[Closed] We've had fantastic coincidences, now your lucky escapes....

as a kid standing in my parents hall waiting on my dad to tie his laces before we went to the child minder.....

dads lace on his workboots snapped.

as he was tying a knot to join the lace back together a heap of concrete tiles off the roof of the house left their post and planted them selves into the grass and the car bonnet and windscreen right outside the front door we were about to exit via.

By brother once found about £8 in a pile of horse shit (must have eaten a wallet!) on holiday at Side Farm campsite in the lakes.

Went back several years later and I found £20 on the floor (lucky escape part, I didn't have to dig through horse poop)!

Can I be the first of many to say my ex-girlfriend?

(That is to say, the first of many to suggest their exes, not mine. Though, thinking about it...)

Can I be the first of many to say my ex-girlfriend?

Jeez, how many boyfriends did she get through?

EDIT :Damn you Cougar with your l33t ninja edit skillz 😉

(-:

In Swindon town center in 89, massively windy and we were stopped from walking down a road due to a crane on a building site swaying around like mad. Felt a slight brush on my back and a loud crash. One of the builders has gone pale and asks me if I am ok. I was nearly taken out by a Kodak sign about 4ft long and and about 3ft tall, I think that would of hurt.

I was nearly taken out by a Kodak sign about 4ft long and and about 3ft tall, I think that would of hurt.

It would have been instant.

LOL

That developed into a joke quickly

lets not be negative about it

On holiday the ex and I paused outside cottage in a quiet lane as her bootlaces were undone. This 5-7 seconds meant that we missed being hit head on by a yokel in his rusty ****chback who was doing 60 round the long blind bend exactly where we'd have been standing had the lace been tied properly.

Perchy I salute you 😆 that made me laugh.

I got on one of the trains involved in the Clapham Junction Disaster. As I was coming back off leave I had all my bags with me and the train was absolutely jam packed. Lots of people tutting and whining about my backpack and I was in the mood to hit out so instead calmly got off the train to get the next one.

Perchy I salute you that made me laugh.

Try and get hit by a Nescafe sign next time. That would have been funnier. 🙂

Seriously, I was supposed to be in London and probably on the tube that the second 7/11 bomb went off on (Edgeware to Paddington).

I was extremely hungover and missed the National Express to London the evening before. Yes evening, I was that hungover!

Still think about it occasionally.

Bit lazy getting out of my bed in Reading and missed my usual London train - the express which crashed between Ealing Broadway and Paddington a few years back.

I was due to share a car journey with thegreatape and his boss tomorrow but can't make it.

Coming home one night from a Club I gave this Girl a lift in my car, just a simple "I'm heading that way, jump in if you like" type conversation. She'd been hanging around the small group we had for about 3mths or so, thereby we all knew her and who she was.
Righty.. So just us two in the car, I pull outside her house to drop her off.. Whereby she lands on top of me and starts kissing and grabbing my Gentleman's bits. I tried to bat her off, Obvs I'm married etc. etc. but she's not interested and carries on then starts whispering in my ear "come upstairs, we can have some fun"
Well she frightened the life out of me and I jumped out of the car, whilst it was still running, and bolted a stone wall into a field whereby I landed on my arse. I hit behind some trees wondering when it would be safe to get back to the car.
All I heard was a front door slam shut, the car still running, so I took the plunge and ran to the car.. reversed quickly out into the road and down the lane quite quickly.

A week later and we're in the pub, me and my mates, and she turns up.. Starts blabbing on about me running away and being some kinda Ghay, because like who would turn her offer down eh..

That was a very lucky escape indeed.

Got a branch in the jugular at the weekend that was fricken close

In my misspent youth I parked up outside local recreational substance suppliers house. Got out to knock on the door to notice it was open and the rubber seal around the edge hanging off. Being a bit dim I was still about to knock when a mysterious voice quietly echoed along the street saying "the coppers are in".. looked around, couldn't see who said it but finally put the broken door and the word of advise together. Jumped in the car, took off up the street and passed by two police cars coming the opposite way lights blazing!

Was a nervous wreck for a few days but never got a visit. I'm still grateful to whoever provided the quietly worded advice. My guardian angel on that day 🙂

That thankfully was the beginning of the end of my misspent youth

Bikebuoy, the thread is lucky escapes not missed opportunities?

