Where were you on 9/11?

[JorisBonson]

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.

I was at home, pottering around, kids at school.
I would have been waiting to listen to the Archers at 2, and I’m pretty sure there was a newsflash that sent me to the TV, so I was watching when the second plane hit.
Despite having been there and knowing how big the towers were, my brain couldn’t comprehend that an airliner could have been flown like that, so I was convinced it was just a commuter plane
(Well the whole thing was incomprehensible really, however many times they showed it )

One of my team called me out of my office to watch it on the TV in the Young People's Centre as it was unfolding, after the first plane.

We diverted the phones and the whole team, plus numerous young people, watched it together, for most of the day.

Having a goodbye family lunch before going to Uni the next day. I remember going home and bursting into tears about leaving home and having second thoughts about uni. Lots of hugs from my mum, she made me a frothy hot chocolate with all the trimmings and we turned on the TV… I think we watched continually unable to comprehend what was unfolding….

I was a student working in Millets at the time, I remember walking to take the money to the bank and past a shop which sold TV’s and saw a clip of a plane hitting the towers but didn’t register it was the news thought it was a film. When I finished work I headed to my boyfriends house where he told me what was going on in America and I realised it wasn’t a film I saw earlier.

At work at a new job in Munich, colleague walked in to see whether a defunct TV stashed in my office could be made to work. The whole work unit then ended up watching in the conference room instead for the rest of that day.

I'd just moved back to Europe the week before after finishing a doctorate in California and was struggling with major reverse culture shock, so watching events unfold from the other side of the Atlantic was even more disorientation. Had good friends in NYC, all thankfully unharmed, and somebody I knew from my martial arts dojo had been booked on but missed the flight that went down in PA.

On that day I had the news on whilst our 1year old was napping so I saw it all unfold. I immediately rang my husband at work as it was so shocking. He didn't believe me at first.

I was at school, no one told us.
Came home and thought something was strange because my mum had the TV on and she never had the TV on during the day.
Remember seeing the picture of the first tower on fire on the TV screen, the rest is a blur really, just taking in the news.
Apart from Princess Di's funeral, I don't think our family had ever sat around the telly together for that long.

I was in school at the time, and didn't know anything about it till I got home. We didn't have the TV on. My brother came home and said have you heard what's happened in America, we said no, and he said a plane has crashed into the world trade center, it will be on the news, we put the TV on and couldn't believe what we were seeing. We watched the towers fall.
I was 15 at the time it was shocking and heartbreaking then , but as I've got older it effects me more now than ever. The loss of those lives it's hard to think about what everyone on that day went through and still to this day.

I was working in a school. It was largely forces children. At the end of the day many were picked up by airbase staff if both of their parents were in the forces as their parents had been shipped somewhere or were in important meetings. So I knew there was going to be war.

My friend who works for a big brokers in Canary Wharf lost almost all of their staff who worked in the twin towers. Only the few who phoned in sick or who were late didn’t dienas they were above the escape zone. Half the company gone in one go. The company continued to pay the medical insurance for families who lost someone that day for many years.

I had a day off and had just got home from a haircut and was parking the car when I heard the news
I yelled to hubby as he was up a ladder doing something to our front bedroom window as he has relatives in America
That was our baby's first day at nursery school and a friend was picking her up from morning childcare and taking her to school so DH and I could watch in horror and try to call relatives
Said friend's grandad was on a flight back from America and she was desperately trying to find out where he had been redirected to

I was working at Canary Wharf at the bottom of the tower. My boyfriend rang me and said why are you still there- you need to get out (at that point there was a rumour that other planes might target London). There were people pouring out of the tower and running on to the tube and the DLR and my bitch of a manager was the only one who made us all stay. Unbelievable!

I saw the photos of the newspapers when I got to London Bridge.

I was taking DD to a toddler gymnastics class. There was a television in the parents' waiting area and as soon as I walked in a friend rushed up and said a plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre.

I thought she meant a light aircraft had hit it accidentally. Then the second plane hit and then the South Tower collapsed.

I tried to avoid the news until DD had gone to bed that evening but then I watched it for hours in sickened horror. I still can't comprehend the cruelty involved. It made me believe there was no hope for the human race.

I remember seeing a photograph of a woman signalling for help from that obscene gash in the North Tower. For years I hoped she'd managed to escape. A few months ago I found out she didn't. I think of her every time 9/11 is mentioned.

