25th January, 2011 – 07:35hrs
Skopje, Macedonia
Petar Naumoski trudged through the cold streets of Skopje in the early hours of the morning, sipping from a hot cup of coffee that he bought from the bottom of the street. The almost boiling liquid helped to warm him up from the bitter cold that had gripped the city he’d lived in for his entire life and at least made this morning a little more bearable. Petar was now twenty five years old and had graduated at Skopje University with a degree in Government and Politics which had seen him become a strong advocate of minority groups across Europe, in particular the Slavic People of which he could trace his line to. Continuing his way down the street he made his way to a particularly grubby looking hotel that he called home and made his way inside, climbing the stairs with heavy steps until he came across his room and tapped on the flaking door twice.
“Ko je?” [Who is it?] came the voice from inside the room. The tone of the voice was that of a very worried person and Petar smirked to himself as he realised that the person inside was feeling a little bit frightened.
“Da sam ja Jovan” [It’s me Jovan] Petar replied and waited for a few seconds for the door to slowly open and reveal the worried face of Jovan Stefanov whose expression immediately changed to one of relief as he recognized the man standing in front of him “I da li će neka me u? Grejanje je izbili ovde, to zamrzavanje” [Well are you going to let me in? The heating is broken out here, its freezing]. Jovan smiled broadly, revealing a few missing and golden teeth in his mouth as he opened the door wider and allowed Petar to slip past him before he poked his head around outside, looking down the corridor before slamming the door shut.
“Sam mislio te su krvavi policije” [I thought you were the bloody police] Jovan said as he locked the door behind him, slightly angry at Petar. Jovan was much older than Petar was and nowhere near as well educated, instead having served in the Drvarskan as a bomb disposal expert for much of his life before leaving the services just before the collapse of the Federation “Ja misao ja je rekao te ne idu van, vi ste došli do dobiti sve vaše predmet zajedno” [I thought I told you not to go out, you have got to get all your stuff together now.]
“I ovde sam sada ne I. Tako gde se ovaj predmet zatim” [Well I’m here now aren’t I. So where is this stuff then?] Petar quickly snapped back at Jovan, rather annoyed at him for thinking he could tell him what he could and couldn’t do. Jovan laughed before walking out of the room and into the nearby bedroom, rummaging around for a few seconds before emerging with a large bag that he gently threw down in front of Petar who noticed that the bag looked very heavy and was packed with the odd piece of clothing and something much more sinister.
“Je u toj zemlji. Bi se osiguralo da se ne udarac je oko previše iako” [It’s in there. Make sure you don’t knock it around too much] Jovan laughed again before reaching into his front trouser pocket and pulling out an old mobile phone which he threw at Petar who quickly caught hold of it “Tvoj lijeganje žele da ovo takođe. Sada se nastavlja, vaš avion odlazi u jedan sat vremena” [You’re going to want this also. Now get going, your plane leaves in an hour.] Petar nodded his head and quickly shoved the mobile phone into his pocket before reaching down and picking up the heavy rucksack. Without a second glance at Jovan he reached for the door and walked out into the cold streets once more.
25th January, 2011 – 08:15hrs
Alexander the Great Airport, Skopje, Macedonia
Petar pushed his way through the crowd as he made his way through the terminal at the airport, clutching tightly onto his rucksack and also checking to make sure the mobile phone was still firmly in his pocket. As he walked onwards, he glanced over at a couple of armed airport security who clutched hold of their HK MP5 and had a number of other small arms attached to their persons as they surveyed the crowds and looked for any suspicious activity. The Alexander the Great Airport in Skopje was the largest and busiest airport in Macedonia and in recent years had seen a sharp rise in security though it wasn’t up to the standards that most countries enjoyed. Quickly distancing himself from the guards, Petar made his way to the last security gate between him and his flight. Rummaging through his pocket he took out a scrap of paper which had the number seven etched into it and after looking back up towards the security gates, Petar made his way to security gate number seven and prepared to be searched by the guard there.