Nah, I'm not like that.

S'pose for a lot of Lads it was, but after the outburst in the Pub I was kinda glad I ran, and ran fast.

Nice enough looking mind..

Yeah, didnt get bikebuoys one.
Lucky escapes eh?
Blatting along the road about 60 in my first car (Mk1 Sierra 1.8 L) heading home after work, know the road well, mate in passenger seat., going through a bit of a twisty bit, thought I saw a car in the distance, no problem, carry on. Get halfway round a left hand bend to see a car as far left as you could be, stopped and indicating to turn right, can see oncoming traffic, so slam the anchors on, wheels lock up (no ABS), take foot off brakes and squeezed between the turning car and the oncoming traffic. 😯
If they had been in the proper position for turning right this story probably would have had a VERY different ending.

On the bike this time, heading back to Petersfield after a day in QECP, you come out of the back of QECP and theres a bridleway that has a long sweeping right hander with a 10ft drop off to the left before diving under the railway and bringing you out at a duck pond in a village called Buriton.
Overcooked the speed heading round this bend and just managed to keep it together. Stopped having a bit of a panic and just wandered back up the path to see my tyre tracks approx 1" from the edge of the drop. EEk.
I went a club in Paisley (nr Glasgow) with some female friends and ended up with this slapper bouncing up and down on my lap. Went to the bar to get some drinks to find her gone. Turned out she'd pissed herself in my absence and collapsed from alcohol poisoning before getting carted off in an Ambulance.

I tried crack once. I didn't like it.

Was due to work on the power transformers In a London Bank, day before the job, it got cancelled. The planned night of the job (very close to where I was to park the van) the IRA blew up the Baltic Exchange.

More recently I was a decision away from being on the A27 at Shoreham about the time the plane crashed. Still makes me shudder!

[i]I tried crack once. I didn't like it.[/i]

I've heard it's very moreish

In my first car - Citroen GSA - had had it a handful of years, so should have handled it better). Dropped mate (hi donald) of heading north, this was January I think. Was heading skiing the next day. Bit casual through some S bends before Cromdale, road a bit slitherly with snow / slush / ice. Whacked the front end into a low wall. Bugger. Was quite miffed. Got out to inspect damage. Not too bad, bumper and lights mostly. Looked over wall. 80 foot drop to old railway line and River Spey. Felt a wee bit wobbly after that..

Forgot about this one... Years ago coming back from the cinema with my then girlfriend. She complains that her contact is giving her grief and asks me to pull over in a layby.

Whilst she's taking a look at her eye in the mirror, I thought I'd jump out and have a ciggy (never liked to smoke in the car).

Anyways, just as I was about to jump out of the car, she moaned a bit and asked if I could wait until I'd dropped her off. She never liked me smoking.

At the point I took my hand off the door handle a drunk in a MG midget, just missed by inches the side of my car and drove straight into a lorry trailer that was parked in front.

Proper mess, the car was bent in the middle so all the wheels wear off the floor and spinning around.

I reckon if I had of got out when I was going to there would be a pretty good chance he would have wiped me out.

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Climbing this crane, going a long way up the ladder to the platform at the top, went to step onto the platform and realised there was no floor.

Setting up a top-rope on the top of Causey Quarry in Co. Durham I tripped over a root and plunged towards the edge, somehow managed to grab a root and ended up as far as my waist over the edge staring straight into the shocked eyes of my then GF about 80 feet below.

Given the job of driving three senior managers to a factory in the country I came round a corner to see a car coming fast straight at us, the driver staring at something in the field. In about two seconds I put the car up the verge and the other car shot past, still on our side of the road. Big sighs of relief all round.

New Year's Eve 1980, friends of mine in Nairobi went to a dinner at the Norfolk hotel, which was Jewish-owned at that time. She asked hubby to turn back to the house to get a jumper and they set off again, arriving at the hotel just as a Palestinian bomb exploded in a bedroom right above the lobby where they would have been standing.

My dad always rode motorbikes and he said the worst person I could meet coming the other way was myself

One day I was out making progress and came across the inevitable slow moving queue of cars. Clear day, A-road I knew well. 6 or 7 cars in the queue.

