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.

At work in a shop, and customers told me bits and pieces about what happened - we didn’t have a TV at work. Some of them said WW3 was about to start but I thought they were exaggerating and didn’t realise how serious it was until I went home and saw it on the news.

I'd just started year 11. It must have happened while I was sat in my first GCSE history lesson of the year- learning about Jack the Ripper- but I didn't find out about it until about 90mins later when I walked through the front door to find my mum sat, cross legged on the floor, watching the "jumpers" on the news. I sat down with her and remember the idea of the people leaping to their death because they had no other choice made me feel sick.

That was exactly what I wondered, too.

At school. Some kids knew what had happened as their teacher had heard and turned on TVs.

The rest of us thought they were making it up.

It was a rural school so they were all talking about it as we were all waiting to be bussed home. Was another hour before I found out they were telling the truth.

Working in a secure unit. Came back from a meeting and there was no one around which is obviously really unusual in that sort of place. Found everyone sitting in a room in silence watching it on the TV (to have literally everyone in one room without fights etc was even more unusual).

At work. A friend who worked for a media organisation texted me to put the news on. She then rang me and told me what was happening. The first tower came down as we were talking. We had a friend who had stayed at a hotel in one of the twin towers literally the day before. I remember not computing it was happening at the time because of the time difference.

There's a documentary that was re-shown over the weekend that follows George Bush and the US administration as the events unfold. It is compelling.

I was in an airport! About to get on a plane from one part of my honeymoon to the next part. Tour guide with poor English told us "the world trade centre is falling down. " we thought it couldn't be true, went upstairs there was a screen with no sound or subtitles showing footage. Then spent a week with no tv internet newspapers so missed all the aftermath and didn't really understand the whole thing until later.

@BiscuitsandPuffin

I think people assume everyone has the same general knowledge, I knew what the twin towers were because there had been TV and news coverage about the building and then the opening during my childhood (I was born when they were building the foundations).

After that Philippe Petit's tightrope walk was quite big news.

So it was sort of in the background of my childhood.

It blows my mind that there are actual adults who don't remember 9/11.

I was having a nap, some medication I was on made me sleepy, I woke up and put the TV on.

I think I saw the second plane hit, but I'm not sure, because there was so much TV coverage over the following days that my memories are a bit mixed up.

If you have not seen Jules and Gedeon Naudet's film 9/11 I highly recommend it.

The brothers were making a documentary following a rookie firefighter for his first year in the NY fire service. And he doesn't get called to any fires, shift after shift, nothing happens.

Then 9/11 happens.

I was at school. On the way home my mum stopped to talk with someone and they mentioned two planes hitting a building. I was just running around not really listening to the conversation.

When I got home I walked into the living room and my dad was sat staring at the tv. He looked horrified. When I looked at the screen I saw a plane smash into the WTC and heard loads of screaming.

I had no idea what was going on but it looked terrifying. I just remember thinking it just looked like absolute chaos. My mum sat down and explained briefly what had happened. It was the first time I'd ever sat glued to the tv watching the news.

At home in Frankfurt. We’d moved there a few days earlier and I hadn’t yet started work. We were about 500m from the business district with all its tower blocks (not quite on the scale of New York) and people were petrified that something similar might happen there too.

I was driving a short distance to my friend’s house after work. I truly thought it was a radio play until I got there and they were all watching the TV absolutely horrified. It’s a moment I will never forget. RIP to the victims and those who are still grieving.

I was working in Manchester for the Insolvency Service and the Official Receiver wheeled a TV in and we all watched the horror unfold. He told us we could go home if we wanted everyone did- i went home and on the bus scared of seeing other planes around the Manchester skyscrapers ( as no one knew of other cities around the world would be hit). Breathed a sigh when I got out of the city. So awful 😞

At work
Like others, I heard about the first plane and assumed accident
Then it all unravelled further. There was a TV as well but I am not sure how much I watched it
I remember all the planes being grounded, the stories of the 3rd and 4th planes, and wondering when it would end
I remember hearing jets were about to shoot down another plane as they hadn't been able to make contact with it. Imagine if that had also happened
When the buildings fell, it was beyond horror. All those first responders who did so much to help.

