It’s 9/11 twenty years later. Today, now.

[AtlasPine]

We’re all still a bit clueless. What a mess.

Is there a factual documentary on Netflix that is good to watch? I was too young to really think about it at the time

This is an extraordinary film being made in a NYFD ladder house shortly before and through the events. Extraordinary footage inside the buildings as they set up command centres etc. And interviewing a firefighter with plane in background and then follows the firefighters. Saw it on tv years ago. Not sure if it is on Netflix or prime etc.

It always stays with me as I suddenly realised the ‘scale’ of things, I couldn’t comprehend just many 1000s of people would be in a skyscraper (I thought 50, 100…) or that everyone on the planes would be dead, the skyline was just a 2D image on a screen until then. I’d just turned 18 a few weeks before that and was in my last year of school and the crazy thing is pre-smartphones/social media I didn’t even hear about it until I got home about 4pm. My friend and I commented on a strange buzz of chatter about us as we walked together near school, as if something was happening but shrugged it off. My car was set to Radio 1, and they just played music continuously that day which I thought was strange as I sat in traffic but again didn’t think too much of it.

I was in my early 30s. I had an old-fashioned TV and turned on the news and the talk was of an 'accident'. I was skeptical. I saw the second plane hit live and wondered when they'd name it as terrorism.

I thought, 'the world has changed today.'

Later, when the 'War on Terror' was launched my darling late Daddy who grew up in the region laughed hollowly and said 'they'll never win that.' Turns out he was right.

One of those moments were you will always remember where you were. I worked for the MOD and by the next morning it was sand bags, bollards and extra armed guards as part of the morning checks. Always a day of reflection but now also my son's birthday so some positives to a dark day.

You might be clueless, not sure wjy you think everyone else.

Its my birthday today, this happened on my 39th birthday, a memorable birthday for all the wrong reasons. Still cant get the people leaping from the building out of my mind

Horrifying. I visited the original museum / memorial they had set up in the old fire station. I found it incredibly upsetting, especially the “please find my daddy” etc drawings from the children of parents who didn’t ultimately make it.

It was a shocking, terrible day and the sad irony of the position in afganistan today with the taliban is absolutely not lost on me.

I still look at the footage and the horror of it is almost the same level as the first time I saw it that very day. I was working in the UK travel industry and we had 16K customers trapped in North America due to the air space closing. It was nearly 3 weeks until we got everyone home with all the logistics of arranging flights, crews out of hours, planes in the wrong places etc.
I’ll never forget that day.

@HeronLanyon

This is an extraordinary film being made in a NYFD ladder house shortly before and through the events. Extraordinary footage inside the buildings as they set up command centres etc. And interviewing a firefighter with plane in background and then follows the firefighters. Saw it on tv years ago. Not sure if it is on Netflix or prime etc.

Is the title in that picture?

We were on holiday staying at a friend's house in Italy and had spent the day in the mountains. When we arrived back the Italian neighbour came over insisting we watched the TV. I thought it was a film and when we went out for dinner that evening I don't think anyone could believe what had happened.

Arriving back in London on the Thursday evening before the memorial service on Friday the solemnity and security was something I'd not seen before. It still gives me the shivers thinking about it

It's the Nsudet brothers' documentary called 9/11 (2002) they were there filming a particular fire-fighting station. They got to film at the underground station mall and above, the lobby/ concourse area in real time before collapse, AFAIR.

Naudet*

I've watched the ITV documentary from Tuesday.

It's the first time I've seen close up how covered in concrete etc people were. Tears just couldn't stop flowing.

Those people who jumped. Knowing you're going to die and having the internal strength to do that is overwhelming.

The centres collapsing.

I didn't get to watch most of the news at the time because I worked abroad in the tourist industry. Not long after it started we had to get to the airport to receive diverted flights as they shut American airspace.

Being in the airport was terrifying.

**I've thought about the people on the planes too. What did you read?

There’s a documentary about the families of those on the four planes, I’ve recorded it but not watched yet.
There was a 4 year young girl with her mum, meeting a friend in Los Angeles. As a cruel twist of fate, her friend was killed on the first hijacking, into the north tower.
There was also a gay couple who had adopted a young boy he was only 3. They were planning on adopting more children.
And there was a couple who had been married for almost 40 years. Also the father flying out to LA to his daughters wedding.
So many sad stories of those victims on those planes.

What documentary is it? What platform and what's it called.

Those poor people on the plane - those last moments realising what was happening.

throwaway you are right in reply to towanda it is I think simply called ‘9/11’ so better to search by ‘Naudet’ the filmmakers. They were making a documentary about a new firefighter and how he got into that ladder house and his first days. Well that firefighters first week saw 9/11. Never forget him at the station just not knowing what to do but wanting to help as chaos ensued. Filmmakers rode with the engines and then entered the towers. All in what was to have been normal day of filming. One of the most astonishing things I’ve ever seen.

I was 26 and in a public sector finance job sharing an office with 5 people. Someone was checking out the BBC news website in their lunch break abs told us what was happening. We all went in the BBC website and got no work done that afternoon. We both realised this was the first major news event we were seeing unfold in the internet, and that the US would use this as an excuse to start a war and the 9/11 deaths were just the beginning.

I was reading about the cancers, asbestosis and other illnesses that have emerged in people who were in the vicinity and rescue workers. Many are battling and many have died. Then there are the mental illnesses. The suffering continues

A worthwhile reminder ...

I was 16 and at school, we had heard things but no real idea what was happening until I got home. My 18 year old brother was at home and we normally didn't exchange two words but he was stood at the door waiting for me and dragged me in to the living room to watch the TV, I remember asking him what film it was. Our parents were on holiday in France and we had been left to find for ourselves and I remember really wanting them to be home because it felt at that time literally anything could happen next like it might be the start of a war.

@TheOldestCat

I’ve got a terrible memory but my reflection of this day is crystal clear. Sitting in a building in Canary Wharf watching the news and looking out at the sky, while listening to the American company in the upstairs floors evacuate.

Have you watched the documentary on iplayer? Very interesting.

why were the Americans evacuating? I feel like I’m missing something obvious

I went to uni in the US. I was driving to class with the radio on, heading east towards NYC.

There is nothing to describe the sudden, awful stillness that happened after those moments. The sky was absolutely clear apart from the blot on the horizon from the smoke.

I remember getting to class and everyone sitting in stunned silence. Eventually one girl bolted out of the room, crying -- she had family in one of the towers. Class was dismissed after that. I think about her every year.

I had plenty of friends in NYC and couldn't get in touch with them, but it didn't cause too much panic -- no one would have been uptown and no one had a mobile. It galvanised a few into career action, and at least two are still first responders today.

I feel strange about feeling strange about it, in that I was geographically nearby but not directly impacted and it somehow feels off that I have these strong feelings. A few of my friends feel the same.

@healmebaby Presumeably because Canary Wharf is a tall building & they were concerned about the same thing happening there.

@Dave20

Thankyou but I meant what articles etc did you read?

20 years....I was early twenties and a nanny for a little 2 year old girl at the time and heard the news whilst driving. When we got home, me and the little girls dad watched the news in absolute disbelief - I remember neither of us talking at all. We were almost struck dumb by it. I kept a newspaper from the next day as I knew this was a terrible event in history that no one would ever forget

**Thankyou but I meant what articles etc did you read?

Sorry, I’ve seen YouTube obituaries, on the 911 victims. Really sad.