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 remember it was mid afternoon because Chris Moyles was doing the drive home slot, so probably just after 3.

Watching it live on the BBC.

We'd just sat down with a cuppa when they interrupted whatever was on to say "breaking news, a plane has crashed into one on the towers of the WTC"

We literally watched live as the second one hit and I said to DH "OMG I can't believe they're still standing you'd think force like that would bring them down...... "

We then watched live as exactly that happened.

I was living abroad at the time and we had relatives staying with us, my brother rang us to ask if we had seen the news and we just sat in horror watching as it unfolded. My relatives flew back to the UK a couple of days later and there was armed guards at the airport and no one was allowed in unless they were flying, it was pretty scary

Yes, I distinctly remember as our company is US one. We had just walked back in after a team lunch (so just before 2pm London time) and the person who sat opposite me stood up abruptly and pointed at her screen. There was an email from the US telling us what they believed had happened and that everybody was being sent home in each of the NY locations. On this side of the Atlantic we also closed early that day and stayed closed the next day too.
A colleague whom I never met but corresponded with daily died in the towers.

I was at work - first proper job as an office receptionist, was 19 and very naive. Someone came and said that a plane had crashed into the WTC, I didn’t know what the WTC was and asked where and they said huge building in New York, and in my complete ignorance I made some joke about ‘only in America could an airplane not notice a massive building’. I have never forgiven myself for that comment.

After the second plane hit we shut the office and went to the pub next door and there was a huge TV. It was horrifying. Saw the buildings come down and I remember confidently assuming that everyone MUST have been evacuated ages before then. I had no idea of how many people were in each building, or any concept of how long that would take to evacuate, or that exits might have been impassable etc. I just thought ‘well at school we all evacuated really quick’.

It was only later that day that it all really became clear to me. My dad is a fireman (and was then) and was very affected by it.

Even today I am still disgusted by my younger self and my glib comment on first hearing the news. So so ashamed of myself.

It was my daughter’s due date so I was at home on maternity leave

I’d dozed off on the sofa and woke just before the 2nd plane hit. I thought it was a film at first too

@BetweenTheMoon 💔

I was on Holy Island and had intended to spend the afternoon bird watching. The nearby RAF station has other ideas, with quite a few planes going overhead. Gave up and called in at local shop for a few provisions. Shop keeper transfixed watching the television. He advised me to go back to my accommodation as the worst terrorist action he had ever seen was being televised live.

I watched, jaw somewhere near my chest as the second tower went down.

The baby we had with us at the time, goes to university next week

I was in a caravan in the middle of nowhere with dickhead ex, by the time we heard about it, it was old news.

I was on holiday in Portugal. We were on a jeep safari and the jeep driver started getting texts about planes crashing into the Empire State Building. Then that evening it all started to unfold on tv, and the fact that we were on holiday made it all the more surreal.
Getting through airport security a few days later, at the point when there was a sudden ban on any liquids at all in hand luggage, and a massive increase in searches, gave new meaning to the concept of a long queue. They literally went all the way round the car park.

We were going on a camping trip the following day and were in Sainsburys, buying a few last minute bits and pieces.

When we got in the car and R4 came on, we thought we were listening to a radio play for a few minutes. It was a good 5-10 minutes before it dawned on me that it was real, and my ex said I was being stupid when I suggested that it was. After a few minutes more, he realised I was right. It was like the reverse of the famous broadcast of War of the Worlds.

When we got home, we watched the coverage on the news channel, wondering how attacks like that could ever be prevented.

I was 4 moths pregnant and saw it all happen on the office newsfeed screens. I remember wondering what sort of world I was bringing my baby into. It was horrifying.

I was night shift and asleep initially. My Dad phoned me & said had I seen the news at all. I knew for him to phone and wake me it must be serious. I wasnt really taking in the enormity of it as I stumbled to the living room to put the TV on. I was on the phone to him when the plane hit the second tower. It's weird but the one thing I always think of was that was the only time I ever swore in my Dads presence

I had just had an interview for my first ever job. Was chatting to the interviewer at the end and had told him i had just got back from honeymoon in New York. He said oh i think there has been a plane crash, got home and watched everything unfold with new dh on his flatmate's tv. Very surreal and upsetting especially as we had been standing at the top of the towers taking some of the last ever tourist pictures a week before.

I walked in from school and saw my mum looking at the TV with her hands over her mouth. I don't remember much else about it.

I feel very sorry for the 3000 Americans who lost their life that day, and I also feel sorry for the thousands of middle easterns who ended up paying the price (and still do) for a crime they did not commit.

I came home

Watched the news in disbelief

Dh worked at Heathrow and was on lockdown.

I then went to the dr to have my pregnancy confirmed.

Thank you @mbosnz. I just realized this thread is triggering for me, so I’m going to hide it for a bit. 😕

I was at work. I worked in housekeeping in a hotel my shift was nearly over but then I got called on to help another cleaner who was behind with her room cleaning but tv was on and she sat watching the news where as I would of rather got on with the work and just got home and watched it.

@yummytummy shivers must be so strange looking through those pictures now

I was in bed with flu and had no idea about it until the evening so I effectively slept through it.

I was walking down our high street and all of a sudden a shop with a PA system externally (random) switched the speakers on playing the radio and I couldn't tell what was going on. Got home 5 mins later to find my dad watching it all unfold on TV. Will never forget it.

It was my first day at a new job ( Nursery)

The manager put the TV on in a communal area so we could all watch a small bit of the news.

I was on holiday in Las Vegas with my then boyfriend. Our friends had left the day before, and we were due to fly home on the Thursday.

We'd had a big night out and was asleep when the phone in the hotel room went. It was my mother and she said 'are you ok?'. I was like 'yes, of course!'. She then told me there'd been an explosion in New York. She had no appreciation for the size of the States!

We quickly switched on the TV to see what had happened and watched as the towers fell.

Hours later we went down into the hotel, where everyone was glued to the TV screens. Later on, all the lights on the strip were turned off, and candles filled the road.

We were stuck out there for another week waiting for a flight (I was very grateful we'd booked a package holiday and were well taken care of!), unable to enjoy where we were due to the hysteria and war threats that were everywhere those few days. We finally got a call early one morning to say the airline had commissioned a coach and we had to get ready to go asap. They bussed us to LAX where all our bags were opened and examined by dogs and security staff.

When we finally landed, the entire plane erupted in applause and tears. The sheer terror of being in the States in those few days, away from family and friends, and not knowing what would happen next will never leave me. Nor that relief of coming through customs to find my parents had surprised us at the airport.

I was getting my ds’s passport photo taken.

I am probably the only adult in the world who has never seen the video of it.

I’d been in Marseille with work and was on a plane on the way back at the time. We stopped at Paris, CDG I think, and had to wait it out as all planes had been grounded. They let us in the first class lounge as it was the only part of the airport which had the news on in English and we didn’t know what was going on.

The flight home from Paris that night was probably the longest hour of my life.

I’ll never forget the footage of the plane crashing into the tower. No matter how many times I’ve seen it It is still so absolutely shocking.