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Original poster

9/11 Life Under Attack - ITV last night. Sensitive content

137 replies

MydogWillow · 08/09/2021 10:38

I'm unsure where to post this as it's to off-load really.

I sometimes watch programmes on 9/11 but found last night's ITV one so incredibly harrowing. It's stuck with me moreso than the others possibly because it was mostly personal footage.

It was a superbly put together programme but has affected me so much last night and today. I just wanted to see if anyone else has been particularly affected by this one?

The footage which has particularly stayed with me are the things I haven't seen before: the thuds on the canopy, the eery piped music in the plaza/complex still playing in the aftermath, the lady speaking to the emergency service telephone operator and the students reactions.

The whole thing is still incomprehensible. I guess the personal footage brings home the impact that day had on ordinary people's lives and how they have coped since.

OP posts:
RedToothBrush · 08/09/2021 15:14

The footage is still edited and doesn't show the very worst. Thats why i call it sanitised.

Nkt because its not deeply distressing. It is. But it still is not on a par with stuff published in more recent terror attacks.

Noapplejustcrumble · 08/09/2021 15:14

I'd like to watch this but it's not on the ITV app, do you know anywhere I can watch it online?

Bloodybridget · 08/09/2021 15:16

I'm watching it on ITV Hub now

TonyThreePies · 08/09/2021 15:23

The first plane hitting and the sound of the explosion was horrific, I hadn't seen that before. The woman in the tower asking the call handler if she was going to die. The sounds of the music playing and the firefighters distress whistles. It was awful, all of it but I felt that I couldn't turn over, that it would be disrespectful somehow.
Apparently the last fire at WTC did not stop burning until December.

Original poster
MydogWillow · 08/09/2021 15:34

@TonyThreePies

The first plane hitting and the sound of the explosion was horrific, I hadn't seen that before. The woman in the tower asking the call handler if she was going to die. The sounds of the music playing and the firefighters distress whistles. It was awful, all of it but I felt that I couldn't turn over, that it would be disrespectful somehow. Apparently the last fire at WTC did not stop burning until December.
The music playing was surreal but in a different way to what had happened. I can't explain what I mean. It was like a weird scene from a film.
OP posts:
dreamingbohemian · 08/09/2021 16:28

I think 9/11 actually had faded from view in recent years. It's back now because it's the 20th anniversary and because of the Taliban victory.

I don't think it's the greatest tragedy in history but it is one of the few to be captured on live TV and that explains a lot. People are always going to be interested in disasters, look at the ongoing fascination with the Titanic -- that was more than 100 years ago, with no modern media, and people are still very interested in it. That is going to multiply 100-fold when people can actually watch all these videos and feel a more visceral impact.

I agree that people would be more horrified by what the US and UK have done overseas if they could see it for themselves -- look at the impact the Abu Ghraib photos had. Unfortunately, for that same reason, they don't make it easy to get things on film. And the Taliban are the same so now we're even less likely to be able to follow what's happening in Afghanistan.

3GreenPullups · 08/09/2021 17:37

Thanks for drawing this to my attention. I have just watched it. The firefighters distress whistles got me and the sounds of the jumpers. It never occurred to me it would be so loud. Just the stricken horror on the faces- even of the firefighters and other emergency crews who see things very working day.

Original poster
MydogWillow · 09/09/2021 07:36

Agreed, the sound of the jumpers particularly got to me and is something I'll never forget.

OP posts:
CeeceeBloomingdale · 09/09/2021 07:41

I watched and and also found it harrowing. I worked for an airline call centre at the time of it happening and will never forget the people I spoke to that day, the blind panic, and the stories of those trying to get home in the days afterwards. I'm glad I watched it but it was tough viewing.

Thirtyrock39 · 09/09/2021 07:49

Yes very harrowing
The family from California with the kids crying 'I don't want the other building to come down' was very upsetting but the worst was the noise of people falling and the lady on the phone to 911 saying 'I'm going to die aren't I' so so sad
I'm always very affected by 9/11 and have watched a lot of the new documentaries but this one was particularly upsetting .
The one thing with the 911 calls sometimes the call handlers sound a bit abrupt on the phone to people trapped in the towers telling them to stay where they are and help is coming etc but probably were panicked themselves and overwhelmed but this one was very kind and it was heartbreaking you could tell they both knew she was going to die and that she would stay on the line with her

CookPassBabtridge · 09/09/2021 11:18

I feel like this after watching too. There's just something so haunting about it all. I watched one on netflix last week and it had a lot of telephone calls made from passengers in the plane to loved ones. What got me was the calmess of them.. they had accepted their fate and were speaking with no tears. I think that got me more!

