Today is the 25th anniversary of 9/11 do you remember what you were doing when you saw the news?

[Shmoigel]

I remember every single bit of that day like it was yesterday. I had only visited the WTC 3 months earlier too. Thinking about the families and survivors and emergency workers today.

Not trying to be picky (and apologies if you genuinely meant the second plane), but the impact of the first plane was not shown on tv. As far as I’m aware the only known footage was captured by a documentary maker who happened to be in the area at the time and it was not broadcast for a very long time after.

Many people have a false memory of seeing the impact of that first plane, but they didn’t.

I worked at BA and on the day was at my desk which was between our live ops control team and emergency planning team. My then fiancé rang me to ask if I’d see the news. I remember standing up and looking at the tv the emergency planning team had just turned on and as I said it must be a light aircraft that had got lost, the second plane hit and everything changed. There was a panic as all our in flight aircraft were located and safely accounted for and then the diversions started. A friend of mine was crew on one of the planes diverted to Gander and was there for days.

I was a volunteer on our emergency planning team and we stood up the crisis call centre and spent the rest of the day and into the night fielding calls from very concerned friends and family of the large number of crew we had downroute in NY at the time. I will never, ever forget those calls.

OP when reading your post about your interview at the Marriott, I thought ‘i’ve heard this before.’ I can see you post this pretty much every year under different usernames. Are you quite well?
RIP to all the victims, thinking of their families today.

Why is it a problem if OP does do this? Posts each year? I can't see what's wrong with that?

I had the news playing with sound off as I got ready for work. I saw the second tower get hit, but I thought it was a trailer for some disaster film! I caught the bus to work and noticed the very light traffic, bought my coffee, started walking down the hall to my office. In my building, everyone had their own office, and most of us generally worked with our doors closed. That morning, all the doors were open as I walked past, but absolutely no one was speaking, there was no sound of keyboards clacking, and everyone had the news playing on their computer monitors. They all had images of that burning building up that I had thought was a film.

I just remember how quiet it was apart from the same newscast coming out of every office.

I was at primary school at the time and I remember watching it on the news the next morning as my parents knew everyone would be talking about it

i remember feeling quite scared about it but tbh didn’t really appreciate how horrific it was and how much all the victims must have suffered. Every year it gets more horrific for me, I just can’t even begin to comprehend how the people in the towers felt / the emergency services / families not knowing if their loved ones were ok. Just atrocious

I also had vivid memories of being taken for what I then considered a very fancy date to the Windows on the World restaurant at the top of the North Tower and had a hard time understanding that huge building was just gone.

I was at work, and I was having lunch at my desk when someone mentioned a plane going into the first tower. We all went into the conference room and turned on the tv and saw the 2nd plane going into the south tower. I remember it vividly as my dad had passed away exactly a week previously.

I was at work. Someone heard the news and we found a radio. There were a lot of us with children and we all left work .I picked DC3 up from the nursery and DC5 up from school.
When we got home my neighbours who were all similar age with similar aged children were all home. We were stood outside waiting for WWIII.
We didn't know who was responsible, thought it might be Russia and thought there might be nuclear war.

My DC are now 30 and 28 and, despite growing up in the digital age and all the airport security that now exists, had really very little idea about what it was like until we talked about it last week.

Yes 😞 I was collecting my then 7 year old boy from junior school when one of the other mums told me. We went into town. My son chose a bag of plastic toy soldiers from Wilko (random memory) and we got home and put on the news. I thought I was watching a movie. Visited NYC 2 years later and ground zero was still smoking.

Will be paying our respects there next year 😞💔

This makes sense.

It’s funny how the mind plays tricks on us. So many people are convinced they saw the first plane hit the Tower or that they came home from school in the UK and watched the Towers collapse live - in reality the South Tower collapsed just before 3pm and the North Tower just before 3.30pm so very few children will have been home by then, certainly for the first collapse at least.

It’s strange to realise that the active attacks and then the collapse all happened in less than 2 hours, with the North Tower hit at 08:46 (13:46 GMT) and the collapse of the North Tower at 10:28 (15:28 GMT).

