Reply With QuoteI was in a tower block office, the tallest in the area by some margin, and feeling extremely uncomfortable.
Our office internet failed with all the attempts to access news sites.
Certainly the ‘where were you’ moment of my generation.
Unbelievable its 20 years this week, watching some of the footage on TV this week is just mind blowing this happened and some of the stories.
I was in a previous job based in the aircraft industry and we had the radio on, we just all stopped working and listened in disbelief as Steve Wright kept us updated, watching on TV that night it was like a movie..
Where were you?
Last edited by murkeywaters; 9th September 2021 at 11:17.
I was in a tower block office, the tallest in the area by some margin, and feeling extremely uncomfortable.
Our office internet failed with all the attempts to access news sites.
Certainly the ‘where were you’ moment of my generation.
I was at Elstree Studios, and we were one of the few companies there that had a high capacity internet link at the time, so we were able to get live CNN and US News feeds. A lot of people were in our offices watching, all stunned.
ETA - I remember the confusion, and initially we thought it was an accident, and then then second one went in... then there were the rumours flying around that there was a plane heading for Canary Wharf in London...
Last edited by TheFlyingBanana; 9th September 2021 at 11:11.
So clever my foot fell off.
I was getting ready to start a shift at Tesco’s (one of my jobs whilst at uni) and my then girlfriend called me up o tell me, she was in tears.
I remember the shop was empty that day, hardly anyone came in and those that did were in total disbelief.
I remember this well and being in shock, especially with all the footage. Amazing it was 20 years ago soon. RIP to all those innocent people who lost their lives due to this atrocity.
Was on a training course in Birmingham and just recall staring at the news feed for about 6 hours without blinking. Prob one of the few times in my life where I was genuinely in shock.
I was working at home so saw the whole thing unfold live. I've been obsessed with it ever since and the footage is never ever any less shocking. I went to the Memorial Museum a couple of years ago which was incredibly sobering.
I was working in the aircraft maintenance sector at the time.
Hangar based installing TCAS and GPWS systems.
We heard it on the radio and wwnt into the local flying club that had a TV on....unbeleivable scenes.
A few month later we were fitting the armoured cockpit doors on our passenger fleet.
Sat in the sunny garden of the Pickburn Arms, went to the bar for a refill which turned out to be about 20 minutes after the first plane hit, watched the tragedy unfold, saw the second impact as it happened.
Last edited by number2; 9th September 2021 at 11:32.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
"You gotta know when to hold em and know when to fold em".
Yes, I've been also - an amazing place, beautifully done, and somewhere anyone who gets a chance to visit, should. It could have been hugely depressing, but it wasn't. They somehow got it exactly right and it was very moving, in the right way if that makes sense.Originally Posted by TaketheCannoli
So clever my foot fell off.
I was on a days leave pottering around the house and something was mentioned on the radio so I put the tele on and just sat there watching the whole thing live. I’ve watched all kinds of documentaries over the years on the events including a really interesting one on how the impact of the planes and the aviation fuel would actually cause a building to implode on itself.
Can never forget those people stuck above the fire level hanging out of the windows with a choice, jump or burn, but both would end in death.
As a side issue if you ever get the chance to watch the documentary about the French guy who set up an illegal wire between the two towers and walked across it, it is well worth watching and certainly shows the scale of the buildings and makes what happened more incredible.
I was in Manhattan on sept 11th and in the towers the day before. Still very raw to see the footage even 20 years on.
I agree.
Still very surreal seeing the footage 20 years on.
I was working at Heathrow for the (then at least) world's favourite airline, my shift started at 14:00 and we watched the live feed from the BBC in stunned silence.
My first departure of the day was the Seattle, I had to get to the gate to tell the passengers their flight was probably going to be cancelled and why. Most of them were totally unaware of the situation and the only information I was allowed to pass on was that there was a security situation in the USA and their airspace was shut.
Later that day my last departure was Johannesburg, all went well apart from the last passenger...
He was being held at security because they found a knife hidden in his jacket sleeve. Turns out he was a newspaper journalist hoping to get scoop!
The day brought back some memories of the time we were locked down when the IRA were launching mortars at Heathrow and the confusion in T4 as we were first told to evacuate to top floor of the multistorey car park! Not the best place in retrospect.
Crikey. That's a big thing to process.
I was in Manhattan when there were the London bus bombings in 2007. I went to Strawberry Fields in Central Park and hundreds of notes of sympathy and solidarity had been tied to the benches there by New Yorkers. One has always stayed with me, it said "With love to our friends in London, you are all New Yorkers now too."
So clever my foot fell off.
I was half way through my PhD. I remember being in the lab as the news spread… we all packed up and headed to the pub and watched the tv in silence with a pint.
A colleague at the time was on her way to the East Coast for a conference. She ended up landing in the middle of nowhere in Canada and spent a few days with a family there before she could get home. We really did see the best and worst of humanity on that day and the days after
.....and I still keep my copy of the new york times from the day after.
