Do you remember where you were that day

[Lovingthesunshine88]

Do you remember where you were that day 18 years ago? 9/11

I was 13 and had just started high school i was doing swimming when PE teacher got called out, when she came back in she told us to get changed and make our way home if possible and said the world was under attack by terrorists.

Obviously this was scary to hear at 13 i hadn't heard of terrorism. I remember getting home and my mum watching it on TV in utter shock. I was such a sad day and still makes me feel sad 18 years on thinking of all those innocent people losing their lives

I was getting ready to go to college and it was on TV in the background, but I don't remember there being a big fuss about it - I got to college and my good friend was totally astounded and upset by it. I was a bit taken aback. The seriousness of it didn't sink in for a while, which probably sounds harsh, but I think I missed the details and wasn't really sure what went on. I remember the strangeness of people's reactions, feeling disconnected, not really understanding. I felt quite guilty that I didn't know immediately how bad it was and how to react.

We were all in bed but about to get up as we are in the Pacific Time Zone. My youngest son's friend called and told him that America had been attacked. We went downstairs to put the TV on and I said (before I knew what had happened) "Well it looks like the first place they attacked was this living room - look at the mess".

On the TV both towers were burning and there was a three way spit screen showing the Pentagon burning and for some reason a report out of LA California. I ran to the phone and called my son who was overseas with the US Military. I called his office just as he walked in the door. He didn't know about the attacks but said he heard something about an explosion in NYC on his car radio. Not knowing all the details, I told him NYC at been 'bombed', the Pentagon blown up and something was happening on the west coast. He was shouting out to his co-workers, repeating what I told him. He told me later that a group of them got on a computer and were trying to get CNN online but, they couldn't. So he told them to try to get his local (US) TV station website and that is how they found out what was happening.

I panicked because I knew my son would be involved soon or later. I didn't know how long the attacks had been going on and wondered my son had already been deployed.

As the towers fell I remember saying 'thousands of people just died'. Seeing all the abandoned ambulances, fire trucks, police cars I remember realizing the first responders who worked those vehicles were probably all dead.

The school bus picked my son up as always and he even got detention that afternoon. Life went on for us here like normal on the other side of the country.

I was at work, a colleague who was working from home called and said just put the news on the internet. Most sites were so slowed down we couldn't get on but eventually we got on the Irish Times site. We couldn't really believe it, work stopped and I can't really remember if we got much done that day. I think we were all in shock.

I was flying back from Tenerife, the pilot spent forever circling Gatwick Airport before eventually landing. There was announcement warning us that we would notice a lot of “activity” in the airport when we landed, obviously they didn’t give us the details while we were in the air.

I was in a villa in Corfu with two TV mechanics who were trying to fix the TV. The images came up and we all sat for an hour watching the newscasts.

I was doing a ‘creative thinking’ course at work. Nobody knew what was happening because it was before everyone was permanently glued to a newsfeed! It was a shock to get into the car and hear the news going home. The second day of the course was very subdued, our trainer was married to a woman from NY and they had spent all night trying to get in touch with her adult children and other relatives. One of the participants boyfriend worked in the Twin Towers and she had failed to make contact with him. She was from a different part of the company, I didn’t know her or meet her again, so I don’t know if he was ok.

I was in my classroom, we were late starting the term and there were no children in, my daughter sent a message that a plane had flown into the WTC in NY, I went to a meeting and no-one had heard anything yet. On the way home, at 3pm the collapse of the second tower was announced and you could see the shock on people's faces as they were driving, some actually pulled over. When I got home the TV went straight on and seeing the pictures I found myself unable to breathe properly.

I'd been sorting through something in the living room with the news on in the background when it cut live to NY just after the first plane had hit. There was some immediate footage being replayed and then it went back to live as the first tower was burning and my mum said "God, what a terrible accident" to which I replied that "That was no bloody accident" and explained that radar would have picked up the odd flight path and if it was accidentally off course the pilot would have been instructed to correct. She sat down and we watched live as the second plane came in.
Horrible.

7 months pregnant working in an international newsroom.

Saw everything happen live.

Working in a clothes sorting factory

The silence is what sticks with me.

Was living in Washington DC - DH close enough to see the smoke from the pentagon attack. I still remember walking back to the house through silent streets, with an almost stationery traffic jam coming out of the city (empty lanes the other way). Every car silent, every occupant blank-faced, listening to the radio. No-one on the streets.

i also remember having to pull over a few days later, when they played Adagio for Strings at the Proms and I was listening to it on the radio in the car. Couldn't see for tears.

In Italy looking at a church and having tea in a hotel in a hilltop town in Umbria. We were staying at a house my dsis friend owned. The Italian neighbour dragged us into their house to show us the footage and I thought it was a film, just couldn't understand at first.

We flew back from Ancona to Stanstead on Thursday afternoon and sat outside in the sun waiting for the plane. I had a couple of bottles of Averna that my dsis friend had left behind. We were boarded literally 5 mins before the plane left. Our friends were driving to Liverpool St to meet us and they phoned to tell us where they could collect us and to phone once we were there due to security. London was holding a memorial service on the Friday and there was a lot of security in place.

We couldn't face visiting Ground Zero when we went to New York as at the time of the attacks my dsis and her friend worked in the City and knew people who died on 9/11. Ironically I still have one of the cats who were born around the time of the attacks.

I was 27. At work in a solicitor’s office. 9 weeks pregnant with my eldest son. We sat watching the news on the internet whilst I was thinking what sort of world am I bringing a child into. Scary times.

It was my second day at 6th form. I was on my way to a class when the teacher ran down the corridor the opposite way. She came back in a few minutes after we started and said what had happened. Her brother had flown out to NY the day earlier, but it turned out that fortunately he'd already got a connecting flight out.

