22 March 2016

[s1m0n4@ohai.social]

22 March 2016

At the time I was regularly travelling to Berlin 🇩🇪 for work. From where I live it, is cheaper to fly from Brussels 🇧🇪 and that particular time I decided to sleep at a friend's place the night before in the Belgian capital and catch an early flight.

My flight was scheduled at 8:15. It never left the airport. While I was comfortably seated on the plane with the other passengers, the pilot informed us that there had been two explosions inside the airport.

#Brussels #Terrorism

/1

[s1m0n4@ohai.social]

All passengers were suddenly compulsively checking on their smartphones for news. I was extremely grateful to be safe and that my flight hadn't been scheduled 20 min earlier.

I thought a lot about my 2 y/o kid too. How he nearly became an orphan. How he wouldn't remember anything about his mom if he did become an orphan.

After a couple of hours we were asked to get out without any belongings. I didn't listen and took my passport, my wallet, my phone and a charger.

/2

#Brussels #terrorism

[s1m0n4@ohai.social]

We spent the rest of the morning and the early afternoon in a airport hangar. More passengers joined us and the charger ended up being a useful commodity.

Mobile data networks were first overloaded then switched off completely. Calling and reaching anyone by phone was impossible.

Brussels was also locked down for the day. No-one could enter, so, were forced to take a couple of trains to reach the small train station of Mechelen.

It was utter chaos there.

/3

#Brussels #terrorism

[ubo@social.tchncs.de]

@s1m0n4 I'm absolutely not happy that you had to go through that. But I'm all the more pleased that you can tell us about it. 🫂 🙂

[s1m0n4@ohai.social]

Imagine hundreds of foreign travellers queuing for the 2 only available guichets while maps and phones weren't working.

I would have spent another 2-3 hours there too if I hadn't known any Belgian geography at all.

I saw a train going to Gand/Gent in the big screen. And I knew that from Gent I would have been able to get a train to Tournai, which is next to Lille.

Not sure if it was the fastest way, but it was a way nonetheless.
The ticket machines were free too.

/4

#Brussels #terrorism

[s1m0n4@ohai.social]

While I was purchasing my ticket (with the money in the wallet I was supposed to leave on the plane 🤬) a lost Canadian begged for help.

He didn't have any euros and he had to go to Antwerp, which was a stop on the train to Ghent, as I told him. He tried to purchase a ticket with his card but it didn't work, so I paid for his ticket and got a 20 Canadian dollars bill in my wallet.

Luckily his company had an office in Antwerp, so he would be taken care of once there.

/5

#Brussels #terrorism

[s1m0n4@ohai.social]

I finally reached Tournai. The train controller announced a connection to Lille 5 min later. I boarded that train without a ticket. Luckily there were no ticket controls. Belgium was still in shock about the events.

I reached home half an hour later. My work laptop and my luggage would stay at Brussels airport for a month before I could make the trip to retrieve it. And luckily I live close enough to make that trip.

The whole thing made me reconsider my life.

/6

#Brussels #terrorism