It is something I still get very emotional about. The sheer thousands of dust covered people walking up to central park and sitting there completely shell shocked, it was something that still haunts. the hotel we were in were very good to us and let us stay for the few days manhattan was locked down. Family and friends couldn't contact us and it we couldn't contact them. The flight home was traumatic, taking to the skys as one of the first planes up once the airspace was cleared.
I was in the train, after a having spent a day inside the Schiphol WTC… At first I thought that a plane leaving/arriving had hit Schiphol’s WTC towers. Then it dawned. I went from relief to disbelieve in seconds.y
My wife was at home on maternity leave (on of the boys was born three weeks before 9/11). At that time, she had a job at a Dutch international publishing company. The company had a small NY office in one of the towers. 11 of her colleagues were inside and died when the building collapsed.
Last edited by thieuster; 9th September 2021 at 15:57.
I had an interview for a job about a week after with Credit Suisse First Boston in Canary Wharf tower. That was a strange experience, both because of the tower but also because they had just lost the majority of their New York people who all worked above the impact point. In retrospect I'm stunned the interview went ahead.
I was working with a bunch of American musicians in Bristol, some of whom lived / had family and friends in New York. I remember watching the terrible pictures and them making desperate calls to the US to check everyone was safe. Although we were all in shock they agreed to continue with the job as they wanted to carry on, as what else could we do?
The TV images combined with their worried calls back home will always stay with me.
I was at my friends house watching it on the news, and frantically trying to get hold of my friend who lived in NY (she was fine)
Still remember it clear as day.
I was in Rapid City South Dakota on that morning which is on Mountain time so about an hour behind EST we all thought it was a trailer for a new “ Die Hard” movie at first then reality cut in when i flew out of Denver a couple of weeks later the Airport was deserted.
I FEEL LIKE I'M DIAGONALLY PARKED IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE
I was in the office, a customer called me to check if my boss was aware as she is a New
Yorker.
Watched a very good documentary on Netflix last week - basically the back story of Taliban / Al Quaeda / ISIS starting back from 1979 with the Soviets in Afghanistan. Been done before but this one was really well made
Do you happen to remember the name of the documentary please?
Its possibly: Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror
I watched a few so got mixed up which is which.
It was very recent as even had Taliban recapturing Kabul
I was posting on TZ-US and somebody put up about the aircraft hitting the WTC, I assumed an accident.....then my Mrs called me from the living room and it was on TV.
Cheers,
Neil.
Centre City Philadelphia. It was quite a day.
The Looming Towers on Amazon Prime? A great drama based on the infighting between the FBI and CIA which prevented knowledge sharing about the individuals and events that led to 9/11. Extremely sobering that so much was known but internal politics got in the way of preventing the attacks.
I was living in South London. I'd left my job at Canary Wharf and was taking a few months off. I think I got up at about 11AM that morning. I was idly watching something on TV when the news bulletin broke. I switched to News 24. At this point I think the first aircraft had hit the WTC and there was a lot of confusion. When the second one hit of course, there seemed to be no doubt that it was a terrorist attack.
I was a regular on the old Timezone forum at the time, and I recorded this screenshot for posterity.
.. it looks rather small on a 4K monitor but in those days I was using a laptop with a 1024x768 screen.
An hour or so later I had to go to the post office and as I emerged I heard two old fellers standing on a street corner, talking about it. "The yanks have been throwing their weight around for years, now someone's done it to them", one of them said. Even now it remains one of the more cogent analyses that I've heard.
But at this point I hadn't quite understood the enormity of the situation. Another twenty minutes later I was just parking up at Dog Kennel Hill Sainsburys, when a report came in that one of the towers had collapsed. That was the real disquieting moment of disbelief for me. The reporter's voice was shaking.
I spent the rest of the day in front of the TV, trying to process what was happening. There was an eerie post-apocalyptic vibe, and a dread of what was going to happen next.
I was in Rajasthan, not far from the border of Pakistan. I can recall the mood on the streets was very odd, some locals were very shocked and sympathetic, showing us their TV's with the news broadcasts on in case we hadn't heard, whereas others were spitting at us, jeering and shouting abuse assuming we were American.
It was the first time while travelling I have genuinely felt like I was a very long way away from home.
I was working for a large broadcaster at the time.
My role was operational and the main focus of the week was trying to keep the website up and running. The stories I could tell from those days.
We had lots of screens up along the walls of the offices and we were all staring at them when the second plane struck. It was at that point we realised what was going on and moved into work mode.
Because I ran the operational team and kept my head clear while others panicked I ended up being the guy in charge when the org decided it needed up up its game. That started a new direction for me and ultimately was a large factor in how my career has worked out.
