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 was at work. We heard on the news a plane had hit the twin towers and like OP we thought it was a light aircraft....we were even a bit about how that could happen. When the 2nd one struck we put the tv on and the enormity of it was astounding.

Was working from home as DS was poorly. I had the news on while we were having our lunch so saw it all unfold live on air.

Was up in the middle of the night with DS (who was a terrible sleeper as a little one) on the night the SE Asian tsunami struck, again watching the news.

I can also remember where I was on 7/7/05. In a soft play centre with DS and friends. The TV was on (but without sound) but again we watched events unfold via the news.

I was at work. Watched it on the tv in the office. I have to say I didn't really know what the twin towers were at the time (not very worldly wise!) but That didn't lessens the significance of a building that size collapsing on a working day. It just didn't feel real in the news footage until bodies started being pulled out of the rubble. It was like a disaster movie, so hard to take in the reality.

I also remember 7/7 I had gone to work late after doing some voluntary work, and all the tube stations were closed - I walked for miles trying to find a different way - trying to call work and I couldnt make a call on my mobile. After a while I gave up and walked home. Then I put the tv on and saw what had happened.

I was on the beach in Larnaca Cyprus. I was cabin crew and all the phones were going off with messages about the planes in NY. I went back to my room to see the news and kept thinking, ‘why is this stupid film on every channel’. That was no film 😢

I was in the American Midwest, and the first I heard of it was during first period a teacher came in and asked to take the TV (one of those big CRTs on a trolley) to watch something on a "bombing of the World Trade Center".

It was when I went into the next period I learned that the previous teacher wasn't talking about the '93 bombing, but what was going on that day - I was in time to watch the second plane hit. The rest of the school day alternated between teachers who tried to keep things normal and those who gave over to us watching the news.

I had driver's ed class that evening, and just before I went there was 2 loud booms, and by the time I got to class, there were rumours that the nearby military base or a local hospital had been hit. It was sonic booms from planes taking off from the military base, though why they were taking off in the late afternoon, I'm not sure. I imagine many places in the States near military bases have similar stories.

I spent the rest of the evening with the news on while writing papers for English class and talking with friends online from all over. I was in an online writing and roleplaying group and a few members were from New York so it was all watching for them to get on.

The next day, the school seemed divided between those wearing peace imagery and those wearing military ones, but it all quickly fizzled out.

I was at work. I'd popped out of the classroom for something and saw a parent who informed me that something dreadful had happened in America. I said I hoped no one was hurt. I will always remember him saying, ' I think a couple of people have died.'
It still gives me goosebumps.

I was working in a place with a bar where out in the massive screens to watch. Everyone was silent and shocked and the whole room gasped as the fist tower collapsed. I remember someone saying that the USA was going to start world war 3. Also recall trying to keep my 2 year old from seeing the footage as it was on every channel for what seemed like weeks.

Was living in Cyprus, all terrestrial news channels reverted back to Greek so we didn't fully know what was going on.

I rang home - family were in London - and my sister answered (she must have been about 13) and she just kept saying "have you seen the planes" over and over. Youngest brother was sent home from school as soon as it happened with the news "something terrible has happened, everyone needs to go home"

Oddly I know someone who's parents were due to go up the twin towers that day I know, I know but it's the truth

the tsunami in 2004 filled me with dread because I had a bunch of my best friends who were on holiday in Phuket.
we watched the news after Boxing day lunch and my SIL said "oh I'm sure they will be fine, tsunamis like this happen all the time". she couldn't have been more wrong about the scale of it.

Amazingly my friends were ok.
All of them got hit by it but survived.
one had clung to a palm tree for 5 hours and had severe injuries on his arm and torso, another broke her ankle.
And one of their phone made it through so I got a reply to my intial text after 4 days - by then I was out of my mind with worry having seen the death toll rising.
I visited them next spring & I couldn't have hugged them tighter.

I was 11 in year 7. The teacher was about 20 minutes late for the lesson. She explained the situation and answered our questions. Then we carried on with the lesson, went for the next lesson where that teacher gave us an update. It didn't get spoken about much at home as parents decided we were too immature to know t je full extent.
I didn't fully understand the gravity of the situation until watching the news footage of the war on iraq and the bombings in Baghdad. I remember feeling terrified that it was ww3 and we'd be bombed next. That's the loss of innocence I suppose

I was in y11 at school. Somehow we had managed to not hear the news of it all day. I walked all unsuspectedly into the house where my mum was sat in front of the tv with tears streaming down her face. She told me what had happened and the whole family was glued to the tv watching the horror unfold for the rest of the day. Just awful.

