. He said the elevators for some reason
weren't working and that his calls from the house phone adjacent to
them was going unanswered. My initial reaction was Oh God, am I going
to have to carry all my bags down stairs???
I was heading back to my room to try calling from my room's phone when
we heard a tremendous explosion that shook the building. We were on
the 18th floor, and unaware of what was happening in the lobby and
outside the hotel. I ran to my room and dialed reception, and again,
no answer. I went back out into the hallway to see what we were going
to decide to do when we heard another huge explosion followed by very
loud screams. At first I thought that an elevator had fallen as the
screams seemed to come from the elevator shafts. Suddenly doors in
the hallway were opening and heads were sticking out wondering what
was going on.
All of a sudden a young woman comes out and starts banging on other
doors in the hallway screaming that the hotel was being attacked.
Apparently she saw it on TV. My coworker and I ran into my room and
turned on the television and on one of the local channels it was being
reported that there were "firings" outside of some hotels. It was
running across the bottom of the screen but the TV still had regular
programming on. I wasn't sure what they meant by firings, but I
couldn't help but wonder if that is what the explosions were.
Everyone was confused about what to do, but my coworker said he was
going to go down the stairway adjacent to the elevators to see if it
was safe to get out. He was turned back by hotel staff several
flights down.
By this time I had that hall crowd of people in my room watching the
news on TV that attacks were being carried out at several locations in
the city. All of a sudden one of the women who was a Lufthansa flight
attendant got a call on her PDA and screamed that the hotel was on
fire and we had to get out. Although we didn't know it at the time,
it was actually the Taj Hotel on fire. But we decided to head down the
stairs. Instinctively, I grabbed my passport, crew badge, wallet, and
cash, and locked my luggage in my room. Some of the women were crying
but it was orderly going down.
Strangely nobody from above followed the 16 of us. We made it to the
pool level which is on the rooftop of the third floor, but the all the
glass doors to the outside areas were locked. That floor also has
banquet and meeting rooms and we found all the doors locked. Inside
the ladies room the towels are cloth, so we grabbed a bunch of them
and wet them in case we had to breathe through smoke. But we hadn't
smelled any if the hotel was indeed on fire. We were trying to figure
out where to go at that point when we encountered a hotel security
guard. He WHISPERED (which began to scare me even more) for us to stay
there as there was an "incident" in the lobby. We cut through a linen
tied to the insides of large bronze handles of the doors to one of the
banquet rooms. He told us to be very very quiet, and to stay there
until someone came to get us. He also told us to stay on the floor.
We were in that room for over an hour, and several of the Lufthansa
crewmembers with us had PDA's, and were getting information from
outside sources, so we learned the situation was not good. Eventually
hiding in the dark there, we barricaded the door with a large table
and waited.....then we heard voices. My heart I swear stopped for a
few seconds. We were all on the floor holding hands, praying, some
were crying softly etc.... Turned out to be that same security man.
He was like he was sent from heaven. He said there were men here to
help us evacuate. There were about a half dozen guys in camo with
large automatic rifles. We were then led through a long set of
offices, storage areas etc, until eventually we came out into a
mezzanine level in the lobby through the hotel's business center.
There was a Van Cleef and Arpels store and a Brioni men’s clothing
store and all the windows were shattered, as were all the windows to
the outside. Apparently grenades had been thrown in some lobby areas.
There was glass EVERYWHERE! They told us to stay closely together,
and QUIETLY but quickly follow them.
But every time we encountered a turn in the hallway, or an open area,
they halted us and the military guys aimed their rifles in all
directions. We had to descend a large staircase into the open main
lobby of the hotel, and RUN past the front desk, the concierge, and
out the main doors. There was not ONE window intact, there was blood
everywhere, and the restaurant called Opium Den next to the elevators
had at least a dozen bullet holes in the glass. Apparently several
people were killed there. Everywhere we stepped there was
glass.....on the furniture, the carpeting, the marble
floors...everywhere. There were also NO people....anywhere. The huge
glass doors to the main entrance were reduced to about six inches deep
of glass pieces similar to a windshield break. It wasn't like sheet
glass. It was weird. So we didn't have to open any doors to get out.