I'd been home for lunch and had only turned the TV off a few mins before the first plane hit.

The college I went to would record the 3pm news in Spain, that day they got the live broadcast.

A friend of mine called and said to turn on the tv. I was still half asleep and groggy, and kept saying, "This is a movie." Finally realized it wasn't and just stood there, watching, trying to understand it was really happening. The next day or day after, I was driving to work and passed the exit for the airport. The big sign said, "Closed due to national emergency," which was absolutely terrifying. Nothing like this had ever happened before.

The tv was on when I got in and the Buckingham Palace guards were playing the Star Spangled Banner on orders of the Queen. That was when I finally broke down and cried. It was hugely comforting, because we weren't alone.

On a plane flying from London to a European destination for a work event. Will never forget the sound of every single mobile phone pinging with message alerts as we got off the plane and onto a bus to the terminal, very clear very quickly something was terribly wrong. I called my Dad back first and asked what was happening, he is not prone to overdramatics but sounded in shock and just said “The worlds gone mad”.. There followed complete hush as people quietly read news reports or spoke quietly to family and then we all stood in silence in the arrivals terminal watching as the towers came down and the full horror unfolded. Was the strangest experience of my life to date and etched in my memory.

It was my 17th birthday and I had half day at college. Got a bus to my mums new place (she has just left my dad) and everything seemed quiet .. no one had called to even say happy birthday etc and then I turned on the tv and saw the news and footage of the planes going through tg twin towers! Thought it was special effects and like a movie not real!

My now H (14 years older than myself) Worked for Cantor Fitzgerald as a broker .. he had been offered to work for NY firm but couldn’t sort out accommodation (too expensive in NYC and was looking into New Jersey) anyway during all this he was still based at Canters in London and sadly heard his US colleagues last moments .. everyone had to walk out of office it was too traumatic and horrifying..
Most of the men that perished were in their forties.
One of H’s friends had just started that week for Canters in NY from London.. only 22 years old and his family live down the road.. the poor mother still goes to memorial meet ups with fellow friends and families of the victims that day.

I was on my way back from the clinic after being told my toddler son wasn't developing as expected and had been referred to a paediatrician.
He doesn't remember horrors like that as he's very much the same in his mind now he's 20.

It was an incredibly beautiful September morning in the midwest US.

I had taken to bed that morning after the breakfast rush with my then 3 week old baby, my youngest, in my house in the Chicago suburbs. I was feeding her and hoping she would settle for a little nap so I could take a shower.

My mum had come over from Ireland a month earlier to help out with the four older DCs and the baby. She and the 3 year old had accompanied the older ones to school earlier and we had prepared dinner for later, then mum had turned on the TV so she could sit down and have a cup of tea.

She and DC4 were watching Sesame Street when the programme was interrupted for a newsflash about a possible incident involving a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. She changed channels to see if there were any more 'unconfirmed reports', and there were. So she fetched me from the bedroom.

She was convinced it was terrorists, and this was confirmed when the second plane hit the other tower right there in front of our eyes. Between the two strikes there had been much speculation as to what exactly had happened, then the horror of the second plane and the realisation that an attack was under way, followed by the reports of more planes out of communication with air traffic control on the east coast. Mum surmised correctly that the reason to use planes traveling from Boston to LA was to maximise the amount of fuel on board that would burn.

We remembered that a cousin of mine and his wife were living in NYC at that time and we tried calling him but phone service to 212 was not available. So mum called his dad, her brother, in London to see if they had been in touch and to tell him what had happened to the WTC, if he didn't already know. My uncle was able to report that the cousin and his wife had luckily been on holiday away from the city.

The DCs' school closed at midday and the city emptied pretty quickly during the morning as building after building was evacuated. There was bumper to bumper traffic for miles on the highway and arterial roads, and every train was jam packed. The skies were empty except for Air Force jets streaking around. The local church held a prayer service that evening - standing room only, I heard.

Mum had been scheduled to fly home to Dublin on the 12th but had to stay an extra week.

This was the coverage we watched, with our jaws on the floor.

Was at work in Dublin Ireland and was helping out the accommodation supervisor get rooms checked for arrivals that day
We sat in one of the vacant rooms and watched in disbelief
I then spend the day with US guests trying to help them contact relatives and generally supporting them as they had just got off planes and were a bit shell shocked

I tried calling my own relatives in New York but was not possible to get thru
All were fine but upset at the attack
Called my DH (boyfriend at the time)
He was away and he and his mate spend the day in an Pub in Ibiza watching the news

I was playing pool in the back of a bar in Corfu watching Knight's Tale, went into the front of the bar to get a drink and saw the footage of the plane going into the tower and thought it was a disaster movie, we all agreed we didn't like disaster films and went back to watch Knight's Tale, we didn't really realise what had happened until we flew back into Heathrow a few days later.

winniestone you can be horrified about it all; it's not a case of either/or.

But this particular thread is about 9/11 in the US.

We were in the office and one of our managers came in. He was a joker, always had a funny line or a gag for any subject matter.

That day he came in and announced two planes have just gone into the twin towers and we all sat there expectantly, just waiting for the punch line, the longer we waited the funnier it got and we all started laughing in suspense, of course he was deadly serious which made it funnier.

It wasn't until he logged onto one of the computers and bought up the news that out laugher turned to tears and stunned silence.

That night I watched the news with my boyfriend who was in the army at the time, his phone wouldn't stop with his colleagues and bosses talking about, security, keeping the peace, leave being cancelled and tour dates being amended. I was petrified, and so sad and scared.

It was my birthday. I left work oblivious, jumped straight in the bath to get ready for night out. Didn't find out till I went over to friends and they were just sat staring at the TV. I thought it was a film at first. We just sat watching it all night.