WORCESTER father-of-two Andrew Philpott was on one of the first planes out of New York, five days after surviving the terrorist attack.

The relieved Warndon parish council member arrived back at his Warndon Villages home yesterday morning.

He had been due home last Wednesday following a business trip to the US when the terrorists struck.

"Getting home has been my main priority," said Mr Philpott, of Fotheringhay, Berkeley Heywood.

"There were a lot of nervous people on the plane and it was very quiet. I think people just wanted to get home to their families."

He had been eating breakfast with three other colleagues in the Marriott Hotel when the planes crashed 90 floors above him. The hotel is connected to both of the World Trade Centre towers at the eighth floor.

"You could see the debris plummeting towards us through the glass ceiling," said 37-year-old Mr Philpott who was in New York on business with computer company Unisys.

"Trying to recall the events and how things happened is difficult. You just remember parts of what happened.

"We quickly got out to the plaza in Tower One and we turned and saw the second plane hit. We were close enough to feel the blast.

"We then went down to our Wall Street office and there was a rumour that there were more hijacked planes targeting other New York buildings."

He said that the reaction on the surrounding streets was not one of mass panic.

"It was orderly panic. There wasn't any sort of fighting to get out of the way.

"When the second blast went off a woman fell over. People made sure she was OK before they moved."

Mr Philpott arrived at JFK airport on Saturday, September 15, and landed at London Heathrow at 5.30am yesterday.

"There were only two flights out and we arrived in between the two," he said.

"The airport was quite empty and there weren't many people to answer our questions, but they sorted us out with some tickets.

"It started to get busy later on and the plane was full."