We were halted in the entrance area and the rifle men repositioned.
That was perhaps the most terrifying part. Not knowing where the bad
guys with guns and grenades were, or if we were going to get shot from
someplace or somebody that was hiding. We ran across the street and
up about three blocks to a movie theater complex's parking ramp where
we were in the company of several hundred people....guests and hotel
staff both. We got there at around 12:30-1:00 am. We found our two
first officers, and one of them had an international use cell phone
that ended up being our lifeline. We were on the phone with the state
department, headquarters in MSP, and several others so our exact
location could be known and monitored. Since the whole area had been
cordoned off, there was no traffic movement so we ended up there until
dawn, when after a very confusing and chaotic shifting of groups, we
finally got a private bus company to shuttle us from outside the
locked-down area to a destination which changed three times enroute.
It was to a hotel near the airport where we eventually met up with the
crew that brought our outbound plane "in".
It was pretty much carte blanche with meals, expenses, and phone calls
to family, etc. Exhaustion was setting in, as were emotions, and I
didn't sleep that whole day but a shower made all the difference.
EVERY sound outside my room sent the adrenaline pumping. At that
point we were missing flight attendant ----- -----, and our captain,
--- ----. The state dept. assured us they were in contact with them
every half hour even though they were still trapped inside the Oberoi.
About 5:30 pm, we got calls saying they were evacuating us out of
India, and to be in the lobby at 6:05 pm. We finally took off without
--- and ----- at 8 pm, and landed in Amsterdam at around 3:30 am. It
is about a nine hour flight, but I slept the whole way. We supposedly
had 15 people in coach and only WE were seated in first class. Thank
God those seats lie flat.
We were met in Amsterdam by several KLM managers, grief counselors,
and clergy of about six different faiths. That was good, as it turned
out, one of our flight attendants was in the lobby when the shootings
took place and saw several people killed. Another had actually called
an elevator to her floor and found it empty, but with a pool of blood
on the floor, so she ran back to her room. We were all given
emergency clothing kits of underwear, socks, and KLM sweatshirt and
sweatpants, along with amenity kits of basic sundries, at least to get
us home. Since we were given the option of staying in Amsterdam to
rest, counsel, have clothing purchased for us, or whatever, and fly
home the next day, or to continue on to our home cities. Out of the
nine of MY crewmembers, and the 11 crewmembers who landed in Mumbai
about the time this started, only two chose to stay. They also said a
large group of reporters was waiting for us to exit, so we were sent
off the property a different way, to a hotel nearby for a four hour
layover until the first flight to Detroit departed, thank God. I was
OUT that entire flight as well. A glass of wine and a xanax works
wonders!
We were then met in Detroit by several NWA senior management personnel
and Employee Assistance Program psychologists. We were quickly and
quietly expedited through customs and immigration and offered the
chance to talk to anybody we wished, but my flight was leaving for
Milwaukee in 40 minutes so I had to decline. Turns out that crew to
Milwaukee had been told of my presence and they went out of their way
to make me comfortable, as did the crews of every flight that got me
home. As a matter of fact, I have never seen such kindness and
compassion extended to us, like it was by everybody we encountered,
from hotel staffs to Airport and airline personnel. It was truly
extraordinary. Some processed it differently, and at different times,
but I finally broke when I learned that ----- and --- had finally been
released unharmed and were preparing to board a Lufthansa flight to
Frankfurt before catching the NWA flight to Detroit from there.
We left Mumbai with little more than the clothes on our backs, but
Detroit in-flight has been in touch, and they said they will replace
EVERYTHING we lost, and at full monetary value, no questions asked, or
receipts required. They have also dropped most of my December
schedule with pay. I lost my TravelPro luggage, garment bag, laptop,
cell phone, iPod, Nikon camera, skype phone. clothing, leather coat,
uniform pieces etc, but I came out of there unharmed, and with my
LIFE, which is what mattered most.