My brain had plotted my overtake well before I got to the cars so I wouldn't have to slow down in fact I could go just a bit faster maybe 80-85 and smoothly pass them no problem.

If this sounds reckless try and imagine riding an R1. It has the ability to teleport you almost anywhere on the road in the blink of an eye so there's not like the big build-up will it/won't it that you get in a car

So I went for the overtake. It wasn't 100% clear cut but it would be supreme fricken bad luck if there was someone coming the other way and they would have to be doing at least 80 mph for it to be a problem.

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

A bloke on a GSX-R Suzuki coming the other way has the same idea to pass the cars on his side of the road. Our closing speed must've been 160 mph. He sees me I see him. We're both on the wrong side of the road with some cars heading towards us and a motorbike where we want to be. We both make the same move towards the cars we're overtaking way closer than we'd like but there's no choice. We pass within inches. I can feel the air separate and there's a dull roar like distant thunder as we pass.

I complete my overtake and carry on as if nothing happened

another "in my yoof" story.(and not exactly my lucky escape)

popped over to a friends to have a little smoke, he happened to live on the fourth floor of an old shared house.
a few hours later my mate had crashed out while I was continued to sit on the floor watching tv.
all of a sudden my mate gets up and walks toward the open window and proceeds to step through it.
he was pretty much all the way through before I'd jumped up rushed to the window and grabbed hold of him by the scruff of his top and his jeans and pulled him back through. I manoeuvre him back onto his bed and at this point he groggily wakes up and asks me what the hell I was doing.
it turns out he was a regular sleep walker!

Had 16 rounds fired at me in a op in Belfast only one hit me (still in my arm) !
Crashed on a wet road had a X-ray for broken ribs confirmed two broken but found this next to my heart and right lung 😯 one week later they took it out got told it was not looking good
[url= https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7295/11148845675_132b50c929_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7295/11148845675_132b50c929_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/hZbKpa ]DSCF4172[1][/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/nzrich/ ]Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr

On the bit that continues after the NE switchbacks at Swinley there's a low hanging branch after a small jump, i got the pointy end into my forehead and thought "****, half inch lower and that would have kebabed my eyeball".

Next week riding that bit which continues after the NE switchbacks at Swinley there's a low hanging branch after a small jump, i got the pointy end into my ckeek bone and thought "****, half inch higher and that would have kebabed my eyeball".

Went back and snapped it off.

Burns Day, January 1990.

I was walking home from school, with my mate who was one of those gobby but straight under the pool table at the first sign of bother types.

We both walked down a narrow alleyway adjacent to houses on our right and a farm building on our left. The roof of a barn owned by the farm had been in disrepair for a number of weeks and the top corner of the roof had come away from the supporting framework. For a few days I'd heard it banging as it flapped in the wind.

My friend suddenly dropped to the ground, whimpering. I didn't understand why he hit the deck and turned to ask him.

Out of the corner of my left eye, I saw movement but it was too late. I only had enough time to dip my head slightly and raise an arm to protect myself.

The section of roof that came away measured 6" x 9" and consisted of corrugated metal and supporting wooden joists. I felt it brush the back of my head as it came crashing over us. It missed my friend completely and hit the floor five feet away from where I was stood. Had I not dipped my head, it would have decapitated me as it was edge on by the time it passed over me.

I rode my bike down what looked like a track into a field of dark green crops - the barbed wire fence was dark grey wire and the posts were not very visible.

I hit the fence across my arms and cut the inside of both forearms open.

The wire came off the posts because it was stapled to the back. Had it been stapled to the front I dread to think what damage would have ensued.

Not particularly lucky (50% chance I guess), but it was a close one.

Talking of barbed wire fences, I can recall a night ride with a mate. He was ahead of me going quite quickly down a gravel path. Unfortunately the path had been washed out and there was an ever deepening rut which he ended up in, it threw him over the bars and somehow he went right through a barbed wire fence with nothing more than a torn sleeve.

Don't travel with my family. My mum was booked on spanair on the gran canaria - Madrid route the day after the Madrid crash (same airline, same route, she flew the next day and said the atmosphere was a little sombre...), while my sister was in Madrid on the day of the bombings there and in Thailand on the day of the tsunami.

