Brabant man "couldn't see anything" when he escaped Brussels Airport attack
Rolf Timmers from Roosendaal and Tom Schoondermark from Sprang-Capelle were both at the Zaventem airport in Brussels on Tuesday when two suicide bombers blew themselves up. They still can't believe what happened, but know they were very lucky to survive unharmed.
Timmers (46) was at the airport to pick up his brother. He was waiting in the arrivals hall when he suddenly heard a loud bang. The second bang came as he was ordering coffee, he told Omroep Brabant. What followed was chaos and panic. "I huddled in a corner. Huge chunks of concrete were falling down. There was a lot of smoke and dust. Panicked people rushed into each other. Some fell over luggage. Everyone was trying to find the exit, but you could not see your hand in front of your eyes." Timmers finally did manage to get out. "Once outside, I immediately knew that a bomb exploded. I just felt it." The explosions happened in the departure hall, one floor up from where Timmers was waiting at arrivals. "In retrospect, I realized that the explosions were only a few meters away from me with only the floor between us", he said to the broadcaster.
Tom Schoondermark travels to the airport daily to deliver stocks for the restaurants. He and his colleague were loading trolleys into their truck when they heard a dull thud, he wrote on Facebook. He first thought it was a car accident. When a deafening bang followed a few moments later, he still did not immediately think "attack". "The bang made the entire airport vibrate", Tom wrote. "My colleague and I looked at each other quizzically. What was that?!" Suddenly all hell broke loose. "My colleague and I looked at each other at that point." They wondered what to do with the trolleys they still had to load. "Just leave them! As befits a real driver!". The evacuation began and Tom still has the images burned into his mind. "Everywhere people were running. Some were in shock, others were covered in blood and had torn their clothes to bandage wounds." he wrote. After finally getting away from the airport, Tom breathed easier. I thought I was safe. My estimate was that I was 800 meters away. In the meantime I found out that it was only 200 meters." https://www.facebook.com/tom.vandenenden/posts/686051048164898
