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Original poster

Where were you on 9/11?

265 replies

JorisBonson · 10/09/2021 12:40

I was 16 and at college, having a rip roaring time in the student union bar with my fake ID.

Noticed a few people gathered round a small TV after the first plane hit. The union ended up pulling down the projector screen usually reserved for football, just as the second plane hit. We sat there for hours and hours just watching and not believing what we were seeing.

Can't believe it's been 20 years.

OP posts:
ZittiEBuoni · 10/09/2021 12:42

I was at work in an open-plan office. Colleague returned from lunch and told us what had happened. None of us believed him (he was the 'office joker') and tried to get on news websites to check, but in those dial-up days all the news sites had crashed.

Didn't see it for real until I got home and turned on the TV, but even then it was almost impossible to believe.

Crunchymum · 10/09/2021 12:44

I was in Cyprus (lived and worked out there for that season)

Rest of family in London

Future MIL and FIL were in NYC and due to go up the viewing tower that evening.

Shallysally · 10/09/2021 12:44

This has made my hairs prickle. Remember so clearly, I had just finished a work shift, got home and my brother rang me and asked if I’d got the TV on.
We watched in horror, I was in tears, we had friends in New York at that time. Thankfully they were not caught up in the events.

Lellochip · 10/09/2021 12:45

I was at school, no one told us so didn't know til I came home and wondered why there was some disaster film on instead of Countdown

TotheletterofthelawTHELETTER · 10/09/2021 12:46

I was still at home on my university summer break. My Dad and I watched Diagnosis Murder together every lunch time. We sat down to watch and it was interrupted by the news... at first, we were like “where’s Dick Van Dyke gone?” Before we realised what was happening.

Crunchymum · 10/09/2021 12:46

I believe it was the South Tower they had tickets for.

alloalloallo · 10/09/2021 12:47

I was heavily pregnant, at home on mat leave - it was my daughter’s due date.

I remember dozing on the sofa and then waking with a start feeling really panicky. Calmed down, got a cup of tea and switched on the TV and there it was.

Winterfellismyhome · 10/09/2021 12:48

I was 9 and came home from primary school and saw it on the news

Igmum · 10/09/2021 12:48

At a conference. A colleague told me and I didn't believe/understand it at first. Because we were in our insulated conference bubble we really didn't pick up on how serious it was. I remember a reception being cancelled. I also remember speaking to a US academic who had left her kids to attend a conference for the first time. She couldn't get a plane back to the States.

Nothingoriginalhere · 10/09/2021 12:50

Just finishing my eldest dd very first school run in Riyadh KSA, by the time we got home we watched the second plane hit. This was about 1:30/2pm Riyadh time and by 5pm there were armed guards on the compound and on the school bus and outside school and we had been told not to leave the compound and go into Riyadh as much as usual.

Brollypackedforscottishholiday · 10/09/2021 12:52

I had given birth on 10 th August and I had been feeding ds then we both had a nap.. Woke up to the footage and truly thought at first it was a film showing. Volume was off and I just saw the second crash.. Was in floods of tears... Shock and sheer disbelief.. A friend of a relative lost her life and she had the same name as my dd.
Many people from our area also including a teacher previously from our primary school..
Bet many many people have some sort of connection to a victim. Makes it so much more real imo.

MummBraTheEverLeaking · 10/09/2021 12:53

Home from uni and my uni boyfriend had come to stay. My family were out and we'd wandered downstairs to switch on tv, then shortly after it all started and we watched the whole thing in horror. I said the towers would fall, he thought they were structurally sound enough to stay, sadly I was right Sad

TheDistortion · 10/09/2021 12:56

I was 26, at work. We had an office in New York a block or two from the World Trade Centre and one of my colleagues had just transferred back to us in London. I heard her on the phone to the New York office and from the tone of her voice I could tell something was dreadfully wrong, while she was on the phone I tried to bring up some news sites and couldn’t get on any of them, so I knew something had happened. Eventually managed to get Sky News and then the IT guys got news video playing. In my mind I saw the second plane crash but I don’t think I did, I did see the towers collapse though. We were scared London would be attacked.