I applied for the Top Gear presenters job....phew, glad I didn't get it. 😉

Broke my neck. Still have (near enough) full use of all my limbs.

The section of roof that came away measured 6" x 9"

All of a sudden, I'm having a 'Spinal Tap' moment 😆

An ex colleague of mine used visit London a lot in the early 80's for the club scene.

One particular night he met this bloke and ended up back at his place.
They got chatting, but the bloke seemed to have gone off him and nothing happened.

The time he went to London, he went with a couple of mates
They met up with this bloke again and ended up crashing on his floor.

They were a little shocked when the nice bloke who's been so kind to them appeared on the telly in connection with some disappearances.

Turns out they'd been kipping on Denis Nilson's floor.

Holy shite postierich! WTF is that?

Reminds me of a post I made 6 yrs ago
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/tsunami-c4#post-980007

Mrs Stoner and I were in Thailand on our honeymoon 5 years ago. On boxing day morning we went for a swim in the sea at our resort in Khao Lak before breakfast.

At breakfast on the spur of the moment we decided we would check out and move on to explore somewhere else. We packed our bags and paid our bill then wandered up to the main road a little after 9am. We had no idea when the next bus was due but one turned up before long and we got on heading for Trang on the other side of the country. The road took us up over the headland and away from the coast. The wave hit Khao Lak shortly after 10am and destroyed it. It was one of the worst hit areas and many families died - predominantly Scandinavian and German. Our resort was wiped out and I found out later that almost everyone there died. There were a number of young families there and I still think of them.
We didnt realise what had happened until we got off the bus hours later and watch the BBC World channel news in a bar in Trang.
We decided then to head back to Bangkok and think about heading home. In Bangkok we read in the English language papers that the Red Cross were desperate for European blood donations. They were massively understocked of blood group types with much higher incidences in white European populations than in the far east. Luckily Mrs S is loaded with super blood O- so her donation was of great value.
We've still got a folder of clippings from newspapers but havent look at it since 2005. We dont really think about it much, but when it comes round in the news now and then I always think of those families at Khao Lak.

Oh and nickc has got a good lucky escape story, but I'll leave to him to tell it. It always gives me the chills.

My Aunty was knocked off her motorbike by an Artic Truck on her way to work - the truck stopped with her trapped between two sets of wheels. Unable lift it the emergency services had to reverse the truck back over her to her out and off to hospital.

The lucky escape was that the place of work she was on her way to was the Herald of Free Enterprise.

just reading through these before posting my families experience and theres stoners about the same disaster ^^^

my mum and dad, bro and his family all lived in phuket at the time and were heading to the nearest beach for the day. his wife wanted to pop into a shop but left her money behind and so they had to go back for it.
when they got to the beach it was all closed off by police and they didnt know why. then started hearing about the tsunami that hit that beach a few minutes earlier.

My father went to sea after college as a Marine Engineer in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, where he met and became great friends with another guy.

Scroll forward many years; my Dad's now working as an engineer in industry, but his best mate is still at sea, but now as a Chief on Townsend Thorenson ferries. He was asked, and agreed to change roster with a colleague so his colleague could go to a family event. As a result, his colleague was on the Herald the night it turned over and lost his life.

Scroll forward a few more years and my Dad was on a business trip with his agent in Scandinavia. They had meetings in Estonia, and then some in Stockholm, but while they are in Estonia they get a call to cancel their swedish meetings. As a result, my Dad flies back directly rather than getting the MS Estonia which sank with the loss of 853 lives.

My Dad's nearly 80 now and on his bucket list he wants to go on a cruise; he's never lost his love of the sea. We are less keen to go with him.........

