A survivor of the Stockline factory blast which killed nine people thought the building had been hit by a plane. The opening day of a public inquiry into the tragedy in Glasgow's Maryhill heard accounts from workers who managed to crawl their way out of the rubble. 

May 11 2004 was a day in which so many lives were changed forever.  Lord Gill has said he wants the inquiry into the Stockline explosion to allow a determined pursuit of truth. Before proceedings began, he called for a few moments of reflection and prayer for those were killed or injured.  

"I thought a plane had hit the building", was the initial thought of one employee, David Andrews.  In his statement to the inquiry, he described an almighty crashing noise and how the big sliding doors of the building buckled. "At first we did not see anything for the dust,  then I saw the building had collapsed." 

James McGolderick and Danny Gilmour were among those who crawled through the rubble to safety. They were inside the factory's coating room with their colleague Gordon Bell.  In his statement, James described how dust and muck were clogging everywhere, in the darkness he grabbed Danny's hand.  

It was Gordon Bell's job to operate the LPG oven, the inquiry was told that he noticed nothing unusual that day, the explosion he said happened without any warning.  

In his statement he said he had highlighted problems with the gas supply to his oven a year prior to the blast. Two companies had come to look at the pipework which had eroded. When he asked his boss months later when it was being replaced, he was told that the company were still waiting for the quote.