I flew into London on the morning of the July 7th Bombings
I would have been on the central part of the tube system heading in the direction of Edgeware Road had I caught my first choice of flight which would have arrived in London about 8am.

That flight was sold out, so while I sat in departures waiting on the later flight, my mum rang me in a panic about not getting on the plane and muttering something about the tube system exploding, however at this time it was still a suspected power surge on the line according to the BBC news.

I decided to ask one of the BMI Baby stewardesses on the info kiosk, I walked up and asked:

"Excuse me, I wanted to ask you quietly if you had heard anything about an incident in London? I don't want to cause any panic but my mum just phoned and something about a train has stopped after a large flash of light in a tunnel. have you heard anything?"

"let me just check for you" she said as she called up her supervisor "it's probably just a malfunc....tion....." as her voice trailed off.

It was like something out of a summer blockbuster disaster movie, the TV screen behind me changed to show the exploded bus in London city centre with the headline detailing a terrorist explosion on the London Underground.

The room fell silent and the woman's face went white as she stammered "my husband gets the tube every morning, but...he's....getting the tube...each morning" and ran off behind the staff areas.

I can still hear the slow rise of panic and conversation that got louder and louder as more people realised what had just happened, then everyone's mobile phones began to ring, including mine.
( Bamboo Steamer, Thu 19 Aug 2010, 14:38, 14 replies)

I clicked this
Not because it's funny, but you had a great way of placing us into that situation with your description.

:(
(mr-lizard Hell's teeth man!, Thu 19 Aug 2010, 15:37, closed)

thank you,
it's one those things that stay with you. I can still remember the day of the Sept 11th attacks and all the sounds of the coffee shop in N.I. me and my mates spent 6 hours in watching the news :(
( Bamboo Steamer, Thu 19 Aug 2010, 15:45, closed)

We had the news on at work when it happened.
The chef I worked with had a relative whose office was in one of the towers. Turned out that he'd decided to drive his daughter to school and got stuck in traffic; saw the whole thing happen from his car. One of my best friends worked in the Pentagon; she'd called in sick (hungover). We were the only ones in the kitchen that afternoon and had a full house in the restaurant thanks to the nearby government buildings closing down for safety. Both of us were on autopilot all day long, waiting for our phones to ring with news. That day holds the restaurant's record for most liquor sales before noon, too.
(louveciennes , Volvospotter, Thu 19 Aug 2010, 19:24, closed)

^this^

(ConanTroutman thought we would free the vulture, Thu 19 Aug 2010, 18:11, closed)

^^ thirded
*OP click*
( Wet-chinned bag shanker Cannot parse Wogan, Thu 19 Aug 2010, 19:11, closed)

I was on the tube that day - and for some reason, I took the circle line the other way round, I think because there was issues with the Bakerloo line from Embankment. I missed one tube, and caught the next. My tube stopped just short of Bayswater (one short of Edgware Road), and we just stopped for 2 hours - it was surreal - strangers offering each other water; and the driver just told us network problems.

My phone wouldnt work, so I was about 3 hours late for work by the time we were helped off the tube. The station staff led us out the front of the tube, and we walked along the line and out the station. I called work from a public box to say I was late, and I still didnt know what was going on - it turned out I was the last to call in. Apparently, my missus and ma called in to see if I was OK, as my phone wasn't working. I'm welling up now thinking how close I came. RIP to those who didnt make it.
(prnapper, Thu 19 Aug 2010, 15:51, closed)

I was doing a gig that morning
singing at the memorial service for the man who founded Amnesty International. I was going straight to Stanstead after to go to Ireland for a wedding. As I had a bit of time before the gig, I decided to walk in instead of getting the tube. Walking through Waterloo, it was very crowded as people weren't allowed on the tube, and I heard someone saying something about a fire on the underground. I called my mother to let her know that if she hears anything then not to panic, as I'm not on the tube (she panics easily about stuff like that). Then I found out that my father was meant to be getting on the tube at King's Cross around that time - he'd missed his train though, so hadn't made it to London yet!
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Thu 19 Aug 2010, 16:31, closed)

Fucking terrorist bastards........
Insert your own rant here, I don't need to say it, we all feel it.....
( user_names_suck, Thu 19 Aug 2010, 17:16, closed)

Nevertheless
this is all sort of an advert for why "terror" works. You only have to kill a few people and the panic and fear affects thousands or hundreds of thousands.

It's chillingly effective.
( sanityclause is waiting until, Fri 20 Aug 2010, 14:39, closed)

I was working about 500 m away from the bombs when they went off.
Didn't hear anything directly, but all of the internet suddenly ground to a halt and I remember scrabbling around the various international news sites for clues as to what was going on.

French news sites: There has been a terrorist incident in London; the number of victims is as yet unknown.
German sites: Terrorists have set off bombs on the London Underground; here are some nice pictures of blown-up people from similar incidents to accompany your morning coffee.
Italian sites: Bombs on the Underground in London, at least 80 dead.
British sites: Reports have been coming in of a power cut on the London Underground...

You can understand the approach, of course. Keep people in the dark so they don't panic. Still took me three hours to get home, though.
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Thu 19 Aug 2010, 20:17, closed)

Not necessarily
As stated above, those were the first official reports, and the British sites will have been hit by the same internet surge you were, possibly meaning they couldnt update the story as quickly due to server load (or the updates hadn't got to the backup ones yet)
( Tedium Alduce me to interlow myself., Thu 19 Aug 2010, 22:32, closed)

I remember heading south down the M1 that day
somewhere just south of *York,* I think it was, and even that far North, the matrix signs were saying "London closed." Will never forget it. It was almost as if the signwriter didn't know how to describe it, so that was what he'd come up with.
(dxg, Fri 20 Aug 2010, 1:32, closed)

it does sound very 28 days later but you can understand why they put that on the signs

( Bamboo Steamer, Fri 20 Aug 2010, 9:37, closed)

London Closed
Heh, reminds me of when I was driving back from work and saw the sign on the A406 light up with "ALL UK AIRPORTS CLOSED" and thinking WTF. I work in an importing/exporting business, and so should have heard about the airports closing! But no. And I have no radio in my car, and don't buy newspapers or watch TV - I check BBC news website every other day for the top 5 stories but that's about it. So for the rest of the drive home I'm thinking of all these wonderful scenarios of what could have happened to shut every UK airport, and whether my colleagues at work on airport runs were okay. Only to then get home, log onto the web and find it was all because of a dumb volcano. Was still rather strange to see the signs with "All UK airports shut".
( Bathory, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 20:09, closed)