On This Day . . .

(courtesy of Wikipedia)

2006 – British police arrested 25 people suspected in an alleged terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives carried on board at least 10 airliners traveling from the UK to the United States and Canada.


Now, I'm not really a history buff, so most of the "happened on this day" stuff is completely foreign to me, unless it's something huge like D-day or the signing of the Declaration of Independence or something along those lines. And half the time, even events that happened in my lifetime usually don't ring too many bells. This incident, however, I remember vividly, because I was actually in England on a choir trip when it happened.

It was really crazy. The arrests happened on a Thursday; we were scheduled to fly back to Chicago on Monday. Unfortunately, there were those among us that really couldn't enjoy the remainder of our week there because they were too nervous (I did my best to not be one of those people). But, it did give the whole weekend for the effects of the threat to die down a bit. Still, it was completely crazy when we got to the airport. They had everyone waiting under big tents outside, calling people into the airport only when their flight was getting closer to takeoff. Security was, understandably, insane. And then we sat in the plane, on the ground, for probably about two hours or so (I don't remember exactly, but it was close to that) while they ran additional security checks on everyone on board, before they gave us the all clear to take off.

It was a strange mix of frustration, anxiety, and relief: frustration at the delays and extra security procedures (we couldn't bring ANYTHING on with us other than our ID and money in a clear plastic bag, so it was a really boring flight), anxiety at the threat of an attack, and relief that we still were able to fly out and get home as scheduled, only a few hours later than planned.

Anyway, not that this is anything compared to 9/11 or anything like that. It was just weird to see that listed on the Wiki home page today and be able to say, "I was there."