Chemenger · 10/09/2021 12:56

The BA lounge in Heathrow.

ExplodingCarrots · 10/09/2021 12:56

I was in school but no one had noticed or said anything . On the walk home with my friend I popped into the pub where my mum was working to say hello and everyone was just staring at the tv. As I walked in the north tower collapsed. I remember being terrified watching it .

beguilingeyes · 10/09/2021 12:56

I was at work, for Barclays in Canary Wharf. The guy sitting next to me was watching on BBC News so we all saw it unfold. We had colleagues over from New York who became marooned here for a while.

During the initial panic the big tower at Canary Wharf was evacuated, and I think we got sent home early.

I know a guy who works for Cantor Fitzgerald and their whole New York office was wiped out, they were on one of the top floors. It affected him really badly.

A friend of mine was in New York and had lunch at the top of one of the towers the day before

Menstrualcycledisplayteam · 10/09/2021 12:57

I was working in an office which had a cafeteria with a TV. UK, so was coming to the end of lunchtime. Someone came back to the office and said that there had been a terrible accident and a plane had flown into the Trade Centre. We all piled down to the cafeteria to watch the news and saw the second one hit - at which point we realised that it wasn't an accident.

FreeBritnee · 10/09/2021 12:58

I was in the living room doing something completely mundane when I turned the television on. I didn’t understand what was going on for ages, then the second plane hit and then it felt like the end of the world. I think I rang my mum.

CMOTDibbler · 10/09/2021 12:59

I was flying somewhere for work, and had a stopover between flights so went to the lounge. Found everyone sat in silence watching as the second plane hit, and that was the first I knew about it.

thegcatsmother · 10/09/2021 12:59

About to teach Year 8.

Latenightreader · 10/09/2021 13:00

I was finishing off my dissertation in my last couple of weeks at university. There were three MA students in college and we used to meet in the MCR for lunch and watch neighbours. When the ‘breaking news’ came on after we all assumed the Queen Mother had died. Very shortly into the news announcement the second plane hit, and then it was clear it wasn’t a terrible accident with a small plane. I don’t think any of us spoke for the next couple of hours except to exclaim in horror.

LeafOfTruth · 10/09/2021 13:01

@ZittiEBuoni

I was at work in an open-plan office. Colleague returned from lunch and told us what had happened. None of us believed him (he was the 'office joker') and tried to get on news websites to check, but in those dial-up days all the news sites had crashed.

Didn't see it for real until I got home and turned on the TV, but even then it was almost impossible to believe.

This was my experience too. Lots of rumour in the office and it was hard to seperate truth from fiction - talk of a second tower being hit, then the pentagon, then one tower falling down, then the other. It all seemed to unbelievable and I assumed panic had 'bigged up' what had really happened. When I got home, saw the news and realised it was all true I couldn't get my head around it. I still can't - it just is too big for me to really comprehend.

A big memory is ground zero being in the news for weeks as they struggled to find people then put out fires.

gnarlyauldboiler · 10/09/2021 13:02

I was doing the drugs round in a care home when I was on the nursing agency. We all just stopped what we were doing and couldn't believe what was happening.

DayDate · 10/09/2021 13:05

I was in town with DS1 in the pram, in the days when electrical shops had TVs in the widows, so I saw the footage, but it was ages before it dawned on me that there's be thousands of people in the buildings and they weren't "just" burning buildings.

zafferana · 10/09/2021 13:06

I was at work in the City of London, so saw it all on TV. I often confirmed trades with the guys at Cantor Fitzgerald in NY. I remember talking to them about the amazing view from their offices Sad DH was at work in NY, about 10 blocks north of the WTC. He was really affected by it.