September 11th 2001 Attacks - 20 Years On…
Discussion
Tomorrow marks the 20th Anniversary of the September 11th Attacks. I remember being dumbfounded watching my little 14" portable TV in total disbelief.. I'd just changed over from BBC1, I think from Neighbours being on, to the BBC News Channel shortly before the second plane hit. Couldn't believe what I was seeing and remember somewhat stupidly thinking - Is this some kind of computer game review/story?!, as it didn't initially comprehend as reality. Spent nearly 6 hours watching events unfold and only left as I had to visit my mum who my brother, sister and myself were responsible in caring for on a daily basis. I remember being very impressed by Rudolph Giuliani and his hands-on approach to the emerging disasterous situation (How he's changed...!) I believe staff couldn't find him for hours, as he'd left is office to go out and help not possibly knowing what was happening. The shock of seeing George W Bush receiving the news whilst attending a schooling event in Florida are still clear in my mind as he was trying to balance that commitment with a fast developing terrorist attack..
These are my immediate memories of this event of two decades ago... What were other Pher's memories of that day...?
https://www.911memorial.org/connect/commemoration/...
These are my immediate memories of this event of two decades ago... What were other Pher's memories of that day...?
https://www.911memorial.org/connect/commemoration/...
Similar here, I suppose. I left work at lunchtime and as I walked in to the living room at home, my wife had the TV on showing the impact of the first plane hitting the North Tower. I thought "blimey, that's realistic!" or something. It didn't seem possible, at first. Then I recall thinking that it must be a terrible accident. But when the second plane hit it became obvious that this was no accident.
It was when the towers collapsed that it became clear what the extent of loss of life could be, and hence the consequences. My wife, who is a perceptive woman, said "the USA will want revenge. This isn't over." How right she was.
It was when the towers collapsed that it became clear what the extent of loss of life could be, and hence the consequences. My wife, who is a perceptive woman, said "the USA will want revenge. This isn't over." How right she was.
As the attacks happened, my wife and I were airborne - Greece to Manchester. We arrived at the airport and there were police and security guards everywhere. I don't follow football, but simply assumed there was some sort of big/grudge match in town.
We got in the cab and I asked the driver what the score was and he said, "what, don't you know?!" and put the radio news on. We sat in the back of the cab, dumbfounded. It felt a bit like landing into a parallel universe. Quite dislocating.
Arriving home, like many, we simply watched the news channels for hours, trying to make sense.
We had already booked to spend the New Year's Eve in Manhattan with friends, which we did, and that's another story, in regard to the strangeness of the whole thing.
We got in the cab and I asked the driver what the score was and he said, "what, don't you know?!" and put the radio news on. We sat in the back of the cab, dumbfounded. It felt a bit like landing into a parallel universe. Quite dislocating.
Arriving home, like many, we simply watched the news channels for hours, trying to make sense.
We had already booked to spend the New Year's Eve in Manhattan with friends, which we did, and that's another story, in regard to the strangeness of the whole thing.
I was playing in a football tournament at Hampden Park in Glasgow. So for me the day was a big deal as I'd been countless times as a spectator but to play on that hallowed turf was something else.
The dressing rooms had TVs installed and as we played through our matches we'd come back in and the events in New York kept moving forward. After each match it just seemed to get worse. It was a surreal day - can't remember much about the football, it became insignificant, just wanted to get home to be with the Mrs, kept expecting something nasty to happen here in the UK, or for the bombs to start falling.
Feels like yesterday.
The dressing rooms had TVs installed and as we played through our matches we'd come back in and the events in New York kept moving forward. After each match it just seemed to get worse. It was a surreal day - can't remember much about the football, it became insignificant, just wanted to get home to be with the Mrs, kept expecting something nasty to happen here in the UK, or for the bombs to start falling.
Feels like yesterday.
We had it on a TV at work.
Usual reactions I expect which was assuming it was a light aircraft lost in fog or something through to a second one huh through to holy s
t through to what the hell is going on 
Can't say from at the time that I remember seeing the towers coming down so much as I do from the replays but I do remember a bridge (or main road) full of people because everything was down so it was almost like Escape From New York.
Goes without saying but it also feels like the day where being told an aircraft has crashed into a building switched from a first instinct of what an awful accident to an assumption it's terrorism
Usual reactions I expect which was assuming it was a light aircraft lost in fog or something through to a second one huh through to holy s
t through to what the hell is going on Can't say from at the time that I remember seeing the towers coming down so much as I do from the replays but I do remember a bridge (or main road) full of people because everything was down so it was almost like Escape From New York.
