Where were you when 9/11 happened

[Floopyfloop]

I know this topic has been done many times before but this 9/11 seems to have really made me think about it more.

I was in an interview for an internal job change and the interviews were being held at a Marriott hotel. It would have been an amazing job to get. I got through the first round in the morning and rang my now husband to tell him I was through to the afternoon interviews on a payphone. He sounded really unnerved and told me that something awful had happened in NY and to see if I could watch the news somewhere. I asked them in reception if they had a telly. A crowd gathered and watched in stunned silence. Everyone thought it was an accident but as the second plane hit, everyone was horrified when we realised it was deliberate.

I was called into the interview about 5 minutes after the second tower was hit and I sat there white as a sheet, trying to keep it together. The interviewer asked if I was ok and I explained what had happened. She said that her brother worked in lower Manhattan and said she needed to leave. I really hope her brother was ok. After that all the interviews were cancelled for the day and we sat in the hotel bar watching it unfold.
There was a Marriott in the WTC complex so the staff were worried about their colleagues.

I had visited the WTC myself in the April of 2001 and I went to the Top of the World Observatories In the South tower.

Pretty much the same

I was 10.

Myself and the HR Director went into our boardroom and put the tv on. Soon around 50 more staff joined us. At this point we'd only seen the first plane aftermath, none of us realised that what we were watching was deliberate. When the second plane hit we were just in shock. I can't forget Sky showing images of people jumping. Horrific and unbelievable 😢

I was on summer hols from uni and was back at my parents house with my then boyfriend. My mum came home from somewhere and told us to turn on the TV as she'd heard something on the radio about a plane crashing into a tower in NY. We sat there in utter disbelief as the second plane hit live on TV. We didn't move from our seats for ages. It was very surreal.

I was a teacher. On a free period, walked past the office and the secretary told me. We then got a telly on wheels hooked up in the staff room as the Internet fell over with everyone trying to get on it at once.

Came home from what was the tail end of my summer job in the afternoon and put the TV on. Must have been just turned 20 and about to go into final year of uni. Maybe mum texted from work (or did I text her, can't remember).

I was in the London office on an internal training course. We were on a short lunch break and someone said a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center. It sounded completely bonkers. There was nothing online so I called my friend who worked in an office right opposite the WTC (I met her when I worked in NYC in the same office - we often used to go to Windows in the WTC for happy hour drinks together) and asked what was going on. She said "oh it's just a commuter plane" and didn't know anything really. As we talked the noise levels increased and she suddenly said "I have to go, we're being evacuated". This was just minutes before the second tower was hit. It was 48 hours later before I finally spoke to her again and I had been going out of my mind knowing she was just across the street when the second plane hit . I was so relieved she was still alive. She was pregnant at the time with her first child. Her husband and sister all worked nearby and managed to find each other and eventually walked home to south Brooklyn over many hours. They were traumatised for many years but also relieved that they were some of the lucky ones who survived.

Asleep, west coast of USA. Had a radio alarm clock so woke up to the news

In at a french Airport waiting to board a plane with colleagues. We boarded and arrived at Gatwick to an armed guard and news of the second hit. Not a day i will ever forget.

On a step ladder hanging wallpaper while pregnant with my Ds and fancied a change before he arrived, had the tv on in the background and immediately stopped climbed down throw up & started crying. It was really overwhelming a) because my mother is American and b) pregnancy hormones. I couldn't believe the actually horror that was unfolding.

I remember walking home from school, I must have been age 13 and my Mum met me as I came in the door and said, ‘something terrible has happened’ the way she said it it was as if someone close to me had died, the. I walked into the lounge and the TV was on, and I remember seeing the planes. I was shocked (but this sounds awful) I remember feeling relieved that no one we knew had died as the way she spoke about it was as if someone had!

I was walking past an electrical shop and they had live images on their TVs. I thought it was a film until I got home as there was no one stood watching it happen.

I heard it on the radio first and thought I was listening to a trailer for a film.

