Dominic Arkwright meets people who have made life-changing phone calls. Alice Brooking was on the phone to her sister when an Air France Concorde crashed into her Paris hotel.
Dominic Arkwright meets people who have made life-changing phone calls.
In the first programme in the series he meets Alice Brooking, who was on the phone to her sister Nathalie in London when an Air France Concorde crashed into her Paris hotel.
It was the 25th July 2000 and Alice Brooking was in the Hotelissimo in Gonesse, near Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. A language student working through her holidays as a tour guide, Alice was waiting for a party of young musicians to arrive from England. Torn between having a nap, having a shower and calling her sister for a chat, she picked up the phone to London. Half way through the conversation there was loud bang and the phone went dead. She went to the door of her room, to be met by searing heat and a wall of flame.
"I ran barefoot across the fields, because I'd left my shoes in my room, then tried calling the attention of the car drivers........ If I'd chosen to take a shower or a nap I'd be dead."".
Last on
More episodes
Previous
You are at the first episode
Next
Broadcasts
- Tue 1 Feb 2011 09:30Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
- Mon 3 Oct 2011 15:45Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4