Goes without saying but it also feels like the day where being told an aircraft has crashed into a building switched from a first instinct of what an awful accident to an assumption it's terrorism
Had it on at work
Knew it was terrorism
Knew there would be big repercussions.
Complete collapse of buildings did surprise me though. Certainly collapsing that quickly.
Dramatic day. Though I think Governments' reactions to COVID will prove much worse for our quality of life over time.
Knew it was terrorism
Knew there would be big repercussions.
Complete collapse of buildings did surprise me though. Certainly collapsing that quickly.
Dramatic day. Though I think Governments' reactions to COVID will prove much worse for our quality of life over time.
Ntv said:
Complete collapse of buildings did surprise me though. Certainly collapsing that quickly.
Likewise.Arriving there in late December, the dismantling and cleanup of the site was ongoing. Neither me nor my wife felt the slightest desire to go and view (though many did) because it felt like rubbernecking at the aftermath of an RTA.
The most poignant thing were the few, dust covered vehicles we saw parked in lower Manhattan. Owners never to return to them. Unbelievably sad.
I was in Turkey at the time attached to the Royal marines doing exercises with the Turkish Marines so didn't see it on TV until about a week later. Didn't have the gravity or impact hearing it on the radio and being out in the sticks living in a ditch for a while, didnt have any impact on us day to day.
When the exercise was over, went back to HMS Fearless and it wasnt long before I was flying back to the UK on a commercial airline. We had full kit with us (a group of us were flying back) and we all had "NATO travel warrants" to get our kit and us through the airport. Didnt make any difference and the airport was very hostile for westerners at that time. We all got our bags basically emptied on the floor and threatened at gunpoint when they went through our military kit. This was despite them having the travel documents and ID's up front and knowing who we were.
Took a phone call from the embassy for them to treat us like civilised human beings. I remember the embassy staff saying that many arab/muslim countries were being assholes to westerners as a back lash to the US making threats post 9/11.
When the exercise was over, went back to HMS Fearless and it wasnt long before I was flying back to the UK on a commercial airline. We had full kit with us (a group of us were flying back) and we all had "NATO travel warrants" to get our kit and us through the airport. Didnt make any difference and the airport was very hostile for westerners at that time. We all got our bags basically emptied on the floor and threatened at gunpoint when they went through our military kit. This was despite them having the travel documents and ID's up front and knowing who we were.
Took a phone call from the embassy for them to treat us like civilised human beings. I remember the embassy staff saying that many arab/muslim countries were being assholes to westerners as a back lash to the US making threats post 9/11.
I was fiddling/fixing with something car modifying related in the living room with the tv on as background hum.
It was initially reported as a microlight had hit the tower....so I actually laughed. How stupid would you have to be to hit that big building in a dense city in a microlight?
When out of curiosity I switched to BBCnews24, it was immediately obvious it wasn't a microlight.
Saw the second plane hit live, and the collapses.
Haunting.
I still think about it a lot. From my apartment in NYC now I can see the new tower, and the beams of light they have up into the sky every year from the start of September. A constant reminder.
It was initially reported as a microlight had hit the tower....so I actually laughed. How stupid would you have to be to hit that big building in a dense city in a microlight?
When out of curiosity I switched to BBCnews24, it was immediately obvious it wasn't a microlight.
Saw the second plane hit live, and the collapses.
Haunting.
I still think about it a lot. From my apartment in NYC now I can see the new tower, and the beams of light they have up into the sky every year from the start of September. A constant reminder.
Edited by GCH on Friday 10th September 17:09
I remember it so clearly. I worked for the police at the time, in IT. I was sat in the office and remember seeing the news on BBC about the first plane. I said to people in the office, fking hell a plane has hit the world trade centre. No one really responded, I said a fking passenger plane. Everyone stopped and we were just glued to it then. There were TVs in the next office so we put those on. That office was the Gold commanders room and a plane was over the Atlantic heading for Gatwick (which Sussex police, policed) and hadn't responded to ATC calls so we were chucked out of there as they came in to run the incident, which obviously turned out to be nothing.
king hell a plane has hit the world trade centre. No one really responded, I said a fking passenger plane. Everyone stopped and we were just glued to it then. There were TVs in the next office so we put those on. That office was the Gold commanders room and a plane was over the Atlantic heading for Gatwick (which Sussex police, policed) and hadn't responded to ATC calls so we were chucked out of there as they came in to run the incident, which obviously turned out to be nothing.We started to see things on the Internet. Then the Internet went down as it couldn't cope with the traffic. I Had to wait until the car radio/home tv before I really knew what had happened..
Still astonished what happened. And that now they say the 6th Jan Washington riots were worse..
Still astonished what happened. And that now they say the 6th Jan Washington riots were worse..
