Blessing in Disguise 2
Part 2 - In the series ‘ Blessing in disguise you have read some lucky people who narrowly missed death . Here are some more such people …
Sometimes something unpleasant might happen to us which makes us unhappy in the beginning . But the same unhappy thing ends up in a surprisingly unexpected and pleasant happening . The same thing happened to some people who were supposed to be on the Titanic on 11 April 1912 or in the World Trade Center Towers on September 11, 2001 when the two planes hit the WTC North and South towers but they were lucky to skip that ill - fated 9/11 tragedy .
Here are some of the lucky people to survive 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center , New York -
1 . Seth Macfarlane - He is a famous American , writer , producer , director and voice of many family cartoons like Family Guy, The Cleveland Show and American Dad. His travel itinerary was messed up by his travel agent and he missed the American Airlines flight 11 on that dreaded date .
As said by Seth himself “ I was booked on the flight and I was drinking on the night before and hungover and I missed the plane by 10 minutes . So alcohol is our friend .”
Luckily for Macfarlane his agent misinformed him that the plane would leave L.A. at 8.15 am while actually it was scheduled to depart at 7.45 am. That mix up saved him and he thanked God and his travel agent.
2 . Larry Silverstein -Larry is a famous American property owner and developer who held lease of the World Trade Center properties. On 9 /11 day he was supposed to be in his office on the 88th floor of the North Tower . But he had an appointment with a doctor that morning and his wife insisted he must see the doctor . Hence he was not in the WTC when the plane hit it. Besides this his son and his daughter both were also scheduled to attend a meeting at the Windows restaurants in WTC but they were running late . Thus all the three Silversteins narrowly survived .
3 . Michael Lomonaco - Michael was the head Chef at the famous Windows restaurants at 106th and 107th floors of the WTC . He was heading for the Windows but before taking the lift for his floor he thought to get his glasses checked at the LensCrafters in the lobby of the tower . This delay of a few minutes saved his life. He was about to go up and he heard a huge rumble in the lobby . Soon he knew the WTC had been hit by a plane and ran out to survive.
4 . Sarah Ferguson - Sarah , the Duchess of York was in New York on 11 Sept. 2001 for an interview by Matt Lauer for NBC. Sarah’s charity “ Chances for Children “ was located on the 101st floor of the tower. Matt first heard of the first plane hit and she immediately told her director to cancel the interview . Incidentally Sarah was also running late and she survived . None of the charity’s employees was trapped in the tower but almost 700 employees of a company Cantor Fitzgerlad , a financial firm which provided free space for Sarah’s charity, were killed in the 9/11 attack.
5 . Michael Jackson - On that terrible day the famous star Michael Jackson was supposed to attend a meeting atop the WTC but luckily her mother saved him. The previous night he slept quite late as was talking to her mother and sister too long. This was discovered only when his mother called the hotel and asked about his well being . He said “ Mom , I am Okay .Thank you. You kept me talking so late last night that I overslept and missed my appointment.”
6 . Gwyneth Paltrow Saved Lara Clarke - Paltrow The famous Hollywood actress , Paltrow narrowly saved Lara from death in the terrorist attack on the WTC on 9/ 11. There was an unscheduled meeting between Paltrow and a stranger, Lara Clarke . Lara worked on the 77th floor in the second tower . She got delayed due to her encounter with Paltrow and survived .
7. Patty Austin - Grammy award winner singer Patty Austin booked flight on United flight 93 on 11th Sept. 2001 from Boston to San Francisco . But she had to fly a day earlier as her mother had suffered a stroke. Had she boarded the flight , she would have been dead with all other passengers when the hijackers forced into the cockpit to take over control of the plane. But the plane crashed in a field near Shanksville , Pennsylvania .
8. Mark Wahlberg - Actor and rapper Mark Wahlberg along with some friends were scheduled to fly from Boston to LA on American Airlines flight 11 on September 11 , 2001 . But at the last moment they changed their plan and decided to fly to Toronto , Canada to attend a film festival . Thus they were fortunate to survive.
9 . Julie Stoffer - MTV reality cast Julie had booked her flight from Boston to LA ( Los Angeles ) on American Airlines flight 11 on that terrible day of 9 / 11 . But fortunately for her it is said that she had a fight with her BF and she missed her flight . The flight 11 crashed into the North WTC tower killing all on board . Julie narrowly escaped being killed , a blessing in disguise .
10. Jim Pierce - Jim was a managing director of New York based AON Natural Resources Jim was also the cousin of the US President George Bush. On 11th Sept. 2001, he was scheduled to attend a business meeting on the 102nd floor of the South Tower of WTC. But as the size of the meeting room was too small for a large number of participants , the venue of the meeting was shifted to a nearby hotel ( Millennium Hotel ) and Jim and others were lucky .
11. Greer Epstein - Greer was one of managing directors of Morgan Stanley and worked on the 67th floor of WTC north tower . She rarely left her office during working hours .Just 20 minutes before 9 am on the ill -fated 9/11 day her close friends asked her to get out for smoking . As soon as she came out of the elevator she felt a big jot and ran out for safety .
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