10 years ago I was speaking to a new classmate on the MBA I'd just started. He was New Yorker who'd just arrived in the UK. He mentioned he was going to the 10 year anniversary at St Paul's that weekend. I explained how 9/11 changed my life and probably contributed to be being on the course. On Monday I heard him interviewed by the BBC - he was sat beside Prince Charles as his father died in the attack. I was mortified. We're good friends and I often bollock him for not mentioning the fact while I was wittering away, but I still cringe whenever I remember.
I was just about to start uni, woke up about midday as any good student should and proceeded to be glued to the TV for 24h. Still unbelievable 20 years on.
Ross
I was 17, and in Sixth Form. I remember leaving school for the day, and a friend telling me WW3 was about to kick off.
That evening I was working in Comet; TVs were my section. At that time there really wasn't "demo" channels/videos, we just had BBC1 on the TVs. I was stood amongst 50+ screens for 3+ hours watching the crashes and collapsing over and over again. It was incredibly surreal and something I will never ever forget!
Thank you, will have a look for it and add it to my watch list.
I was at work in the city - we were huddled around the tv in the basement cafeteria watching the news and contacting colleagues in the New York offices….
Very surreal - then all the trains were
stopped going into london - I remember leaving work and walking with others back over the river to waterloo to get out of london - london bridge and cannon street were all shut.
Where did the last 20 years go…..
On an oil platform in the North Sea. Remember that trip as well cuz a good mate of mine died at 48 with heart problems while I was offshore.
I was ten at the time, and in my last year of primary school when it happened. I don't recall the teachers being upset, but then it's possible they didn't know about it or, if they did, were not letting it show. The first I knew about it was when my parents told me at the school gate that there had been a plane crash in New York. I came home and it was on all the TV channels. Even as a ten year old I had a feeling that the world had changed.
I was in my home office with R1 Chris Moyles on, they switched to the soft music emergency tape and I recall him saying a second plane had hit. Got the TV on and saw the second tower fall. Seems like yesterday...
Servicing a Harrier GR7 when on of the lads said an aircraft had just crashed into the world trade centre. We thought it was a light aircraft at the time. We couldn't have mobiles switched on because of the canopy explosives in the aircraft, so it took a while for the extent of what was happening to filter through to us. The scenes on the news when I got home were unbelievable, and no less shocking today.
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I read something in the paper recently about this, it was detailing the day it happened, I am still surprised that these people, ( term used loosely ), even got through the airports, some of them were actually stopped as they were, " persons of interest ", but then let on there way after being searched etc.
It also pointed out that the first firefighter to lose their life was running towards the towers when a body from one of the towers fell on him.
I also remember president Bush sitting in front of a classroom listening to children read, one of his aides then whispered in his ear that America was under attack, what did he do? sat there for a further 6-7 minutes as he didn't want to alarm the kids!!!!!!!!!
Even the tv crews covering the president had to be told not to say anything.
I can remember seeing the 9-11 photographic exhibition in the basement of the National Portrait Gallery a year or so after the event. It still sends shivers down my spine even now as the images are burnt into my mind. Obviously the images were heavily concentrated on the firefighters and the horrific situation they were all in. Very moving stuff.
Was at work still then and happened to be in an accounts office when it happened. Saw it unfolding on the owners tv in his office next door. We were all wondering if it was the start of something that would escalate when the second and third planes hit.
All those poor people who never stood a chance. Still can’t imagine what kind of minds would want to do such a thing.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
I was in NYC and meant to be near WTC but I had such a terrible hangover I got up late and missed my first meeting...prob would have been on the subway. I saw it unfolding on the TV of a Bodega in midtown while also ducking outside to see for myself. It was very surreal.
Not seen it but it's called Man on Wire.
^ I’ve seen and can confirm it’s well worth watching.
I remember I came home from work pretty soon after the first plane had hit. My then girlfriend was crying in front of the telly. I was watching TV with her in disbelief for the most of the rest of the day.
The week before I was on a train heading back into NY from Princeton where I was out on a training course. I remember watching the skyline and the towers in the distance as we trundled in; the day was a beautifully clear just like a week later when it all happened.
On the day itself I was back in London and we were on a conference call with a client. One of our people on the call was in Jersey City, up in a high office at Hudson Street NJ looking across the Hudson River to the WTC. His commentary, with his broad New York accent, is still with me like it was yesterday. We had staff in One World Financial Centre just across the street from the South Tower, they had some hairy stories about getting out of the area that day.
I was working in the aerospace industry and was sat in the Rolls Royce engine factory in a meeting. There were some worried faces in that building as events unfolded.
Still shocks me to this day watching those planes hit the towers.
My mother phoned me at work and told me turn on the tv right now! Thought it was small plane like a Cessna until the second tower was hit. Astonishing to watch it and then see the buildings collapse.
I was at my Grandads funeral, looking back it overshadowed the day and made it a very surreal experience. Can’t believe it happened 20 years ago
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