I was in a meeting and had turned on the TV to see the early market news just in time for us all to see live footage of the first plane embedded in the tower. We were all joining the speculation about accident vs terrorism when the second plane hit.
It’s a small detail but what will always stick in my mind is that the TV signal died the instant that that second plane hit. We all thought it was a replay of the first strike until a colleague explained that our TV signal was coming from a transmitter on the second tower which explained why the TV died. So we all knew it was a second strike but for quite a while we had no access to news.
We all grabbed our cell phones but nobody had a signal. My wife was in Manhattan but up-town so assumed no problem there but I remember another colleague just staring at her dead phone saying “my brother is in that tower”. It felt like a dream state.
It’s a small detail but what will always stick in my mind is that the TV signal died the instant that that second plane hit. We all thought it was a replay of the first strike until a colleague explained that our TV signal was coming from a transmitter on the second tower which explained why the TV died. So we all knew it was a second strike but for quite a while we had no access to news.
We all grabbed our cell phones but nobody had a signal. My wife was in Manhattan but up-town so assumed no problem there but I remember another colleague just staring at her dead phone saying “my brother is in that tower”. It felt like a dream state.
I was driving in Bushey on my way to collect a load of processed photographs from Costco in Watford for my daughter when a news bulletin said a 'light aircraft' had crashed into a building in Manhattan. By the time I got to Costco there was a horde of silent shoppers standing watching the live broadcast on the huge screened televisions on the racking in the shop. Costco is normally bustling but not that day - silent disbelief was the scene. Utterly chilling.
I was on gardening leave driving home and heard the radio reporting the first plane hitting the towers, got home to see the second one hit on live TV.
Truly horrifying to watch and stayed dumdfounded and in dis-belief glued to the TV as it all unfolded, the new job has actually got me involved in the public safety system NYCWin put in after 911 happened.
Managed to spend a week in New York and saw Ground Zero, the pictures shown on the TV news give no idea of just how really big the footprint of the towers were. You could fit approximately 11 standard UK housing estate houses and gardens into the footprint of one of the towers which were over 400m tall.
Truly horrifying to watch and stayed dumdfounded and in dis-belief glued to the TV as it all unfolded, the new job has actually got me involved in the public safety system NYCWin put in after 911 happened.
Managed to spend a week in New York and saw Ground Zero, the pictures shown on the TV news give no idea of just how really big the footprint of the towers were. You could fit approximately 11 standard UK housing estate houses and gardens into the footprint of one of the towers which were over 400m tall.
Like most people I can remember it vividly.
My eldest was a week old and I'd just popped out to work for first time but was back for lunch to make sure all was ok. My wife was sitting feeding Little Madness and said a plane has crashed into the WTC and asked me how that could have happened. I thought it must have been a mistake by the pilot in rubbish weather but saw the clear blue sky on the TV and within a couple of mins saw the live shots of the second aircraft fly into the tower and realised what was happening. Over the next hours I watched the news and tried to reassure my wife that I was not about to disappear off on ops to somewhere nasty! It would take a couple of years for that to happen!
My eldest was a week old and I'd just popped out to work for first time but was back for lunch to make sure all was ok. My wife was sitting feeding Little Madness and said a plane has crashed into the WTC and asked me how that could have happened. I thought it must have been a mistake by the pilot in rubbish weather but saw the clear blue sky on the TV and within a couple of mins saw the live shots of the second aircraft fly into the tower and realised what was happening. Over the next hours I watched the news and tried to reassure my wife that I was not about to disappear off on ops to somewhere nasty! It would take a couple of years for that to happen!
We were in the States having just got married in Vegas a few days before it happened. Obviously, everything shut down and the news seemed to be on a constant loop showing the planes hitting the towers.
Wherever we went in California it’s seemed like someone was on a junction waving the Stars and Stripes flag. I liked seeing that show of patriotism.
We were one of the first flights to leave LAX to fly back to the U.K.
Wherever we went in California it’s seemed like someone was on a junction waving the Stars and Stripes flag. I liked seeing that show of patriotism.
We were one of the first flights to leave LAX to fly back to the U.K.
Edited by BeastieBoy73 on Friday 10th September 20:03
At the time I worked at a small company and there were three of us in the office. We had Radio 2 on in the background and the PA was beside herself in distress as the events unfolded. We had a big tender to return at the time and I vividly recall my boss tutting at the events and then flying off the handle at the lack of coloured paper in the fax machine. His utter lack of perspective made me vow to look for another job.
Got home in the afternoon to find all my housemates watching telly together and everyone knew that it was pivotal moment in history unfolding.
Got home in the afternoon to find all my housemates watching telly together and everyone knew that it was pivotal moment in history unfolding.
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