I have the same memory of being at school and the TV being rolled in and the shock and horror of the teachers, I was six. Now I have a six year old I can't even imagine exposing him to that as it unfolded no matter how much people felt they needed to watch.

I was 19 and had worked a night shift so was asleep when the first plane hit. My flat mate woke me up and told me to come and watch the news. It's weird I don't remember feeling emotional, more shocked.
I just come across a last phone calls from the towers on social media, listened to them while I was having my bath.. sobbing.

At high school. No idea what time it actually happened during that day as we didn't have the constant newsstream keeping us on edge 24/7 and mobiles were banned (which affected about 4 people in my class of 30). I'm actually glad of that. I'd never heard of the WTC until that day so it was really difficult to contextualise it.

I'd argue a lot of people had seen the skyline but had no clue what the buildings were called or what they were for, and they didn't exactly point to them on a before photo on the recurring 2 minutes of news that flooded all 5 TV channels for 2 or 3 days, they just assumed everyone knew. I had always thought the Manhattan skyline was blocks of flats as I'd never seen anything tall and rectangular that wasn't council flats, so I was sort of relieved no kids were hurt and later felt guilty about that.

But I never said a word because everyone was acting like they knew what it was and had been personally affected. One of my friends at school swore blind her aunt and cousins (our age) had been in the Pentagon when it got attacked and were recovering in hospital.

At school age 10 and had gone down to reception to get something for the teacher and found the receptionist in floods of tears listening to the radio. Shortly after parents started arriving to pick kids up early, pretty much everyone in my class had an aunt/uncle/cousin/older sibling living in New York so everyone was terrified.

At home watching it on tv after school. My dad called me and told me to turn on the TV, we had been at the twin towers two days before.

My dad and I had just returned from holiday in New York. We had been due to go a year before but he'd been Ill so this was a spontaneous trip on the way back from a family holiday in the Caribbean. Everyone else had to go home due to important school years but i was told I could go with dad for a week. Had a brilliant few days exploring but then dad decided it was time to head home as I was missing school. I've still kept my photos I took of the towers. Still find it very surreal.

I was at work, I worked in a lab and only a couple of the computers were internet enabled so we all crowded around one computer and couldn't believe what was happening.

Interrupted the programme I was watching on the telly & as pp said the 2nd plane hasn't hit yet so they didn't know what was going on. Watched tv the whole day in shock & bewilderment

Watching it unfold live on tv at home.

DH and I eating lunch with the bees in the background, they cut to the live feed after the first plane hit and we're taking like it was an accident.

The second plane hit live in the background the newsreader and at that point they realised it wasn't an accident.

I remember saying to DH I was surprised the towers could stay standing and then.........

At school, year 5. I was 9. The teachers pulled our three adjoining classes into one room, told us all to sit on the floor and rolled a tv in, where we all sat in stunned silence watching it.

that's crazy!

Working in London. It was my first job post university, working for a magazine. We had lots of TVs on the wall in the office, and I came back from lunch to see the smoke pouring out of the towers. Everyone just stood and watched in silence, I remember tears pouring down my face, and feeling so awkward because I was new and didn’t know anyone. Popbitch was talking about Al Qaida and Bin Laden straight away, the first time I had heard of either.

7/7 I was on my way in to work on the tube.

I had just started year 8 so I was at school. We were kept back in our form rooms after lunch register. Our head teacher came on the tannoy and told us. I didnt understand the severity at the time, obviously.

I was in year 7 at school. I was in English and the teachers put the TV on.

I was at my temp summer job from uni, driving into town at lunchtime and I heard the DJ say it was a sad day, and then the news talking about a plane flying into the WTC. My temp job was working for the MoD in the team that looks at air accidents. I just assumed it was a little two man plane that had gone off course, but wondered why it was such a big thing on the news.

When I got back to work everyone was in the conference room watching the news. Not much work got done that day. Took me forever to get to work the next day as all cars entering the site were searched to within an inch of their lives.