“Vreme je jako lepo ne?” [The weather is very nice no?] Petar said to the two security officials as he placed his bag on the rollers and let himself be searched by one of the guards. As soon as he asked the question, the two officials immediately looked at one another and nodded slightly, pretending to go about their tasks but letting the rucksack of Petar through the scanner without even raising the alarm, despite the fact that something very suspicious and deadly was inside. Smiling and saying goodbye to the two guards, Petar began to make his way to the departure lounge when the public address system crackled into life and the voice of what Petar guessed must be a very attractive women sounded.
“Ovo je poslednji poziv za let 189 za Berlinskog međunarodnog aerodroma. Se svi putnici početi skola, leta će napustiti uskoro” [This is the last call for flight 189 to Berlin International Airport. Will all passengers begin boarding; the flight will be leaving shortly.] Petar smiled to himself and hurried to the gate, flashing his ticket to a rather good looking stewardess and then flashing her a smile before hurrying onto the plane and finding his seat quickly, settling himself in for the two hour flight to Berlin.
Two Hours Later …
Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport, Germany, Prussia
“To je vaš kapetan u izjavi. Mi smo bliži Berlinu gde jasno nebu Čekaju vas” [This is your captain speaking. We are now approaching Berlin where clear skies await you] came the calm and soothing voice of the plane’s pilot who was overseeing the Co-Pilot guide the plane towards the Berlin Airport “Ako ste će biti tako ljubazan da ostanu u vaš mesta mi ćemo se iskrcavanje uskoro” [If you would be so kind to remain in your seats we will be landing shortly.] All around the plane the two hundred and four passengers began buckling their seatbelts in compliance with the captain, well all but one. Simply smirking Petar rose from his seat and stood up in the aisle, reaching for his bag in the overhead luggage.
“Izgovor mene sir. Da li ćete tako ljubazan da sednu smo o zemljištu” [Excuse me sir. Would you be so kind to sit down, we are about to land] asked the attractive stewardess as she made her way towards Petar who grabbed hold of his rucksack and let it fall to the ground. Passengers began looking down the aisle as the strange man and began muttering amongst themselves about what he was doing and it he was a nutcase or something. Grabbing hold of the mobile phone in his pocket, Petar held it out in front of him before simply smiling at the stewardess and pressing hard on the call button. Almost instantly an explosion tore through the aircraft, ripping it to shreds as it was making its final descent and sent its engines, wings and other pieces of flaming fuselage falling towards the beginning of the southern runway and into the empty construction ground nearby. Flight 189 was down.
***
“Mein Gott!” [My God!] exclaimed Oberlöschmeister Semper as he and his Löschzug [Platoon] of fire-fighters arrived at the hellish scene before them. Splayed out across the end of the runway was the flaming wreckage of Flight 189 which had been torn apart in the explosion, the engines the only thing that could be recognized as part of the plane “Wieder gutmachen sie alle Wassertrupp, stellen sie aus den hauptfeuern auf dem rumpf! Angriffstrupp werden sie hinein dort jetzt! Wenn es überlebende gibt, die ich sie will!” [Right all water squad put out the main fires on the fuselage! Attack squad get in there now! If there are survivors I want them!] In compliance with their platoon leader the hose squad immediately began laying out lines for the water squad who began spraying the flames with as much water as the tanker they had with them could hold. Whilst they hosed down the area the six men on the attack squad ran through their last checks for their safety equipment before rushing into the burning wreckage of Flight 189.
“Irgendeine Überlebenden? Können Sie welchen sehen?” [Any survivors? Can you see any?] called out one of the fire-fighters as he made his way through the thick black smoke, taking care not to trip over the pieces of metal that littered the ground. Even in his protective suit the heat was almost unbearable and the fire-fighters were struggling but they would not give up, if someone was alive in here they needed to find them quickly.
“Nein! Es gibt keinen!” [No! There are none!] called another fire-fighter as he pulled what he thought was a survivor from the wreckage but he almost vomited as the skin melted from what he thought was a woman but now he couldn’t be sure. This was the same for every single body pulled from the wreckage, they were burnt beyond recognition and many had been torn apart by the violent explosion. It seemed that finding any survivors was going to be impossible. Whilst the first platoon on site continued searching the wreckage, more and more fire and ambulance crews were arriving at the airport whilst the police and airport security began the mass evacuation of the airport. The searching would continue for almost an hour but no survivors would be found. Two hundred and thirty two people lost their lives on Flight 189 and because of this horrifying act, there would be many more to come.
