Finally, after 30 minutes, the live feed began on Caribbean television.
An hour later, his Twitter feed began firing out emergency instructions, urging people in the city to stay indoors.
But one day at his parents' house, in January, 2011, the satellite feed began showing astounding images of Tahrir Square, in Cairo, filling with protesters.
During August, the One in a Million Twitter feed began issuing slightly desperate-sounding appeals for punters: "Limited places available... iPad for every student".
On the giant screen, the satellite feed began to break up: "I'm not getting anything," Captain Thigpen muttered, seemingly, to off-screen technicians, as his family and 8,000 strangers listened in.
On Wednesday, Mr. McCartney's Twitter feed began posting what appeared to be random words and fragments — "moon," "fangled," "sreel" — raising questions about whether it had been hacked or was trying to keep pace with popular nonsense-spouting accounts like Horse ebooks.
