Staying Alive: Jakarta Bombing Survivor Tells His Story

July 27, 2009— -- American businessman and international investor James Castle is no stranger to playing the odds. For years, he's calculated the risks and rewards of Western investment in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.

But Castle said he never imagined the odds of being a victim of a suicide bombing -- much less surviving -- twice.

"We have to be lucky every day. [The terrorists] only have to be lucky once. The odds are in their favor that from time to time they will create atrocities," he said.

Just after 7:45 a.m. on July 16, Castle, 62, was holding a weekly breakfast meeting for business executives in the lobby of the Jakarta J.W. Marriott when a bomb tore through the building.

It was the second time in six years that the Jakarta hotel was targeted by suicide bombers -- and the second time Castle was inside and survived. He's now speaking out about his experience.

"I'm one of the fortunate ones," he told "Good Morning America." "One ear is a little bit bad but it should recover no problem."

At least nine people were killed in the bombing, which tore through the ground level of the J.W. Marriott and nearby Ritz Carlton. Dozens were injured.

"When you're on the inside of one of these things, it just happens and then you react," he said.

"We were talking, and then one minute a big cloud of smoke and flash? I was knocked backward and kind of felt it was a bad dream. Then I realized it wasn't a dream, and I could hardly breathe," he said.

Castle said he tried to climb over the rubble and debris toward the nearest window.

"My first moment of fear was that I couldn't breathe, and I thought I could really suffocate," he said. "It's like breathing in sand and dirt because there's everything in the air -- all the grit from whatever blew up."

Minutes later the sprinkler system came on, and a burst of cold water washed over the destruction. "It was the sweetest thing I'd felt in a long long time," Castle said. He eventually made it out of a nearby window along with several other survivors.

Jakarta Bombing Survivor Lost Colleagues

Several of the dead were Castle's colleagues, who were also at the business meeting at the Marriott.

"[I knew] every one of them. Every one of them," he said. "It's a program that I host. It's a membership program, and I know every one of them well."

Castle said he considers himself lucky to have survived the hotel bombings twice.

In August 2003, Castle was having lunch at one of the hotel's restaurants with his wife when a car bomb exploded outside. They escaped with minor scrapes and bruises.

"I don't know what I did to deserve the luck," he said. "We will continue the program. It won't be in the same format, obviously, but we've got 120 members, and virtually everyone has encouraged me to continue the meetings. And I will do so."

Castle has been "Mr. Indonesia," a well-known Western face promoting the world's most populous Muslim nation as a sensible international investment destination. His consulting firm, CastleAsia, is a prominent business group in the region.

Despite his experiences, he said he's still optimistic about the future of Western business in Indonesia.

"This was murder by a small group of people who have no political support in Indonesia," Castle said. "They're criminals and they're criminals everywhere in the world. Indonesia has been a very safe place for me for 30 years. I say that I still feel safe in Indonesia."