Michael Thexton

Never think this, because something might.

And in that position, standing in the aisle, hands in the bag, I heard a noise.

He was dressed as a Pakistani civilian.

He had a sort of baggy cotton shirt on and baggy cotton trousers.

He had little round glasses, a little moustache.

and a gun.

He had a handgun and his arm wrapped around the flight attendant's neck.

She had a telephone in her hand pressed against her mouth.

She was obviously saying something to somebody about what was going on, but he was struggling and shouting something.

And there was the sound of gunfire.

You know, I didn't sort of think of ducking or going to help or running away or just stared at him, completely nonplussed by what was happening.

And then there was a noise in the door that I'd just come in, but I turned around and there's a man in uniform.

And to my untrained eye, it was the same as the uniform of the man I'd seen at the bottom of the stairs with the rifle.

And this man had a big rifle, except this was a Kalashnikov, not a Lee Enfield rifle.

And this man was shouting, get down, get down.

Again, my initial ridiculous thought was this man is on my side.

Even in that moment, I was trying to tell myself, this is not my problem.

I try to tell myself, this is something to do with Benazir Bhutto, but that's a Pakistani man.

And I guess at a deep subconscious level, I don't want to think that that man is an Arab.

Because if this is a Pakistani problem, it's probably not my problem.