At home plastering, needed another bag of plastering so went and got one. The bloke at the builders merchants mentioned something about the twin towers, came home, turned the tv on and within a couple of minutes the first tower fell.

I was 18 and had just started my first job as a nursery nurse in a day nursery. We were having a party for a child’s 2nd birthday. Having a lovely happy time, the doorbell for the front door went and the nursery owners were at the door. I let them in all smiles and they looked at me with horror on their faces “Haven’t you heard what’s happened??” I had no idea! They filled the staff in but until I got home that evening and saw it for myself on Tv could not imagine what they were telling us.

If people gave never seen it, there’s a very good (if that’s the right phrase to use) called “102 Minutes That Changed America” which was released in 2008.

It’s a real time documentary which starts with the first plane hitting the towers and ends just after the collapse of the second tower. There is no commentary, just slides of text that pop up every now and then to say what is happening and who people are. It’s stitched together from footage filmed by members of the public as well as news crews and first responders.

It’s fascinating and heartbreaking in equal measure, you hear the terror in people’s voices as they run from the towers, see the first responders running towards the danger without a second thought. Everyone should watch it at least once, Channel 4 used to broadcast it on the anniversary every year but I don’t know if they still do.

I was only 8 years old and was going to mu cousin’s bday party. I remember my dad watching news and we saw live when they hit 2nd tower and my dad kept repeating it’s the end of the world.

Visiting DM in Australia for her birthday. She came in to my room around 7am with a cup of tea and said 'You need to come and see what's happened in America.' We were glued to the TV the whole day.

I had to fly back to the UK a couple of weeks later. Didn't look forward to that one bit. You know the maps on the backs of seats? the return journey showed a big loop around Afghanistan before flying down to the Bay of Bengal.

I sat down with her and remember the idea of the people leaping to their death because they had no other choice made me feel sick.

A documentary team was following Rudy Giuliani around that day and when the planes hit they just stuck with him. There's one scene where the mayor is talking to officials under a hotel canopy and you could hear thump. Thump. Thump. And when someone asked' what's that?' offscreen a quiet voice said 'people are jumping.'

That still has the power to bring a huge lump to my throat 22 years later. It was such an awful awful day, I will never forget it for the rest of my life. Those poor people. Thank you everyone for sharing your recollections, they've all been so sobering, isn't it strange thinking of people all over the globe reacting and feeling exactly the same, so sad.

I was in town with new baby DS1 in the pram. There must still have been TV shops showing the news in those days and it was on in the library. I'd seen the pictures of the planes and the burning buildings (without sound) and that was shocking, but for some reason it was ages before it dawned on me that there would the 1000s of people in the buildings 😪

That's true !!
But, fwiw: When the WTC was hit I was at a business startup meeting. We saw the 1st plane aftermath & thought a tragic accident then watched the 2nd one hit live & my main memory is the shock of realising it was deliberate.
We all stood in the biggest conference room with the largest screen in utter silence. I phoned home & told ex-H.

I was at school during the Hyde Park bombings, at work in central London in 1996 during the Docklands bombings, sitting at home in Scotland with my first baby during 7/7. Of course though equally tragic, none of these were on the sheer scale of 9/11 or had the geopolitical importance of 9/11 so the shock was higher for that reason too.
I remember where I was when I heard Princess Diana had died too (shocking)

I was at work in a nursery so we didn't hear anything until one of the parents came to pick up their child and told a member of staff. It was all a bit Chinese whispers until I got home. I was going to go to university in 2 weeks and I didn't want to go because I thought world war 3 was going to start.

Working at my first proper job after finishing school. The business owner came in and told us there had been a really bad plane crash in New York and that ‘thousands had been killed’. We thought he was exaggerating and tried to get online to see the news (many years pre smart phones and 4/5g remember), but the internet had crashed. I didn’t get the severity of it till I got home at 6pm and saw it on the news.

They do.. I watched a last night.
There's a series on sky called One day in America Each episode is from a different perspective.. The firemen, The ones who got out and so on.
It's so heartbreaking to listen to, I was sobbing.