[Davros]

Two years ago today, and I sat waiting on an airstrip at Aberdeen airport for 2 late passengers to arrive. Finally the two were located and took their seats next to me on the plane. The elderly American guy leaned over and said "A plane has flown into the world trade centre".

I relayed this news to my good friend Roy, who lives in Princeton and who's wife works in Manhattan. When we got into Gatwick we learned that both towers were alight. We sat and watched the coverage and Roy tried desperately to phone his wife. As we sat and watched we were stunned along with everyone else as the first tower collapsed.

Our tour party had just the day before said goodbye to "American Bob". He and two other guys from the US had joined our group of interpid Aussie golfers for the previous 2 weeks. We called him American Bob because we also had an Aussie Bob in the tour party. We knew that American Bob was due to go to work in the north tower that day. We found out 24 hours later that AB had been lucky in that his flight was delayed and that he had been on one of the planes that was refused permission to land. He joined the tour again 2 days later in Ireland - he was rudderless - he couldn't yet go back to Manhattan, or even the States at that stage. We spent the next 2 weeks trying to help him through a difficult period when he was deperately trying to find out what was happening to his friends down at ground zero.