Flight 101 from Tashkent: the story of the people saved by chance
Sometimes, a few minutes can change a person's entire destiny. On September 11, 2001, Uzbekistan Airways Flight 101 was scheduled to deliver 180 passengers and 10 crew members to New York. But the plane was about an hour late. For the passengers, it was just an ordinary delay, the kind that happens thousands of times in aviation.
Flight 101 from Tashkent: the story of people saved by chance
It was chance that became the link in a chain of events, thanks to which they did not end up in New York at the most terrible moment of that day. How the fate of Flight 101 and those on board unfolded — we tell through the memories of the direct participants in the events.
Each of you has seen the footage of the falling Twin Towers in New York. I will not retell these terrible details — too much has already been said about them.
Today I want to talk to you about something else. We are used to getting angry at any delays in life, cursing being late, and seeing only the bad in annoying coincidences. But if you are one of those who get nervous over trifles too often, be sure to watch this episode to the end. Because in our lives... there are no coincidences.
Did you know that the head of a huge American company survived that day only because, for the first time in his life, he decided to take his son to kindergarten himself?
Another guy stayed alive because it was his turn to run for donuts for his colleagues in another building.
A third man suddenly got a toothache right before leaving the house, which had never bothered him before.
Someone simply overslept because the alarm clock didn't go off. Someone got stuck in a massive traffic jam in New Jersey. Someone was unlucky enough to get into a minor accident on the way to work. And one lucky guy... just missed the bus. By only a few seconds.
One woman accidentally spilled her morning coffee on herself and returned home to change. Another man's car stubbornly refused to start. A young couple's child was throwing a tantrum and refused to get dressed. Another woman just couldn't catch a taxi.
One businessman, for some reason, decided to wear new shoes that fateful morning, which had been gathering dust in the closet for a couple of months. On the way, he got a terrible blister. He had to stop by a pharmacy for a band-aid... It was those few minutes that saved his life!
But what impressed me most was the story that happened on board a Boeing 757 of Uzbekistan Airways. The story of how one tragedy on the ground... saved 180 passengers and 10 crew members of the legendary Flight 101, flying on September 11, 2001, on the Tashkent — Birmingham — New York route.