22 years after the horror attack that changed the lives of thousands, Bali Bombings survivor Phil Britten opened up to Xav & Michelle about the moment the bombs went off.
WARNING: This story contains graphic depictions of a terrorist attack and the ensuing violence and injury.
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BALI BOMBINGS SURVIVOR PHIL BRITTEN ON THE MOMENT THE BOMBS WENT OFF:
Phil, who was on a footy trip with Kingsley, the club he captained, said he didn’t know what was going on at first.
“I did actually hear the first bomb, the backpack bomb that went off in Paddy’s, but I didn’t know it was a bomb,” he said.
“It just sounded like a firework, music going crazy… but I did [think] ‘what was that?’
“And then literally fobbed it off, kept walking, and bang, then I’m hit with our bomb, which was 900 kilos of explosives in a mini-van 20 metres from where I was.”
Britten outlined the “surreal” moment he was thrown in the air from the blast.
“[It was] kind of like I’m tumbling in this tumblewasher,” he said.
“It felt forever…. it’s quite cliche, when things are happening like this it feels like time’s standing still, but it was like super fast.”
Britten then had to take stock of his injuries and figure out what was going on.
“I went from having the time of my life to fighting for my life… all my front teeth had blown out,” he said.
“And so my first thing was ‘what just happened, what punched me?’, and like I’m on the ground, I’ve got roofing and bodies all over me.
“And it was at that moment that someone yelled out — it was Indonesian, broken English — ‘stay calm, it was just a gas bottle’.
“But I could smell chemicals.”
For more on the Bali Bombings listen to LISTNR’s podcast Shockwaves: The Bali Bombings, which explores the lives of people in Australia and Bali who were impacted by the blasts:
Phil said the gravity of the situation dawned on him as he came to terms with what was happening around him.
“When I realised that my teeth were missing and blood was pissing out of my mouth, I just started looking around,” he said.
“You could see walls of fire start appearing, you could see the thatched roof falling down, everything’s just getting on fire so quick.
“It got so hot so quick, the alcohol bottles were popping.”
After he made a miraculous escape over a fence, Britten said he then felt the pain hit him.
“Just imagine third degree sunburn all over, and then your mate slaps you on your back,” he said
“I actually ripped my singlet off, and what I found later, a lot of my skin came off with that.”
Britten managed to get to a car driven by some ex-pats who helped him to safety after making a gruesome discovery.
“All the cars on the street were on fire, blowing up, damaged, except for theirs,” he said.
“They jumped in the car, did a u-turn in a one way street, and as that u-turn happened — this is the grandson’s words — their headlights shone on me, and I stood there with sheets of skin 30cm long hanging off my arms, and the grandson said ‘we’ve gotta help this kid’.”
The ex-pat family got Phil to some medical assistance, and he survived.
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Early on in our chat, Phil recalled a promise he and his teammates had made to each other in the lead up to the trip — one that became bitterly ironic.
“We said to each other, our promise to each other was ‘no matter what happens in these two weeks… every night we’re gonna come back and have dinner and do a head count and make sure everyone’s ok’,” he said.
“I was the captain… I felt a little bit responsible, along with the coaches, and I thought that was really cool — we’re all gonna get up to some mischief and have fun, but let’s come back every night and do a head count, check in on each other.
“And we didn’t even get a chance.”