9/11 20 years on where were you can you remember it happening

[TheCatsHaveEyes]

Just read an article about 9/11 cannot believe it will be 20 years since it happened next month. Still remember it like yesterday.
It really was my generation's JFK moment I think.
I was working at Fenwicks part time student. My friend came over to relive me so I could go on break and told me about a plane flying into one of the twin towers. I assumed she meant a light air craft so as I wandered into the staff room I was shocked to see the type of plane crashing into building and gasped as did everyone else already watching in the room. Only then did someone say that was a second plane.
After work me and all my family watched sky news on a loop it was horrendous those poor souls what they went through. The world seemed so terrifying suddenly.

I remember walking in from school and it being on the news. I can still see the images of the plane hitting the tower and a man throwing himself out of one of the towers.

we were on a British Army base at the time

all the men on leave were called in, wives ran out to the swings( a few dads out there with little ones, us included) to say they had a phonecall. Guard van came round told us all to stay indoors.

Board changed to 'Bikini Black'

early Fears were we were next to be targeted, army bases as well as Canary Wharf

I was on my way to a job interview and heard about it on the radio. I remember leaving a message for my boyfriend at the time to tell him, (although didn’t realise the scale of what had happened). Came out of the interview and called him to tell him how it went and before I could even open my mouth he said “they’ve both gone. Both towers have fallen down”. I was only in the interview for 40 minutes and I still can’t believe how quickly it happened. We went back to mine and watched it on TV - I can still remember how I’ll I felt when I realised people were jumping from the windows. We went up the WTC about a month earlier on a long weekend to NYC - I still have my ticket.

I was young at the time and not very clued up I'll freely admit. Someone came over to me on reception and said the twin towers have been hit. I genuinely didn't know what he was talking about. I went on my break and was horrified by what I saw. I bought newspapers every day for my future children (which I do at every major historic event) and they are saved in the loft for when they inevitably learn about it at school

@Knittingupastorm

We had a big tv screen in reception tuned into Sky news, sound turned off. I was having a chat to the receptionist about having the heating on at home at that time of year as it was so cold (so odd I can remember the convo!). Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw the first plane fly into the WTC and shouted at her to look. I didn’t think it was real at first, then thought it was a terrible accident and trying to figure why the plane would be so low in a built up area, until we saw the 2nd plane hit in real time

As a slight aside, significant events like this lead to some interesting research around memory. For example, there was no footage of the first plane actually hitting the tower aired on the day, it only aired later. Yet in research carried out, people will insist they saw it. There was footage of the second plane, because news crews were then filming.

I also find this fascinating. I myself have what seems like a memory of the second plane hitting but I know I only turned on the TV just after that.

I was trying to buy a television, I'd queued at the counter, got to the front and everyone, including staff, was staring behind me not speaking. When I looked around I realised (afterwards) it was the moment the second aircraft was crashing into the tower.

Later that day I overheard an American tourist trying to book some extra nights at a hotel I was staying in, it hadn't occurred to me that flights to America had been suspended.

I've just watched the film "9/11 10 Years on" It was harrowing watching the firefighters who were the first on the scene & hearing the thumps of the bodies of people who had jumped to their deaths. The part I found hardest to watch was the firefighters 10 years after, how many had PTSD & the sad stories of those who had contracted cancer from the dust of the Twin Towers.

I was about to leave work when another teacher said planes had been flown into the WTC. I listened to Radio 4 all the way home.

I was in Upper 6th at school, I had choir practice in my lunch break and came back to the common room to find all my friends standing inches from the TV watching the news. The second tower had just been hit. Then we had to go off to afternoon lessons, I had German on my own and just talked about it but that classroom had no TV. All my friends in other subjects just continued to watch the news. By the time afternoon lessons had finished, both towers had collapsed and the Pentagon had also been hit.

@Dollywilde

I was 12, in Year 8. I remember the first I heard of it was when my mum picked me up from school and said ‘apparently there’s been a plane crash in America’ and I did a sort of disinterested ‘oh really?’ because it wasn’t especially unusual. I knew something was up when she said ‘no, I think it’s quite a bad one’.

It’s odd to think our teachers would have known what was going on that afternoon and were still teaching us without talking to us about it. Not sure how I would have done my job that day pretending everything was still normal.

Remember mobile phones were still not as widespread as now, certainly not in teacher's bags and they were/are still pretty isolated in classrooms, there certainly wasn't a news app or Internet access, maybe not even computers in many classrooms, plus even now its not unusual that my teacher friends don't pick stuff up during school hours. I think your teachers legitimately would not have known about it before the end of the day.

I was in training that day and didn't know anything about it until I put the radio on in the car on the drive home. My BFF was in NYC that day, I had to pull over into a car park and get myself together before I could drive on, I was in such a state.

I was 16 and was waiting for my then boyfriend to finish a piano lesson. My mum called my mobile - bear in mind this was 2001 and mobiles charged shit loads for landline to cell connections, so I worried instantly as my grandfather was unwell. She said there had been a plane crash in New York and I'm saddened to say at first I was pretty nonchalant about it - I didn't know what the WTC was, and planes crashed. She said 'No, this is major - two planes crashed deliberately and it looks like terrorism' which got my attention.