I was working at a training event in a hotel in Inverness. After the course, I switched on the tv in my room while I got ready for dinner.. ended up just sitting on the end of the bed watching the news, horrified. Couldn’t believe what I was seeing - just awful.

Long long way from home in a flying job and watched it pretty much all unfold in a room on TV along with several dozen people of various nationalities pretty much all in the same line of work.

Really unpleasant 24 hours later getting “back in the saddle” to head back to the UK and lots of worries about job security.

The stories we heard over the following weeks from those who were in the air flying over the Atlantic towards the US that day were quite sobering, to say the least. Lots of people in the air and on the ground did a tremendous amount of good work that day keeping people safe and sound.

As an American it's really fascinating to read all these stories, thanks for starting this thread OP

I was living in DC at the time and was right next to the White House when the local news said a fourth plane was headed toward us. People were literally running out of the WH it was terrifying. I'll never forget the poor people who crashed that plane and saved god knows how many lives.

I'm from NYC originally and a lot of friends and family had close calls at the WTC or lost people. My cousin was on the street when the first plane hit and had to run for her life from the falling wreckage. My dad worked in the area and we couldn't reach him all day, it was awful.

The days afterward in DC were very surreal, and then we had the anthrax terrorism not long after. It was a crazy time. I can't believe it's been 20 years.

I was away at camp with a class of primary school children. My Dh phoned and told me what had happened, as did the families of some of the other staff, but we decided not to tell the children. We were all really on edge for the rest of the time we were there - every time a plane flew over I remember being really nervous. Watching it on the TV when I got back was just completely surreal.

I was 18, at home by myself. Parents were at work, younger sister at school and I was waiting to start university. I was watching TV when the news report came on and watched the live footage of the second plane hitting the tower.

Just the other day rewatched 'World Trade Center' film with Nicolas Cage which made me think about it all again .

I can't imagine what it must have been like being in the States at the time. It all felt quite surreal watching it unfold 'across the pond'.

Not sure making school children watch it all on TV was the right thing to do - traumatising.

Dds were still home from uni, and I came home to find one of them white-faced at the door. Dh was abroad on business, so my first thought was him/plane crash or other catastrophe.

Stunned to see what was on TV. We’d been glued to it for maybe an hour, when dh’s old aunt phoned, complaining bitterly that Countdown wasn’t on.

I said, ‘But haven’t you seen the dreadful thing that’s happened in New York?’
‘I don’t care! I want Countdown!’ 🤬

I also remember all too well exactly a year later, when the news was full of the first anniversary, but all I could think of, was that the vet was coming at 3.30 to put our poor old dog to sleep. 😭

Dh worked for one of the companies who had their offices in one of Towers.

They lost a lot of people that day.
Dh was often in New York with the company.

I was at work in a sailing school, sat at my desk. Best friend at the time ran in with a horrified look on his face and dragged me to the bar where a TV was on. The first plane had just but, and I was so confused thinking it was a film or something...then we saw the next plane swoop in. We all stiff there in complete silence

I was in work and a colleague coming back from lunch announced the news as the tv was on in the rest room.

My sister will always remember what she was doing that day as she had her smear test.

@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.

I'm not sure they would have known; this was the days before smart phones!

I'd just qualified as a primary teacher and was 2 weeks into my first job. I didn't find out until I was driving home listening to the radio. Went in and told my parents about the terrible plane crash in America. They knew because it had been on TV all day. I remember feeling really out of the loop!

I also remember my 7 and 8 year olds coming in talking about it the next day and I felt really ill-equipped for how to help them deal with it. No trauma training on our teaching course!

I was teaching an all-boy group of Year 9 pupils in the school library. One of the receptionists rushed in and said to put the TV on as there had been a terrorise attack in America.

TV went on and staff and pupils watched it open-mouthed. The next day I was almost late for school as I was watching the news and couldn’t drag myself away. We were told to talk to the pupils about it if they wanted to so I had another Year 9 group and we spent period 1 trying to make sense of the attack.

I was working on a bank trading floor in Canary Wharf. We had news screens on all over the floor so watched the second plane hit 'live'. The floor went absolutely silent for 5-10 mins as nobody could quite work out what was happening, then absolute chaos. Both the financial markets with clients calling up desperate to trade out of positions, plus as a global bank, concern about friends and colleagues in NY. Many of the traders worked regularly with Cantor Fitzgerald so were obviously very upset.

There were rumours flying around that Canary Wharf might be a target, so after a while they started sending people home, with the exception of a handful of traders (including DH) who were asked to work through the night to cover the NY business which was obviously not working. I didn't sleep a wink that night as I was so worried our Canary Wharf office would be attacked with DH in it.