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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:
barskits · 10/09/2021 14:28

I was at home with a baby. One of my friends rang and told me to switch the tv on. The 2nd plane hit soon after, while I was watching, which was when the awful realisation dawned on me (and no doubt everyone else) that the first one had been no accident.

Thinking about still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up even now.

AreYouReally · 10/09/2021 14:30

I was breastfeeding my very young baby and watched the second plane hit. Called DH and they all watched from work. Sad

tillytoodles1 · 10/09/2021 14:38

I was at home and a friend rang to tell me. I put the TV on and watched people running down the road covered in ash. I felt like I was watching a horror movie.

YesPleaseMary · 10/09/2021 14:43

I was working in an office but we didn’t have internet. My boss rang in and said something about a plane crashing into a New York skyscraper and I assumed it was a small aircraft, terrible accident etc. When I got home my mum met me at the front door and asked if I’d seen the news. I said no and she said “You might want to sit down”. She wasn’t wrong.

schnubbins · 10/09/2021 14:50

I was at home with my kids aged 1 and 3 years .I had visitors , a family that we had met and holidays that summer.My husband called and told me to turn on the T.V .Turned it on and was watching when the second plane hit.I knew the world as we knew it had changed in that instant.

Tangledtresses · 10/09/2021 14:53

I was at work and the internet was playing up... got an email from a friend who worked in news it just said

PUT YOUR TV ON

So I did we had one in the office and nothing was really going on... so I left it on and got on with my work, then we all slowly turned to the saw the horror come on the news. And all sat there in completed disbelief and silence for what seemed like hours.

We all went home early that day.

Pallisers · 10/09/2021 14:54

I was in the US breastfeeding my 2 week old watching the news. DH had just gone to work. I can remember the news people first presuming it was a light aircraft/accident and then realising it was something far worse. Watching the second plane hit was surreal as was the silence in the skies for the following days. Friends of ours worked with a couple who died along with their toddler on one of the planes.

GameSetMatch · 10/09/2021 14:57

I was sick as a dog, duvet on the sofa, bucket by my side and I was watching the TV. The screen went black then an I mage of the twin towers came on the screen with a breaking news special. I remember watching with my mouth open as I watched the second plane hit.

campion · 10/09/2021 14:57

I'd just had a very trying afternoon trying to teach a new gcse group who specialised in gobbiness, flopped down in the staff room and my son rang at that moment and said "the World Trade Centre's collapsed".

I repeated out loud what he'd said as I couldn't quite take it in and I remember several colleagues rushing to the PC to get some info but the internet was overloaded and it took ages. Just shock, really.

I also remember how the band played the US national anthem at the changing of the guard the next day, and that many Americans were moved by that gesture.

CherryHug · 10/09/2021 14:58

I was 12. Remember coming home from school, turning on the tv and seeing the coverage.

Mad that it has already been 20 years.

SukiPook · 10/09/2021 14:59

I was nearly 27 and working in a call centre. We were on outbound calls but then people we rang started mentioning it and someone put the news up on the tvs that were all around the open plan building.. I just remember the shock when the 2nd plane hit and us all realising it was an attack not an accident. I can't remember did we get sent home early or what happened but there was no more work done, I'm sure. The rest of the day was definitely spent watching the unfolding events. There was an apocalyptic feel to it all. Everytime I rewatch it or a documentary I feel the shock all over again, I mean, we were on the other side of the ocean but when that happened we felt such shock and empathy for the people of New York

LaBellina · 10/09/2021 15:00

I was at home at my parents house, my younger brother came rushing in and told us to switch on the tv, someone on our street had told him what was going on.

KarenofSparta · 10/09/2021 15:01

I was doing work experience at a law firm in Islington. They had TVs in most of the main offices. We were all watching when the second plane hit and were told to go home early as London was on alert too. Though the younger ones, including me ended up going to the nearest pub first, where we just ended up watching more news coverage in shock, making phone calls etc.

PaperhouseLegs · 10/09/2021 15:04

I was on holiday in France with now DH. We were watching CNN live as that was the only English speaking channel we could find on the TV in the living room. We watched the first plane hit and the confusion in the studio...then watched the second plane...then the Pentagon and the crashes. We sat glued to the TV the entire day. I can remember it so clearly, like it was yesterday.

SolitaryTree · 10/09/2021 15:06

I found out after school.
I’d gone to a friends house and was stood in her dining room with the t.v on while her mum was in absolute disbelief only just watching for the first time too as she was a teacher and had been working all day.

Elderflower14 · 10/09/2021 15:06

I had been out shopping. First time I had gone alone since my husband had died a few weeks previously. A friend had asked me to pick something up for her. I dropped in with it just before she went to collect her ds1 from school. I walked into the sitting room and her ds2 was watching the news. I asked her why she was letting him watch such a horrible film and she said it wasn't a film and explained...

TartanJumper · 10/09/2021 15:29

I was 15, had just started Y11. I remember getting home, chatting on MSN and my friend saying to turn the TV on. The second plane had hit by then.
I watched the towers fall live.

Thewiseoneincognito · 10/09/2021 15:30

At home from sixth form watching Neighbours when the news flash hit. Literally jumped online to my AOL chat friends in NYC to check they were ok.

What always strikes me as a strange memory is how much of a hero Mayor Rudy Giuliani seemed during the chaos. He took command and was really the leader on the ground, what shame he turned into such a maniacal weasel.

garlictwist · 10/09/2021 15:33

I was between my first and second year of uni and at home as it was still the summer break.

I'd been shopping in town with my then boyfriend. We got back to his and turned on the TV and just watched it happen live.

HotMummaSummer · 10/09/2021 15:35

I was 9, no one told us at school. My sister (7) and I were supposed to go to after school club but mum came and picked us up. When we got home we had the TV on playing the clips of the planes crashing over and over. My sister and I got bored after a while and went to play, looking back we were to young to really understand what had happened...
When 7/7 happened in London we were told in school (lived in London) people were fearing for their parents lives, that definitely scared me more

MaverickDanger · 10/09/2021 15:37

One of my teachers mentioned something as I left school but wasn’t really paying attention. Came home & my dad was arriving home which was very unusual. I remember calling my mum about Flight 93 to say it had crashed.

DH lived in Australia & says he reckons he went to bed just as it happened. Woke up 10 hours later & headed out for a run & then did some homework. Actually didn’t find out until about 20 hours after it happened when his dad told him.

Lonelycrab · 10/09/2021 15:39

I’d just arrived with a friend at Kathmandu in Nepal, we were going on a trekking holiday. We’d been there about half an hour and went into a hotel to change some travellers cheques. They had it on the tv in reception showing live after the first plane hit. Then the second one came and everyone went quiet, realising this was no accident.

Family were quite worried as we were a long way from home and there wasn’t really any idea who was responsible at the time. Was a surreal few days as the information slowly filtered onto the news.

Seesawmummadaw · 10/09/2021 15:44

I had just walked to my mums with newborn ds. I had pnd and felt that the television was confirming my worst fears about the world.

Timeforachangetoday12 · 10/09/2021 15:46

Like others say I remember the day clearly. I’d been for an early hospital apt for treatment and when husband & I came home put TV on and shocked at the news - didn’t move just sat there watching it all unfold :(

Mercedes519 · 10/09/2021 15:46

I was at work. Went home and watched the footage in disbelief. My boss at the time was half way across the Atlantic. They were turned around half way but not told why until they landed back in the UK.

Watched a documentary several years after which was all the amateur footage rather than the news stuff and found it so much more real and brought home the scale and impact of it.

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