EUROPEAN TRIP A NIGHTMARE FOR ONE TRAVELER.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

Most seasoned business travelers can point to a single moment when they know a carefully planned trip is about to go amiss.

For Donna Hill, that moment came when she stepped through the entry doors of London's Heathrow Airport - and they slammed closed behind her.

A security alert had been issued, and Hill and other travelers began an 18-hour ordeal laced with mortar shell fire, an uncooperative corporate travel department, stolen luggage and bribery that has won her the title of 1995's Most Stressed Business Traveler by Hotel Crescent Court of Dallas.

The second annual search for the most stressed business traveler generated more than 300 applications from across the United States and several foreign countries. As the winner, Hill will receive a one-week trip to a British Virgin Islands resort.

As vice president for Swiss Re Financial Products, Hill spends at least 10 days of each month on business travel, averaging 30 business trips annually to destinations as far away as Stavropol, Russia.

The incident that judges deemed "most stressful" took place in March 1994, when Hill was en route from a meeting in London to another meeting the next morning in Paris. When she arrived at Heathrow, police told her the airport was under siege by the Irish Republican Army. All flights had been canceled and more than 2,000 travelers were trapped in the small terminal.

Airline personnel had fled to the bomb shelter, which meant Hill could get no information on when she might be able to leave. Pulling her suitcase, Hill wove her way through the standing-room-only terminal in search of pay phones.

Two hours - and one exploding runway - later, it was Hill's turn to use a pay phone. Her first phone call was to her parents, to reassure them she was safe. Next, she called her corporate travel office to reserve a hotel room, since she most likely would have to wait until the next day to fly to Paris.

Hill explained the situation to an unsympathetic travel agent. After much debate, Hill took responsibility for the $25 cancellation fee if she did not keep the reservation. A reservation was made for a hotel near the airport, since she would have to leave early the next morning to make her meeting.

Fatigued, yet glad to have a hotel room for the night, Hill turned to discover that during the argument with the corporate travel department, her suitcase had been stolen.

Six and a half hours later, the security alert was lifted and travelers were permitted to leave the terminal. Hill lined up outside for a taxi to take her to the hotel. After the taxi passed security, the driver stopped the car and ordered her out. He wanted a passenger that was going farther than a hotel within Heathrow Airport.

Unwilling to walk in the dark through unexploded mortar shells, Hill pleaded with the driver. He agreed to take her to the hotel only after she paid him an extra 50 pounds. She arrived about midnight, only to learn that during the time it took for the agent to input her room reservation and the hotel to receive the information, the remaining three rooms had been claimed.

Finally, two German women she recognized from the terminal offered her one of their rooms. Relieved at the chance to rest, Hill slept four hours. Up early and with nothing to eat since the previous afternoon, she headed back to Heathrow to find a flight to Paris.

Inside the terminal, she found that all flights were full. Undaunted, Hill raced from terminal to terminal, determined to make it to Paris in time for her meeting.

Hill left Heathrow around noon, missing the meeting and arriving in Paris during a train and subway employees' strike; the taxi drivers had joined them with a sympathy strike. Hill finally checked into a Paris hotel more than 24 hours late.

To add insult to injury, Donna Hill filed a claim for her stolen luggage, but the claim was denied because she had not checked her suitcase. She appealed the denied claim, explaining that she was unable to check her luggage because all personnel had fled to a bomb shelter. The claim was denied for the second, and final, time.