My wife and I were backpacking round the Philippines many years ago, and on one particularly touristy (i.e. picturesque) island, she wanted to stay in some flimsy palm-frond huts right on the beach, which she’d read about in Lonely Planet. They looked idyllic but they were pricey and we were on a budget, so I insisted we stay in a dull but cheap concrete cube of a hotel. A couple of days later we got hit by a typhoon. The devastation was unreal. Debris everywhere. Lots of people missing. All the sand on the beach had been washed/blown away, to be deposited on every surface of everything that was left. Our hotel was a mess but still standing. The beach huts had ceased to exist, along with everything in them. 🙁

On the motorbike, going south on craigmillar castle road, up to the righthander near the hospital. I made a complete cock of the corner entry, and ended up positioned over near the middle of the road, still in lane but miles from where I wanted to be... And a ZX7R came the other way, totally out of control, crossed out of his lane and passed me [i]on my left[/i], exactly where I would have been if I'd not messed the corner up. I actually had to stop and have a bit of a cry 😆

Absolutely nothing compared to a number of stories on here, but driving west on the M42 after the Redditch junction one night, heavy snow slowed the light traffic including us until we all dropped into the inside lane at about thirty miles an hour. About five seconds after we pulled in, something went [i]whoosh!]/i] past us, and it took a few seconds to realise it was someone driving the wrong way up the motorway in the middle lane.

November '87. Had been for a visit to the Houses of Parliament with a couple of mates from school. We were going to get the tube back to catch a train home, but on the spur of the moment decided to go for a beer in a pub (this was back in the days when you could still get served at 17 without ID). When we got on the tube an hour or so later it didn't open the doors at our station - strange, but no info, so we changed onto another line back to the same station but the same thing happened again. Eventually we got a tube to the next train station up the line and got the train home from there instead - well they did, I had to call for a lift as the trains which stopped there didn't stop at my station. Didn't understand why mum was so pleased to hear from me.

The station we were trying to get off at - Kings Cross. The date 18th November 1987. Don't ever tell me beer isn't good for your health - the timings would have put us there just as the fire was starting otherwise.

I was working on the farm replacing some grain conveyors up in the roof space of a big shed, it was after the oil seed rape crops had gone through which are basically like tiny ball bearings filled with oil, while braced up between some stuff tightening some bolts I slipped, fell and managed to catch myself on the wooden stairs 14'below me and slide down the bannister to a safe stop, think it was closer to 25'just to the right to a concrete floor and something more than a little friction burn.

When climbing my mate couldn't finish a route
[img] [/img]
Tippler Direct - Stanage, I went up on top rope to get his hear back, due to the traverse a mate offered a second rope from below to stop me swinging if I had to hang and get the gear out.

A move above where the climber in the pic is contemplating the hardest move I asked for a tight rope and the knot started to move away from me. On some sketchy foot holds and one sweaty hand I just about managed to tie in, reversed the route to the floor before collapsing in a shaking heap.

My mates had spotted just before me that I wasn't tied in and were working out how to tell me, they basically thought there was no way to save my legs in a fall so had better try and stop me smashing my skull.

Every time I have climbed since I check the knot a few moves off the floor.

Are you getting in the car with me and my boss tomorrow?

Then you too have had a lucky escape.

My new wifes brother in law was best man for my last wifes brother in law, 20 years apart other end of the country no connection between wifes.

On April 1st 2001 I rode my KTM Duke straight into an oncoming car, both doing at least 50mph, full head on impact, no braking, ripped my bike in two & put a 2' V into the front of the brand new Toyota Yaris. After going airborne through a tree I landed in some bracken and got a ride home on the back of my mates Fireblade. I did ache for a few months after though.

Went for a gap in traffic on my [as then] new Specialized. Weight a little further back then I was used to on that frame, and there was oil on the road.

I highsided, and flew through the air like superman. As I flew I saw I was due to land in the path of an oncoming bus, doing 30ish...my and legs arms started scrambling before I'd even hit the floor.

I ricochet off the road [leaving a lot of skin behind], but [i]just[/i] managed to take a single staggering stride before it hit me. This meant my head protruded "beyond" the windscreen of the bus, and the impact was in the chest, and didn't smash my face in.

The bus also traveled many many meters further than the point of impact. That I didn't end up a smear on the road, or with a concave face is all down to catching my footing in that instant.

Also - Ex girlfriend No2. Though I hear she's married now!

Coyote thats 1.5 kgs of a thymoma tumour 🙂

A week later and we're in the pub, me and my mates, and she turns up.. Starts blabbing on about me running away and being some kinda Ghay, because like who would turn her offer down eh..