Since I sat in row 1 on my flight to Milwaukee, I was first off the
plane. ------ met me at the end of the jetway and burst into tears,
which turned on the water for me too. Then the gate agent started in,
and I think everybody in the gate area waiting to depart was wondering
what the hell had just happened. LOL It was only when ------ offered
up "let me help you with your bags" (I had ONE small plastic bag with
a handle), did the laughter emerge through the tears. Outside of
security in Milwaukee we were met by ------- and -----, and ---- and
---. I wanted to get home and up to the farm to be with -----, but I
agreed, thankfully to stop over at Amelia's by the airport for a
bloody mary. MAN, that tasted good! Special thanks go out to you
guys......that small gesture did NOT go unappreciated! So tonight I'm
able to finally sit here at my desktop PC and finally get back to you.
Thanks for understanding.
I am using an extra cell phone of -----'s until mine can be replaced.
The number is: ----------. I hope to have my old number tomorrow, if
I have time to get to the Sprint store.... I'm in no rush. It was
sort of nice to not have to answer a phone for a couple days.
There is so much more, but that's pretty much how I spent my
Thanksgiving.
I will spend a few days getting some of this leg work done, but hope
to talk to you all soon. God Bless.....
when the Terrists struck. It is firsrt hand and not massaged by the
media.
This is quite long so if you don't have time to read just erase it.
Big John
************************************************** *************************
Subject: Northwest DTW F/A escapes the Brutal hand of ISLAM in
Mumbai]
Hi Everyone,
This is a firsthand account of the shootings in Mumbai from one of our
NWA Flight Attendants.
I replaced the names with ---- to protect everyone's privacy. I hope
that I did not miss any of the names.
Begin forwarded message:
Date: December 1, 2008 3:55:19 PM PST
Subject: Northwest F/A escapes the Brutal hand of ISLAM in Mumbai,
India
Dear Friends:
My apologies that this is the first response to all the emails I have
received as of this writing. I spent the last 48 hours up at the farm
with ....... after getting back to Milwaukee mid-day on Friday, and I
spent only enough time at home to get out of my uniform and pack a
small bag for my time up there.
This is going out to ALL the contacts in my on-line address book, so
another apology to those who may already be aware of the situation.
For those of you who don't know, I was on a layover at the Oberoi
Trident hotel in Mumbai when the attacks occurred there last Wednesday
night. Some of my memory of some of this is sketchy but here's what I
remember.
Had a great, uneventful layover...the usual, massage, lunch at Trishna
etc. Napped from about six pm to 9 pm. I received my 9:50 pm wakeup
call from reception, reminding me of my 10:50 pm pickup time. I left
my room for the lobby about 10:35 and saw one of my flight attendants
standing at the elevator bank. He said the elevators for some reason
weren't working and that his calls from the house phone adjacent to
them was going unanswered. My initial reaction was Oh God, am I going
to have to carry all my bags down stairs???
I was heading back to my room to try calling from my room's phone when
we heard a tremendous explosion that shook the building. We were on
the 18th floor, and unaware of what was happening in the lobby and
outside the hotel. I ran to my room and dialed reception, and again,
no answer. I went back out into the hallway to see what we were going
to decide to do when we heard another huge explosion followed by very
loud screams. At first I thought that an elevator had fallen as the
screams seemed to come from the elevator shafts. Suddenly doors in
the hallway were opening and heads were sticking out wondering what
was going on.
All of a sudden a young woman comes out and starts banging on other
doors in the hallway screaming that the hotel was being attacked.
Apparently she saw it on TV. My coworker and I ran into my room and
turned on the television and on one of the local channels it was being
reported that there were "firings" outside of some hotels. It was
running across the bottom of the screen but the TV still had regular
programming on. I wasn't sure what they meant by firings, but I
couldn't help but wonder if that is what the explosions were.
Everyone was confused about what to do, but my coworker said he was
going to go down the stairway adjacent to the elevators to see if it
was safe to get out. He was turned back by hotel staff several
flights down.
