Thu, Feb 09 2012

`I couldn't believe it was true'

Thu, Sep 13 2001 15:00 CET

byrendan Howe

308 Views
Antoine Iskandar was watching CNN's coverage of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington Tuesday night when the phone rang. It was his brother in Los Angeles calling to say that Iskandar's nephew, Waleed Joseph Iskandar, had been onboard one of the planes which crashed into the World Trade Centre.

Antoine Iskandar, the Lebanese chairman of Pain D'or Bulgaria, spoke to The Echo on Wednesday. "I went crazy knowing he was on that plane. I couldn't believe it - it was a nightmare. I couldn't believe it was true."

He said his 34-year-old nephew was like a son to him, but "this stupid, foolish, crazy act of murder" has taken him away. Waleed had graduated from Harvard and was planning to get married next month.

He had also just become a partner in the Monitor consulting company office in London. Early this week he was in Boston, on a visit to the company's headquarters there. He had decided to take the opportunity to visit his parents in Los Angeles while he was in the U.S., "and look where he ended up," Antoine said.

The plane he boarded to fly from Boston was hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Centre (WTC). It was one of the two planes which were taken over and diverted to New York, part of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

At 8.45am on Tuesday (3.45pm Bulgarian time), American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 with 92 people on board, struck the north tower of the WTC. At 9.03am, United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767 carrying 65 people, struck the south tower of the WTC. Both planes had taken off from Boston en route to Los Angeles. The two 110-storey towers of the WTC later collapsed.

Iskandar was deciding on Wednesday whether or not to fly to the U.S. to be with his brother. Like many wishing to travel to the U.S. though, ability and timing of flights was still unknown. North American airspace remained closed to commercial traffic until at least this morning, when a decision was expected. His voice trembled as he spoke about his nephew. "I hope God will receive him and take good care of him."

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