It was a long, long time before I could hear or see a jet plane in the sky without a prickle of uneasiness.

I was working at a Day Service for adults with learning disabilities. After lunch we'd always put Neighbours on in the lounge for some of them while we helped others with personal care. Can remember one chap shouting indignantly that Neighbours had been interrupted by a film about a plane crash. Went to see what he was making such a fuss about and realised it wasn't a film but a news report. Was hard to explain to them all what was happening in America as us staff couldn't even comprehend it. Afternoon activities didn't happen that day as we all watch it unfold on tv

I was at work in my office in Reading when someone saw the news and called us over As we watched on his computer, the second plane hit. I worked for an American company that had offices in WTC. One of my colleagues was over there but wasn't in WTC at the time, but 13 American colleagues died. When it happened I said straight away that whoever had done it had declared war on America. I also remember feeling very strongly the link between America's aggressions in other countries and what was then happening. After the second plane hit we closed the office and went home.
At that time we had a Texan CEO who used to record global staff bulletins we could access via our phones. For several weeks after 9/11 he was sending messages asking American employees in New York to donate blood. And then one morning he listed our the names of the 13 employees who had died, and gave details of the people they had left behind. A lot of them had young families.

I'd started at a new job the day before (so 20 years ago today) and we were doing a few weeks of training. We'd all just been to lunch and were coming back into the conference room and one of my colleagues had been listening to the radio during lunch and told us what had happened. Only the first plane had hit at that point so we just assumed it was a nasty accident.

Dh (then boyfriend) was starting uni that week so had been to get his hair cut. They had the radio on in the barbers and he heard about it and then went straight to our local pub and watched it unfold on the TV. I joined him when I got home from work.

I had the day off work and had the tv on in the background, couldn't believe what I was watching and will never forget what I watched that day.

I was 7 and remember mum picking us up from school and as we walked across the road to the car she asked if we'd been told what had happened. The school had taken part in one of those things where all the children in the UK jump at a certain time on a certain day a few days before and I remember my sister asking if we'd made an earthquake. Then mum must have told us. I don't remember much else of it really though I do vaguely remember seeing some news footage but think it must have effected me quite a lot to have such a vivid memory of finding out.

I was 20 and working as an office junior. I went in one of the secretary's office and she said to me and some others have you heard about the World Trade Center it's been bombed. I went oh right (had never heard of it). She said it's really bad you know. I said sorry I hadn't heard of it. One of my colleagues was on the phone after work to her boyfriend and he told her about the pentagon. Then I went to the gym and it was playing out on the TVs and then I realised how bad it was and felt awful I hadn't even know what it was. I remember people crowding around the tv just watching the plane going into the tower again and again.

I was on my uni summer holiday and gaming with my then boyfriend.

We had the wireless on and the news came on to say a plane had hit. I had visions of some twin engined thing caught in fog but straight away he said “no chance, it just wouldn’t happen nowadays; this is terrorism” and sadly he was right

I was working in the City of London and thought it would be us next. Unbelievable that's it 20 years.

I was at school in a geography lesson and we were about to watch a film about something can't remember what. The teacher had turned the TV on and we saw a plane go into a building as she put the film on. I remember we were all complaining coz we wanted to watch the action movie we thought we saw. None of us knew what had happened until we got home. Isn't it crazy how much we remember about that day 🤔.

I was at home watching neighbours whilst chatting to friends on the internet (on forums and the messenger programs of the day).

I spent the afternoon describing what was going on to friends at work who couldn't see what was going on and were only getting delayed updates from the bbc website.

It was odd telling people what was happening as it happened. I was watching live as the second plane hit and then the towers fell down.

At school. I remember everyone thought it was a bomb at first, there was a lot of confusion. Went home and watched the news with my mum. It really didn’t seem real.

On the phone to someone at Cantor Fitzgerald on 103rd floor of North Tower.
No one from the company in the office that day survived, they were vaporised immediately.
I remember walking through the city of London later in the day to see if my dad was in the London office or in the New York one - thank god he was due to travel the week after. It was so quiet, pretty much everyone had evacuated because we feared a later attack on our financial centre.

@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.

Similar. We took it in turns to leave the office and watch it on tv through a tv shop window. All the main news websites had crashed I think.