9/11 - what sticks with you the most?

[KenAdams]

I remember what I thought was them replaying footage of the attack. It was in fact the second plane hitting the second tower

The people jumping - so utterly heartbreaking

The phone call from then husband (army) telling me to stay home and he didn't know when he'd be home

Genuinely thinking it was start of WWIII - not so sure I was entirely wrong.

Gosh all of it is seared on my memory.

The moment the second plane hit, and you realised it wasn't an accident, and the world was about to change.

The falling people and the thuds as their bodies hit the roof below.

The moment the first tower fell, and the utter disbelief.

The wondering how many more planes had been hijacked, and who would be hit next.

The views of the city from above, shrouded in dust.

The way everything stopped for a few days.

The signs and photos all over NY looking for loved ones.

The pictures of people covered in dust, walking up Manhatten.

I was in the UK, nowhere near it. No one I knew at the time was there (thank goodness). Even so, it all felt absolutely horrifying.

The fall of building 7 hours later... perfectly into it's own footprint although hit by no planes.

I was 23 and spent the whole night in front of the tele, unusually quiet and I remember that quiz night was cancelled for a different reason but I was convinced it was the beginning of the end and was petrified to go out as thought we would soon be under chemical attack.

I remember vividly the lady covered head to toe in dust and watched a programme about her several years later and she had sadly died of cancer.

Also, the huge plumes of smoke, dust and millions of papers seemingly “chasing” people down the road who were running away as the buildings collapsed and then the thousands walking home after fleeing Manhattan.

That day changed me.

I worked for a US Bank at the time (but was in the UK).

Caught it on TV and didn't quite believe it.

My colleague was on the phone to another colleague in one of the Twin Towers at the point the first plane hit. They didn't make it out.

We lost friends and colleagues that day. Others lost a whole lot more.

The sadness or shock never leaves me. Just utterly tragic and unnecessary why such an atrocity had to happen.

I went to the memorial some years ago, I cried then and am crying now just thinking of the emotions I felt then and still feel now. What sits with me most about the memorial is one inscription which reads the name of the lady who lost her life "and her unborn child".

My heart breaks xx

The world changed forever that day

I was 26 watching Neighbours for some reason as I never watched it, dds were very young and neighbours either finished or it cut to breaking news to show the first plane had hit the tower. Then live on tv I watched the second plane hit and realised it was an attack, I remember thinking that world war 3 was going start. It was a horrific day.
I sat there the whole day watching it.

The horror of the jumpers and watching the towers fall down.

Phone call from Dad (we lived in London) saying I had to go straight home from school because of a terrorist attack. Feeling confused why one in NY would mean London wasn't safe (bearing in mind I'd grown up in London with IRA).
Getting home, seeing TV coverage, and understanding.

There are now ADULTS who weren't alive then. Soldiers who are deployable to Afghanistan who weren't alive then.

As someone who grew up with the IRA and worked for em services- knew the policy of “first attack, evacuate and wait for the second”

Watching the second plane hit and thinking at least it will have been evacuated, and realising with horror that people had been told to stay.

And again when the towers collapsed, realising no evacuation had happened in either tower, and em services had been sent in.

The death toll should have been much lower.

It was the people jumping out of the buildings, what a horrific decision to make. Also a friend texting me saying something along the lines of this is now going to turn into a war.. I was terrified.

Photo of the falling man. The way the metalwork at the top of The Shard reminds me of the mangled girders on ground zero.

My cousin woke up late that day.

His son was ill and didn't want him to leave for work, booked taxi to the airport didn't arrive.

He missed the flight by three minutes.

It was the second plane.

I still hug him a bit longer and tighter when I see him.

The scream of the girl standing next to me as we watched one of the Towers collapse knowing her brother worked there sticks with me. Being utterly terrified of leaving the building I was in as we didn't know whether the whole of Manhattan was under attack. The silence, the sirens, the dust swirling. The mobile phone networks going down and not knowing the whole day if one of my oldest friends was okay.

We were working on a project in Canary Wharf tower, and everyone was thrown off site, as there was concern it too would be attacked.

I was organising our office Christmas Party at a hotel - but I couldn't wait to leave and get home to make sure my DC were safe.

Will never forget that day - nor the people who are still suffering from their injuries and losses.

