BlackBerry a lifeline for lawyer trapped in Mumbai terror

Posted by Mauricio on Dec 1, 2008 at 9:31 AM | Comments

I’m sure many of you know about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. I just read a suspenseful article about this one lawyer who was trapped in his closet for 46 hours! His connection to the outside world, his family and security experts, was his BlackBerry.

FOR 46 hours, Australian lawyer David Jacobs’ salvation – as terrorists prowled outside his Mumbai hotel room – was his BlackBerry mobile phone.

Hiding in a wardrobe, Mr Jacobs exchanged a stream of emails with his family in Sydney and two security experts in the US as his life hung in the balance.

The emails are a remarkable real-time record of bravery, humour and grace under pressure as he sought information about the terrorists, weighed up his options to escape and received advice on what to do if captured by the gunmen.

Outside his room on the 16th floor of the Oberoi/Trident Hotel, Mr Jacobs wrote, he could hear regular gunfire and explosions.

He even tied sheets together in case he had to flee through the window.

The drama began in the early hours of Thursday morning, when the senior partner at law firm Baker and McKenzie phoned his wife, Jenny, in Sydney to tell her the hotel was under attack.

There was a fire, and smoke was filling his room.

He did not know whether he was going to make it out alive.