CookPassBabtridge · 09/09/2021 11:21

The jumpers... Sad To go into work on a seemingly normal day, have your coffee, start setting up... then suddenly have a choice between burning alive or jumping to your death, maybe having kids at home.. then actually jumping knowing you're going to die. Committing suicide without wanting to... horrific! We can all relate to those people as they were just like us..

TonyThreePies · 09/09/2021 11:47

@CookPassBabtridge

The jumpers... Sad To go into work on a seemingly normal day, have your coffee, start setting up... then suddenly have a choice between burning alive or jumping to your death, maybe having kids at home.. then actually jumping knowing you're going to die. Committing suicide without wanting to... horrific! We can all relate to those people as they were just like us..
That's exactly it Cook. Normal people just starting another normal day at the office. I can't begin to imagine the horror of their last moments.
Motherdare · 09/09/2021 11:53

The world changed that day. Did we know it then?

3GreenPullups · 09/09/2021 11:58

The thing i thought was so odd was the mother who was annoyed and resentful that she had to go in to collect her child. The teacher saying 'I was wondering when I would hear from you' In a fairly frustrated tone. Then they were okay about sharing that with the world. It was so odd, as I would think I'd be rushing to get my child back to me. But, you never CAN predict how you would react in what is essentially a massive national crisis like that, so maybe I would have been paralysed with a sort of shock also.

chococats · 09/09/2021 12:38

3greenpullups - yes I noticed that particular moment, the school teacher gave them a really strange look, seemed annoyed.

I thought it was a very interesting programme, it was hard to watch, but very insightful. Can't believe it's been 20 years.

LetsGoFlyAKiteee · 09/09/2021 12:42

Haven't seen this one but watched the 6 parter one. So so sad! Well put together but the footage..

Story gets me still is Ron Clifford..helped a lady with burns after the first plane hit. Saw the 2nd plane hit...got her into a ambulance. Went home and found out his sister and niece were on that 2nd plane.

REP22 · 09/09/2021 12:51

I haven't seen this documentary, but I do know the sounds referred to. I have since then never been able to hear to Billy Joel's "Always A Woman" without distress (it was one of those piped out in the Plaza, among others.). The whole day, the sights, sounds, the not knowing who was safe. Awful.

I do think it is right to record the words and testimonies of everyone there, while they're still alive. Eyewitness testimony is incredibly powerful, though often almost unbearable to consider.

Soubriquet · 09/09/2021 12:53

I was watching one on Netflix and he showed scenes I had never seen before. It really got to me

I thought I had seen it all but no.

Soubriquet · 09/09/2021 12:56

It’s called Turning Point:- 9/11 the war on terror if anyone is interested. If snob Netflix

Tana433 · 09/09/2021 13:32

I watched it because i 'thought i should' and it is a very important part of history but i was horrified by it i have to say. The thumps on the canopy, the people on various floors phoning emergency services and being told 'stay where you are ,we are coming to get you'. Heartbreaking. The most poignant was the lady just clutching her baby and staring wildly out of her window because she didnt know what to do or where to go for the best. So sad but wonderfully made as an historic documentary of an awful day.

Realyorkshiretea · 09/09/2021 13:36

I have to be honest I’m very uncomfortable with the phone calls from the towers appearing in things like this. I find it ghoulish. Those poor people didn’t give their permission for their final moments to be played out for the public to see even 20 years later. They were supposed to be private messages to family and friends.

RedToothBrush · 09/09/2021 14:10

@Motherdare

The world changed that day. Did we know it then?
Yes I think many people knew straight away.

Simply because it took away the 'innocence' of many and exposed them to the horrors of the world in a way most in the West hadn't experienced since WWII. More so for Americans because even in WWII the only attack on home soil had been far away Pearl Harbour not on the mainland.

I think what we didn't know was how that would change things.

3GreenPullups · 09/09/2021 14:21

I was living abroad when it happened. That evening (time zone difference) I was out at a function attended by a load of US Army guys. I got home, heard on the radio while I was brushing my teeth that a plane had gone into the WTC. I thought 'that's wierd' turned the radio off and went to bed.

The next morning the world had changed. And the town where I was living was completely empty of the Us Army guys. They just vanished literally overnight. (I assume they were sent to another base)

dreamingbohemian · 09/09/2021 14:23

I'm not sure. Personally I didn't think 'the world' would change that day. It felt epochal for the US itself, and clearly we would retaliate in Afghanistan, but if you remember how much support and sympathy the US had from all over the world even our usual adversaries were sympathetic it seemed possible that countries could put aside their differences and figure out ways to tackle terrorism in a cooperative way.

For me the real change was apparent when Bush gave his axis of evil speech and it became clear that the US was going to invade Iraq, that we were in for many years of horrible warfare that would devastate an entire region.