I know of four instances where I was nearly killed or at least where I could have been badly injured.
I wonder how many other close calls I’ve experienced without ever realizing it.
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Bombing at the J.W. Marriott - August 5, 2003: I had just concluded a meeting at the Patra Jasa office building near the JW Marriott in Jakarta’s Mega Kuningan office district. It was lunch time and I was hungry. The JW Marriott had a terrific lunch buffet so I instructed my driver to take me there. But at the last minute, just when my driver had to turn left to go to the JW Marriott or turn right to go back to my office, I changed my mind. I was too busy to waste time on a leisurely lunch at the JW Marriott. As we were approaching my office I received a phone call. My office was conducting a head count of employees and wanted to verify that I had not been at the Marriott when the bomb went off. ( en.m.wikipedia.org )
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Silk Air Flight 185 - December 19, 1997: I narrowly missed flying on Silk Air 185. I was booked on an Singapore Airlines flight from Jakarta to Singapore but was aware that Silk Air #185 departed Jakarta about one hour earlier. Since Silk Air was a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines I knew that if the Silk Air flight wasn’t full I would be allowed to board the Silk Air flight despite being booked on Singapore Airlines. Once at the airport I rushed to the Silk Air ticket counter. The Silk Air flight was still at the gate but the flight had already been “closed.” I had to wait for the flight on which I had been booked. Upon arrival in Singapore it seemed to me that an astounding number of people at Changing Airport were suffering from bad colds. It wasn’t until I boarded a taxi and the driver commented on the Silk Air #185 disaster that I realized all the people with puffy red eyes at the airport did not have colds and that I was lucky to not have caught that Silk Air flight. ( en.m.wikipedia.org ) I had been seeing a married Indonesian woman at the time. When she heard about the crash of Silk Air flight 185 she incorrectly assumed I was on that flight and became hysterical in front of her husband. She ended up getting a divorce.
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Bomb on The Strand in London July 6, 1990: I took a taxi early one morning from my apartment at the Barbican Centre to Victoria Station where I would hop on the Gatwick Express. The taxi drove along the Strand. It wasn’t until my flight arrived in Houston that I heard that a small bomb had exploded in London along the Strand only a few minutes after I had passed in the taxi. ( api.parliament.uk ) I doubt if I would have been killed in this bombing, but it would have probably at least scared the pee out of me.
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The Lockerbie Bombing - Pan American Flight #103 - December 21, 1988: I flew from London Heathrow to New York JFK that day. Obviously, I was not on Pan American flight #103. Friends who knew I was flying from London to JFK that day kept Mrs. Hornibastard #2 away from the news reports on TV until they determined that I was not flying on Pan American. ( en.m.wikipedia.org )
