When Bermudian couple the Cowens boarded a flight from Athens on Sunday they had expected to spend the journey reminiscing about a wonderful holiday in the Black Sea.
By Matthew TaylorInstead they were forced to contemplate their own untimely deaths after passengers were given the shock news their jet could be carrying a bomb.
Meanwhile RAF fighters tracked the progress of Olympic Airways flight 411 and were primed to shoot it down if it threatened London.
After several tense hours in the air the plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Stansted Airport near London, England after anonymous threats about the NewYork- bound flight.
Now the couple are coming to terms with the ordeal and have had little sleep since.
Toppy Cowen, who fretted alongside wife Saundra, recalls: ?After four hours of flying the captain announced, first in Greek, then in English, that Olympic had received a bomb threat that included all their current flights and we would be diverted to Gatwick Airport, UK.
?Sitting on an aircraft wondering if a bomb is going to blow you out of the sky is extremely frightening and a thought-provoking experience.?
Surprisingly the 300 passengers remained calm as did the Cowens, mainly because they thought they were just part of a general alert rather than a specific threat to their plane.
Saundra Cowen, 61, recalls: ?It was only when we watched TV that night in the hotel and saw what the world was seeing. We were not given information.?
In the first telephone threat, made to a Greek newspaper, a caller said: ?Flight 411 Olympic for America has a bomb for Iraq.?
Another threat made to the Ethnos daily, from a different individual, said: ?Are you listening? Flight 411 Olympic for America, bomb. America will see. Six o?clock message for you.?
Passengers whispered to each other and plotted the path of the plane on the monitors on the back of seats.
?A zillion things go through your mind, in particular if this plane diverts to London we would be taken out of the skies, I know that, that?s what we have been told,? said Toppy.
The Cowens agreed not to discuss the situation. Toppy said: ?I said we would talk when we got off the plane, I didn?t want her to be overly worried.?
His wife added: ?It was so terrible but we had to be quiet so we didn?t get in the way. We didn?t want to frighten ourselves. No one was losing control.?
Mrs. Cowen tried to read her P.D. James novel but unsurprisingly took little in while Toppy?s choice of reading matter was hardly likely to lighten the mood. ?It was about terrorists taking a plane in Athens.? But it was the real-time drama that most concerned him.
?Shortly after the announcement we could see fuel being ejected from the wings of the aircraft and since our flying time was expected to take ten hours and 15 minutes with just over 300 people on board this process went on for about 15 minutes.?
This too sparked gloomy recollections for Toppy of the 1998 Swissair crash in Peggy?s Cove, Nova Scotia where 229 occupants died after time was lost ejecting fuel over the water when an earlier landing could have saved the plane.
?Another announcement was made and we were informed our final destination was changed to Stansted, an airport in a remote location.
?This meant our flight time was increased by another hour ? probably the longest hour we will ever experience.?
Some passengers had spotted the RAF Tornado fighters tracking the plane, ready to strike but the monitors showed the flight path was over water until the last approach.
?In that hour there were pockets of discussions,? said Toppy. ?Was this another 9/11? The announcement said all Olympic Airlines were threatened which we now know was not the case.
?Some continued to read and others slept. For the most part there was an eerie silence.
?As soon as we landed we saw emergency vehicles sweeping on to the runways and it seemed to take forever for the steps to be attached to the aircraft.? When the plane finally touched down in London relieved passengers formed an orderly queue thinking the nightmare was over but then ran fearing for their lives after a Policemen with an Uzi sub-machine gun began barking orders at everybody including the crew.
Toppy said: ?He shouted ?Put your bags down, you have only got four minutes, get moving. I thought the plane was going to blow up?.?
His wife adds: ?From a peaceful arrival there was now bedlam.? A full team of ambulances and paramedics greeted the plane to deal with any possible medical emergencies while gun-totting Policemen were more than ready for a shoot-out.
A six-hour Police search of the aircraft and baggage of 300 passengers revealed nothing suspicious. Saundra has nothing but contempt for the hoaxers who terrorised passengers and put the airline in economic peril.
?I hope they are severely punished.? The Cowens learned later that French authorities had banned the flight from landing in their country but Saundra said the professionalism of the British authorities was superb.
?If you are going to be in trouble you want to be in Britain.? After being held for a lengthy de-brief in a hanger at Stansted the passengers were put up in a hotel where the ordeal finally began to hit home.
As they gathered the next morning the talk reflected irritation with yet more queuing rather than speculation on what might have been. ?An Olympic Airlines official told us only two people decided to change their flight arrangements the following day.? Toppy said.
?My wife and I will hold on to our boarding passes from flight 411 as a reminder not to fuss and complain about the little things, after all it is great to be alive. It?s a reality check. You hear of these things but you think nothing can happen to you.?
Saundra says she will continue to fly again, partly from the practicalities of getting out of Bermuda and partly out of principle. ?You cannot let your life be dictated by terrorists and hooligans. We don?t run things, they do.?