I'm still failing to see how this was a lucky escape. The following morning may have counted, depending how many limbs you had to chew off in the cold light of day...

I have a few stories of lucky escapes while 'making progress', but the story that springs to mind is being 100m from an IRA device that went off in Camden. The IRA had called in a warning, but the police evacuated the wrong place (the market) before the device exploded in the High St. Fortunately no-one has killed.

My great uncle on the other hand was in the merchant navy during the war. Aside from getting sunk six times and being adrift in a rescue boat for nine days (if memory serves - not the 22 described below), he contracted something nasty during one voyage and was bed-bound in London for a while. After being discharged and declared fit by the hospital he went to the docks to join a crew, only to be told by the doctor of a Baltic-bound convoy that he still wasn't fit enough. Reluctantly he stayed behind, and the entire convoy was sunk somewhere very cold.

His obit: http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2012/nov/28/jack-carlin-obituary

Was in a car crash last August, combined impact of 120mph+, only broke my leg and neck. Pretty lucky really.........

M1, 3am, 80mph, middle lane
Oncoming car in our carriageway, fast lane.
Happened pretty quick and got a jolt from the air pressure. 6” right would not have been good...

was sat back lounging in my chair in the middle of a french lesson leant forward to hit mate in front of me when a large 12" light bulb fell out of its holder about 4m ( old building) directly above my position and exploded on the seat of my chair Mon Dieu!! It brightened up the lesson a bit.

About 30 odd years ago a poor family were killed in their sleep on a Fishguard to Rosslaire ferry, fumes came up a section of ducting and into their cabin, it was only when I read about it in the paper did i realise I had been on the ferry journey before it made its return and killed the family, from the floor plan in the paper it was almost certainly the same cabin we slept in.

I'm a skip diver, and notice stuff that's left around.
In the mid 70s I had an evening shift in the centre of Bristol which involved a walk to work down Park Street. I took an evening off to celebrate a whole year going out with the current Mrs Moses.
If I hadn't, I'd have walked past the sports bag which the IRA had thoughtfully left in a recessed shop door a few minutes before it detonated. I know that I'd have spotted it and taken a look inside. Oops.

Oh yeah - walked out of this:

[url= https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4101/4776904670_87073788cf_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4101/4776904670_87073788cf_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/8h7Tkm ]Bye bye Focus[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/pimpmasterjazz/ ]Neil Cain[/url], on Flickr

M1, 3am, 80mph, middle lane

Were you overtaking at the time? :p

Yes! Nowhere to go 😯

As I didn't realise what happened until I was looking in the rear view mirror, it was over that quick so having nowhere to go was irrelevant! Slight right hand bend masked the approach from a distance.

Still go cold occasionally at the thought

On April 1st 2001 I rode my KTM Duke straight into an oncoming car, both doing at least 50mph, full head on impact, no braking, ripped my bike in two & put a 2' V into the front of the brand new Toyota Yaris. After going airborne through a tree I landed in some bracken and got a ride home on the back of my mates Fireblade. I did ache for a few months after though.

I cant post the photos due to ongoing court case but my dad took on a VW crafter van full frontal on his 14 plate fjr 1300 in france.

Bike written off frame folded up front wheel exploded. forks touching the radiator - and the insurance company here in the uk disputed the fact it was a write off......

Van totaled as well.

We have the video - and the french driver still claimed "le tourist" was on the wrong side of the road - despite video saying otherwise - his insurance backed down sharp when shown the video. the french van driver was fully on the wrong side of the road coming round a blind corner.

My dad was taken to hospital with blood coming from his ear and in a vac spinal board - told to expect the worst - he was discharged from hospital and flew home the next day(no thanks to his insurance). Albe it undergoing ongoing treatment and symptoms - to this day.

By rights - should have been much much worse.

Missed the IRA bomb in the lav at London Bridge rail station by about 60 seconds. I had just got off the train and was walking down the ramp to the cross passage when it went. Felt the pressure wave and heard a bloody great whumph as it went.

A mate if mine was doing final checks on a lynx helicopter before going flying over the badlands of Afghanistan when, with the rotors running, the drive shaft to the tail rotor sheared with a bloody great bang. Luckily they were on the ground and not airborne. Sod that !