By this time I had that hall crowd of people in my room watching the
news on TV that attacks were being carried out at several locations in
the city. All of a sudden one of the women who was a Lufthansa flight
attendant got a call on her PDA and screamed that the hotel was on
fire and we had to get out. Although we didn't know it at the time,
it was actually the Taj Hotel on fire. But we decided to head down the
stairs. Instinctively, I grabbed my passport, crew badge, wallet, and
cash, and locked my luggage in my room. Some of the women were crying
but it was orderly going down.
Strangely nobody from above followed the 16 of us. We made it to the
pool level which is on the rooftop of the third floor, but the all the
glass doors to the outside areas were locked. That floor also has
banquet and meeting rooms and we found all the doors locked. Inside
the ladies room the towels are cloth, so we grabbed a bunch of them
and wet them in case we had to breathe through smoke. But we hadn't
smelled any if the hotel was indeed on fire. We were trying to figure
out where to go at that point when we encountered a hotel security
guard. He WHISPERED (which began to scare me even more) for us to stay
there as there was an "incident" in the lobby. We cut through a linen
tied to the insides of large bronze handles of the doors to one of the
banquet rooms. He told us to be very very quiet, and to stay there
until someone came to get us. He also told us to stay on the floor.
We were in that room for over an hour, and several of the Lufthansa
crewmembers with us had PDA's, and were getting information from
outside sources, so we learned the situation was not good. Eventually
hiding in the dark there, we barricaded the door with a large table
and waited.....then we heard voices. My heart I swear stopped for a
few seconds. We were all on the floor holding hands, praying, some
were crying softly etc.... Turned out to be that same security man.
He was like he was sent from heaven. He said there were men here to
help us evacuate. There were about a half dozen guys in camo with
large automatic rifles. We were then led through a long set of
offices, storage areas etc, until eventually we came out into a
mezzanine level in the lobby through the hotel's business center.
There was a Van Cleef and Arpels store and a Brioni men’s clothing
store and all the windows were shattered, as were all the windows to
the outside. Apparently grenades had been thrown in some lobby areas.
There was glass EVERYWHERE! They told us to stay closely together,
and QUIETLY but quickly follow them.
But every time we encountered a turn in the hallway, or an open area,
they halted us and the military guys aimed their rifles in all
directions. We had to descend a large staircase into the open main
lobby of the hotel, and RUN past the front desk, the concierge, and
out the main doors. There was not ONE window intact, there was blood
everywhere, and the restaurant called Opium Den next to the elevators
had at least a dozen bullet holes in the glass. Apparently several
people were killed there. Everywhere we stepped there was
glass.....on the furniture, the carpeting, the marble
floors...everywhere. There were also NO people....anywhere. The huge
glass doors to the main entrance were reduced to about six inches deep
of glass pieces similar to a windshield break. It wasn't like sheet
glass. It was weird. So we didn't have to open any doors to get out.
We were halted in the entrance area and the rifle men repositioned.
That was perhaps the most terrifying part. Not knowing where the bad
guys with guns and grenades were, or if we were going to get shot from
someplace or somebody that was hiding. We ran across the street and
up about three blocks to a movie theater complex's parking ramp where
we were in the company of several hundred people....guests and hotel
staff both. We got there at around 12:30-1:00 am. We found our two
first officers, and one of them had an international use cell phone
that ended up being our lifeline. We were on the phone with the state
department, headquarters in MSP, and several others so our exact
location could be known and monitored. Since the whole area had been
cordoned off, there was no traffic movement so we ended up there until
dawn, when after a very confusing and chaotic shifting of groups, we
finally got a private bus company to shuttle us from outside the
locked-down area to a destination which changed three times enroute.
It was to a hotel near the airport where we eventually met up with the
crew that brought our outbound plane "in".
It was pretty much carte blanche with meals, expenses, and phone calls
to family, etc. Exhaustion was setting in, as were emotions, and I
didn't sleep that whole day but a shower made all the difference.