I was in my office at the uni where I worked and a colleague came to tell me about the first crash. We saw the second crash on the live feed at NBC. Only two years before I had spent a year in the USA on secondment )although not in NYC) and I was glad it didn't happen while I was there.

I was on some medication that k o ked me out so I was having a nap. I woke up and put the little TV by my bed on and the first plane had hit.

I went in the other room where I had a bigger TV and I think I just sat there.

It didn't occur to me to call anyone.

I met my sister in town after uni. She said the twin towers had fallen down. I laughed and said sky scrapers don’t just fall down. I had absolutely no idea what the twin towers actually were or what the WTC was. I thought it was those round towers in ?korea.

I called my DH and he told me about the first plane crash. At the time they didn't know for sure what it was. I turned on the TV and a few minutes later, the second plane hit. I just watched and cried and prayed. Called my DD and they were evacuating her building and the workers who had cars were driving home as many as they could so no one would have to ride public transport. My DS was in school.

This year the Kansas City FD had 343 of their men gear up and climb 110 stories in honor of their fallen brethren. The pictures of the fallen were along the stairwell as they climbed. I thought that was a wonderful way to remember them.

Actually, they reported it on TV before the second plane hit, but no one knew how bad it was or any other info. In fact, they were talking about the first plane and how it could be a commuter plane, or private plane when the second plane hit right behind them on the screen showing the twin towers.

I had returned home from a play session with my toddler. Put on the kettle for some tea and turned on the TV for CBBC. No children's programmes on the TV, all the main channels were showing footage of a tower that was on fire. Took a while to realise it was a live event and believe that it was really happening.

Yes. I was 12, in the car with my mum, and driving back from Morrisons.

it was silent in the car, and the shopping was essentially abandoned as we turned on the news

It was my very first week of work in the City, and once the seriousness of the situation had sunk in we were all sent home, in case London became a target.

Mum told me about it after school and we’d recently got Sky TV so had 24 hour news meaning it was just on TV for hours on a loop. I was 8 years old. I remember just feeling abject horror and fear. It genuinely was the start of my lifelong struggle with anxiety disorder. I became obsessed with the threat of terrorism and was absolutely certain it was going to happen here too. Then obviously 7/7 did happen and my dad lives in London. I had a mobile then, I was 12 and I remember calling and calling him on my lunch break at school but he wouldn’t pick up. I was terrified he’d died. He was ok.

Terrible time in history. The subsequent conspiracies must be difficult for survivors and relatives of those who died.

I always remember really clearly as I was working in Canary Wharf tower and remember looking out of the windows to see if any planes were approaching as there was a worry that it was a combined attack. I wanted to leave but my boss sent me downstairs to get snacks for everyone in the team (I can’t remember if 30 or 50 floors but it was a lot). As soon as I’d come back up in the lift the alarms went off and we were told to evacuate the building, by which point the lifts weren’t in use so everyone was using the stairs at the same time. I was so anxious I couldn’t get on the tube so had to find another way home. I also remember people watching the trading tv screens showing what was happening in NY - many likely had colleagues there.

It’s beyond awful what happened and what people there went through.

Yes I just watched a clip of this. They were screening the fact the first tower had been hit and debating whether it was an accident or not when the second tower is hit and they all gasp in horror. Just awful.

Absolutely it was on the news after the first plane hit and yes the second plane hitting the South Tower was shown live, but my point is that there was no tv footage of the first plane hitting the North Tower. However lots of people have a false memory of watching the first plane.

I really recommend the documentary “102 Minutes That Changed America”. It’s an almost real time account of the events in New York with home video and news footage stitched together. There is no voice over, just on screen text to provide time stamps and context. I believe you can watch it on the Channel 4 player, they used to show it every 9/11 but I can’t see that they are showing it tonight.

Several fire brigades from the UK have gone to the US to do the same, I’ve seen fb posts covering the climbs - must be very emotional.