Once boyfriend had finished lesson I told him and we had to catch a bus back to his - everyone looked stunned. Back in those days electrical shops often had tv in the window, and we passed a couple with the broadcasts. We just stood in a pack of people silenced. I was terrified, I was such a naive middle class child and had no concept of anything like this.

We went back to my boyfriends, and just sat all night watching the coverage.

I was in Greece for my 18th birthday my first holiday abroad and first time on a plane. I had never heard of the twin towers but we spent all day watching on the tvs in the bars. The whole holiday resort was really quiet. I remember being quite scared about flying home!

I was a teacher, about a week into a new job. We'd just let the kids go for the day when colleagues came rushing in to tell us. We sat in the staff room watching the pictures in a kind of slack jawed horror.

I was on maternity leave and was sat with my cousin. Neighbours had just finished and a news report came on about the plane crash. As they were reporting the second plane crashed. We both just sat there gobsmacked. Dh calling me a few hours later saying his flight to Canada had been cancelled and he was coming home.

@SirSamuelVimes

I've never been able to watch it again, *@Loubiemoo*. The thuds that start while they are standing on the foyer, and the looks on their faces when they realise its people falling, people jumping. I think it's the worst thing I've seen in my life.

Just catching up on this thread but that must be the documentary I watched. I remember it being about firefighters and there being a part where all the sounds stopped, apart from the thuds.

It kept me awake at night for weeks, everytime I closed my eyes I could see the footage, absolutely horrifying.

I was in my NQT year, and was watching it in my classroom. I had to turn the TV off to teach my next lesson.

I had just finished Army training and was on leave before going out to Germany the following week. I was just about to turn 18, a few weeks later.
I remember the day well for obvious reasons, but I was also in a magistrates court that morning as a witness to a man getting his wallet taken by a robber. It happened about 4 months earlier.Thankfully, I didn’t need to give evidence so just waited in the waiting room for a few hours as the guy pleaded guilty.
I went to a friends house early that afternoon , and saw the breaking news of a plane hitting one of the twin towers.
I ,like most people assumed it was a terrible accident, until the second plane hit shortly afterward. Just seemed so unbelievable.
I got on a plane exactly a week later to fly to Germany to join my regiment ,it was a very surreal time. Of course everything was on high alert.

And to think that there are now young adults joining the Armed Forces/ Police service who weren’t even born in 9/11!

It really doesn’t even seem that long ago !

Weirdly, without even looking it up, I remember 11th September was a Tuesday, it’s etched in my memory.
2001 was actually a pretty good year for me up until that point- we had foot and mouth disease in the spring that year, I remember a lot of the Army training areas were shut for health and safety reasons , loads of sheep were destroyed!

I was in class (teaching foreign students English) and I got a text from a friend saying 'All flights to USA stopped - planes hijacked' but I assumed that it was a (sick) joke - it was a Tuesday and we were supposed to fly to NY / Vegas on the Saturday to get married.
I put the news on (I think it was about 2pm here) saying you my students (adults) there's been some sort of disaster in America - then I had to explain to them what had happened.
My boss then wheeled in a TV to my room so we could watch the news.
People kept asking us about our wedding plans but I felt bad talking about delayed plans as so many people had died.
We ended up going in October.

I was in my first week at law school doing a post graduate course - I remember one of the lads rushing to the lecture theatre and saying a plane had hit the WTC, I assumed it was a horrible accident. I remember going for drinks in the pub afterwards and just sitting watching the TV in shock. My brother was in NYC at the time and I couldn’t get hold of him - he was fine but no one knew that for several hours

I was 8 so I was at school and just remember coming home to watch it on the news. It then caused a mass anxiety within me that probably never left. I would stay up all night worrying about terrorists.

Bloody hell - 20 years.

I was at work (big US ISP, I worked at their London datacentre), was on the phone to someone in the network operations centre in New York and he just said "Shit, what the hell? Gotta go, I'll call you back", bit odd I thought, all became clear later. Watched the 2nd plane hit on the big TV we had on the wall.

Their datacentre was only a few blocks away from the WTC, think the emergency services actually used it as a base.

So many things are terrible to think about. I think the luckiest people that died ( if that makes sense) were the ones who had no idea, the people in the tower who were struck must have died instantly with no knowledge.
The thought of those poor people in the planes knowing what was probably going to happen. God there must have been children on board those planes, maybe even pregnant women 😢.
Any those people hanging out the windows desperate to be saved, some of whom jumped because of the heat and smoke
The world had evil in it that day .

DD2 who was 3 years old, had her ballet class that afternoon so we were out. When the class ended, went straight to pick up DD1 from school. So hadn't been home since lunchtime,. A friend came over in the playground and asked if I'd seen the news. I said 'no why'? And she told me.... will never forget that moment. Went straight home and putTV on. Could hardly believe what I was seeing....the world changed forever that day.