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

Who is kateandthegirls?

I was home sick from work that day and laying on the sofa watching the simpsons - the ticker came along the bottom of the screen saying a plane had hit the world trade centre. I switched over to sky news and just sat there watching in horror as the second plane hit live on tv and it became clear this was no accident. I couldn't switch it off and watched all day trying to comprehend what I was seeing - the collapse and knowing thousands of poor souls must have died. Just utter horror that someone was capable of planning such atrocities against fellow human beings.

I have visited the memorial in nyc and it was a very emotional experience.

kateandthegirls was a poster whose DH was killed on 9/11.

The people jumping from the towers is something I'll never forget.

I was going to book a surprise trip for DH's 30th birthday to NY that week which we delayed till the following year. We were in NY in September 2002 and I'll never forget walking past a fire station near the WTC where the firemen were standing around outside. After we'd walked past the building we saw a plaque in memory of the firefighters who had died from that fire house. It was just so heartbreaking.

DH and I were home as we had the week off. I remember going to pick DD up from nursery and hoping to get back home to find it was a hoax or something. Ridiculous obviously but it was so surreal.

We visited NY in 2011 and seeing some of the everyday items on display retrieved like wallets and watches was chilling. We actually arrived in NYC on the day they killed Osama Bin Laden and the whole city had a really strange quietly elebratory but also fearful vibe.

I watched it live, the tv was on but me and my mum weren’t paying attention. We thought it was a disaster film. I was then called by a friend who told me to watch the news. I remember naively thinking everyone would have got out like they would in a film. I worked for the government and we got such ridiculous memo’s afterwards about ‘ticking packages’ we weren’t allowed to open mail from certain countries in case it was anthrax etc!

I went to the museum a few years ago, I didn’t take photo’s as I was standing inside the basement of one of the towers. I was standing in a mass grave. I also didn’t listen to the phone messages, to me despite the permission to use them they were meant for loved ones. It was a very sobering experience although it was interesting to see more about the Pentagon as it was just rebuilt and never mentioned much. It was bad though. A woman talked about being on fire.

As a pp said the saddest name were the ones saying ‘xxxx xxxx and her unborn child’ there were several of them. They have the safety announcement on tape for you to hear telling people to stay inside the tower., this was to help them evacuate the first tower and to avoid falling glass, flames and debris. They didn’t know how bad that decision would be.

@Yeahnahyeah1
He was a hell of a guy all right. Out of interest, where did you go to school?

@chinookpilotsgovertical Launceston, in Cornwall.

The way the names are listed on the memorial struck me - grouped together by organisation, company, crew rather than alphabetical order.

People jumping.
The realisation as well that after the collapse of the South Tower the same was most likely with the North...

The video shot which has the music of Always a woman playing from somewhere around the area.

I was talking on the phone with a colleague in Tower 1 on the morning of the attack about some routine work stuff. I left work early that day just as the news started breaking.

The initial TV reporting showed a clear blue sky and a small plume of smoke at the top corner of the building, which I assumed had been hit by a small plane.

All our colleagues escaped, thank goodness, but as events unfolded the fact that it all started as a normal day and the imagine of that beautiful sky before the horror has stayed with me.

Desperatly trying to get to Oxford to get American members of the family who were on holiday. They were trying to get to us at the same time.

The pictures of them bringing out Father Mychal Judge.

I was 8 months pregnant and asleep on the sofa, I woke up and the news was on showing the first tower smoking, I was half asleep and watched as the second plane hit. I honestly thought it was a film and thought it was a strange thing to be on tv at that time of day. I was in utter shock and my emotions were everywhere when I realised it was the news. I went to pick ds up from school and I remember telling the teachers at the gate what had happened as they didn't have a clue.

My dp landed in the us for a holiday on the morning of 9/11 (We were not together then).

The 26 year old guy who sat next to me at work and his colleague who had just transferred to our firm in June from our US firm based in the World Trade Centre.

All the people at their firm survived, 3 female friends from university of the 26 year old didn't make it. He kept phoning their parents who kept trying to phone their children, they knew they were dead as they didn't answer day after day.

Originally I had planned to be in New York / Boston for 2 weeks holiday that September but DH had dithered about agreeing to anywhere. First time I had been glad of his dithering.

I was in Seville for my birthday. Came home on the 13th. The increased security was laughable at Seville airport on the way home.

@Yeahnahyeah1
I thought it might be in Cornwall, I went to school in Truro (even though I lived in Camborne).
Saw something on Facebook tonight that the US is awarding its highest civil decoration to Rick Rescorla posthumously.