I was only 8, I remember them wheeling the TV into the room we were in. We normally got really excited but there was something about the teachers faces that said we shouldn't be. Then they played the footage of the first plane hitting, and the news report they were playing with it. I was too young to understand I just remember them talking about how many people were "trapped" and feeling sick and crying. It's a really surreal memory because I was so young. I didn't understand at the time that the trapped people would die or why I felt so scared but I did. Someone in my class had to be sent home because it turned out her uncle worked in one of the buildings.

It's also stuck with me the last couple of years that we have no longer had a minutes silence in the company I work for to commemorate it. That feels wrong.

The deep deep rumble as the towers began to collapse, and you knew you were watching the mass murder of thousands of people.

Jesus who thought wheeling a tv in specially so 8 year olds can witness live mass murder was a good idea. That’s appalling.

I was only 7 when it happened and for some reason, which honestly still baffles me, the teacher wheeled in a tv so this group of small children could watch one of the most heartbreaking and atrocious events in recent history together. We couldn’t even hope to understand what was going on, why they thought we needed to see that in real-time graphic detail is still beyond me.
The falling people, the fact those poor, poor people were told to stay where they were, the voicemails from desperate people to their loved ones. It was all just horrific.

I was working at a TV company at the time, so we had lots of TVs all over the office. The MD had a call, and came out of her office and shouted that a plane had hit one of the towers, and to switch the TVs on. As we started watching, discussing what an awful accident it was, seeing the 2nd plane hit live, and being stunned into silence at the realisation it wasn't an accident.

Spending the day trying to get internet access for any bits of news, contacting friends who were in or may have been in NYC at the time to check they were ok (so so lucky - they were fine), worrying about whether London was about to be attacked too (I remember there being a message that there may have been a hijacked plane on its way to London). Canary Wharf being evacuated, but not Centrepoint (opposite our office). Going home and watching the news and crying.

It still makes me cry to think of it. We went to the memorial museum this year (I didn't know if I could do it, but my kids didn't really understand it - I'm not sure they do get the enormity now either), which was very very moving, I had to leave in the end, it's all too sad. Too wrong. So much wasted - globally.

The phone calls home from flight 93.
People knowing what was going to happen if they didn't do something.
So brave,so tragic.

The fact the world changed forever that day.
Memories are often now pre or post 9/11

I was 11 and seeing the Falling Man, people waving white flags, seeing the firemen going IN, seeing the plumes of dust billowing through the streets all took a lot of naïvity from me. I just remember spending ages thinking about everyone’s families, and how awful the choice of ‘do we jump, or do we just wait and go down with the building’. Horrific.

I was 28, watched it unfold whilst at work, all of us just completely disbelieving. I honestly thought at first that the pilot must have suffered a heart attack or something so it was a terrible accident, but then the next plane hit... It was just like something from a disaster movie. So surreal to watch, even now the enormity of it numbs me.

I also remember hearing a few weeks later about a family from Cork (I'm Irish) who had lots of adult children living in the US. One brother was working in one of the Towers, the plane that hit that tower was carrying his sister and her little girl, his niece. I was driving at the time and had to pull over as I couldn't see through my tears.

So many desperately sad stories.

And yet, huge atrocities happen in other parts of the world where children are wiped out and because it's not a society we can identify with it doesn't affect us as much

I remember it so clearly.

DD1 was nearly 3 and unusually for her, went down for a nap after lunch. I (unusually for me) switched the telly on and the first plane had just hit - they thought it was an accident, the commentary was along the lines of “this is prohibited air space, how did a plane crash into a building”.

Then live on air, as they were recording and I was watching, the second plane hit. It was just unreal, I was chilled and knew nothing would be the same again. Someone had deliberately flown a commercial jet into a skyscraper in one of the most important cities in the world.

I couldn’t stop watching even though it was shocking and horrific and unreal.

DH managed to call from work (he’s military and was at a local base that day) and said they were locked down and he didn’t know when he’d be home.

I remember watching the flames. The dust and debris. The emergency services going in when everyone else was running away. The fear and the horror and the shock of the people. The sight of extremists dancing as people were dying in their thousands.

@Blingysolightly

I hope her brother and your friend were okay.

Every single moment of it makes me cry
The falling man, the jumping people,
There are no words ♥️♥️♥️