EVERY sound outside my room sent the adrenaline pumping. At that
point we were missing flight attendant ----- -----, and our captain,
--- ----. The state dept. assured us they were in contact with them
every half hour even though they were still trapped inside the Oberoi.
About 5:30 pm, we got calls saying they were evacuating us out of
India, and to be in the lobby at 6:05 pm. We finally took off without
--- and ----- at 8 pm, and landed in Amsterdam at around 3:30 am. It
is about a nine hour flight, but I slept the whole way. We supposedly
had 15 people in coach and only WE were seated in first class. Thank
God those seats lie flat.
We were met in Amsterdam by several KLM managers, grief counselors,
and clergy of about six different faiths. That was good, as it turned
out, one of our flight attendants was in the lobby when the shootings
took place and saw several people killed. Another had actually called
an elevator to her floor and found it empty, but with a pool of blood
on the floor, so she ran back to her room. We were all given
emergency clothing kits of underwear, socks, and KLM sweatshirt and
sweatpants, along with amenity kits of basic sundries, at least to get
us home. Since we were given the option of staying in Amsterdam to
rest, counsel, have clothing purchased for us, or whatever, and fly
home the next day, or to continue on to our home cities. Out of the
nine of MY crewmembers, and the 11 crewmembers who landed in Mumbai
about the time this started, only two chose to stay. They also said a
large group of reporters was waiting for us to exit, so we were sent
off the property a different way, to a hotel nearby for a four hour
layover until the first flight to Detroit departed, thank God. I was
OUT that entire flight as well. A glass of wine and a xanax works
wonders!
We were then met in Detroit by several NWA senior management personnel
and Employee Assistance Program psychologists. We were quickly and
quietly expedited through customs and immigration and offered the
chance to talk to anybody we wished, but my flight was leaving for
Milwaukee in 40 minutes so I had to decline. Turns out that crew to
Milwaukee had been told of my presence and they went out of their way
to make me comfortable, as did the crews of every flight that got me
home. As a matter of fact, I have never seen such kindness and
compassion extended to us, like it was by everybody we encountered,
from hotel staffs to Airport and airline personnel. It was truly
extraordinary. Some processed it differently, and at different times,
but I finally broke when I learned that ----- and --- had finally been
released unharmed and were preparing to board a Lufthansa flight to
Frankfurt before catching the NWA flight to Detroit from there.
We left Mumbai with little more than the clothes on our backs, but
Detroit in-flight has been in touch, and they said they will replace
EVERYTHING we lost, and at full monetary value, no questions asked, or
receipts required. They have also dropped most of my December
schedule with pay. I lost my TravelPro luggage, garment bag, laptop,
cell phone, iPod, Nikon camera, skype phone. clothing, leather coat,
uniform pieces etc, but I came out of there unharmed, and with my
LIFE, which is what mattered most.
Since I sat in row 1 on my flight to Milwaukee, I was first off the
plane. ------ met me at the end of the jetway and burst into tears,
which turned on the water for me too. Then the gate agent started in,
and I think everybody in the gate area waiting to depart was wondering
what the hell had just happened. LOL It was only when ------ offered
up "let me help you with your bags" (I had ONE small plastic bag with
a handle), did the laughter emerge through the tears. Outside of
security in Milwaukee we were met by ------- and -----, and ---- and
---. I wanted to get home and up to the farm to be with -----, but I
agreed, thankfully to stop over at Amelia's by the airport for a
bloody mary. MAN, that tasted good! Special thanks go out to you
guys......that small gesture did NOT go unappreciated! So tonight I'm
able to finally sit here at my desktop PC and finally get back to you.
Thanks for understanding.
I am using an extra cell phone of -----'s until mine can be replaced.
The number is: ----------. I hope to have my old number tomorrow, if
I have time to get to the Sprint store.... I'm in no rush. It was
sort of nice to not have to answer a phone for a couple days.
There is so much more, but that's pretty much how I spent my
Thanksgiving.
I will spend a few days getting some of this leg work done, but hope
to talk to you all soon. God Bless.....