AIBU to judge passengers complaining about grounded flights on 9/11?

[doosesmarket]

I’m watching an old Airline UK episode and it’s from 9/11. The way people were behaving at not being able to get on their flights blows my mind. I keep trying to think well they hadn’t processed 9/11 the way we have now, but realistically they’d all seen screens of the news and watched 2 planes smash into the towers and the towers collapse full of people.

Surely you’d have enough understanding of the need to ground flights and change security measures even then?

I know it was 25 years ago but AIBU to hope those people demanding/shouting at the staff/the entitlement that they need to get to Benidorm that day because ‘we’re not in America’ were ashamed when they seen themselves on the telly and how they acted during the most horrific terrorist attack any of us have ever lived during?

The poor easyJet manager in the airport was saying to people “you are aware of the incident that happened in America”. Some people on there simply did not care, they just wanted to get on their own flight

So now look at things from now and know that there was going to be no flights for 3 days (I imagine it took longer fir people to actually be able to get back home)

Would you have wanted to get back home with your family, knowing something big had just happened. Or do you think you’d have been happy to be somewhere else, far away from family. Having to pay for hotel etc… whilst not knowing how long this would all last?

Add the uncertainty, lack of communication, people already at the airport.
And the emotional impact of the event.

Also Tbf, the ‘we are not in America’ is right.
If the same had happened anywhere else in the world, the whole aviation/sky wouldn’t have been closed to all airlines.

Well, I don’t think airspace was closed in Europe like it was in the US? I think the picture was less clear so it was less of a given a flight would be cancelled.

I think you are unreasonable because at the time it was far to much for most people to comprehend straight away. It has never happened before in a way that grounding all flights was necessary and so it was just unimaginable. I don’t think the true horror started to be known for about 24/48 hours for most of us.

If I’d have been in an airport I would have moved heaven and earth to try and get home to my loved ones and yes that would have included berating airport staff if I thought that would get me on a flight.

different situation but my brother got back into New Zealand 24 hours before it shut it’s borders for Covid. If he hadn’t made it he could well have been like others who were stranded unable to get home for months and months.

at the time I thought it was probably the start of a another world war and so they would have added impetus to me trying to get home.

It’s strange isn’t it. I was working that day doing a restaurant shift in a busy hotel , and I’d left my phone on silent. It wasn’t until I arrived home I realised I had a voicemail from a friend (cabin crew) in New York telling me he was ok . He managed to call me and I had no idea what had happened until he told me to turn on the tv . It still blows my mind that nobody at work, customer or staff had seemingly been aware or mentioned it.

There were no shoe checks in 1986. I think you're thinking of Anne-Marie Murphy. The bomb wasn't in her shoe. It was in a suitcase given to her by her fiance who was a Jordanian national.

Shoe checks came in 2006.

I'm an airline security manager. We base our security on "lessons from the past" so this stuff is my bread and butter.

Worked for an airline that had a US partner (fortunately not affected). I made an on the day decision to refund travel for anyone who was due to be travelling for the following few days.

Later we got a complaint about airport screening and how it wasn’t white people who should be screened, because it was the people in wee Willy winky outfits that needed scrutiny.

It was odd altogether - I was on one of the first flights to America after us airspace
re-opened and I remember everyone clapped and cheered the staff when the plane landed.
i know this is common in some cultures but is not experienced it int he Us before. I also went to Disneyland which was very quiet.
the castle was closed for security reasons after I visited. I also remember pro American T-shirts being sold and worn everywhere.

The hand luggage liquid ban (total ban initially, then reduced to the size limit of 100mls that is still in place today), didn’t start until August 2006 and was due to a completely different failed terrorist attack relating to a plan to use liquid explosives disguised as fizzy drinks to blow up a number of transatlantic flights travelling between Heathrow and various destinations across the US/Canada.

I remember it clearly as I was in India with work at the time, due to fly back to Heathrow. The company I worked for would not let me or my boss fly back into London until they knew all was safe but our visas were due to expire so we needed to leave imminently. In the end they agreed we could fly to Paris, stay overnight and fly in to Manchester the next day instead, then make onward travel home from there.

So I ended up spending a wonderful, romantic evening in Paris with my very gay boss! We had a lovely dinner at the Buddha Bar and some drinks in the bar at Hotel Costes (where we saw a very well known French Premier League footballer having cosy and intimate drinks with a woman who was not his wife). When compared with the alternative of overstaying our visa and having to spend some time in an Indian jail, I can’t really complain!

As far as 9/11 goes, it’s the Kennedy assassination for the millennial generation- you remember exactly where you were when you heard the news and watched the TV footage of the planes hitting the towers and everything that followed. Sadly even horrific tragedies don’t stop some people being entirely self absorbed and primarily focused on what the implications are for them, rather than the actual victims involved.

Been some time since I last watched but as I recall, I think the majority of the people featured in the show weren’t exactly what you’d consider the pinnacle of UK society. In fact, with quite a few of them, I wouldn’t have been shocked to see them appear as guests on Jeremy Kyle. If in doubt, please just watch the episode with the family from Runcorn who are flying to a destination wedding in the Dominican Republic, with the bride and groom who are childhood sweethearts……and first cousins! 🤢

YABU, sorry.

At the time it was totally unbelievable. My mum say watching it, breastfeeding my brother and with me playing around her, thinking they’d mistakenly started playing a new action film she’d not seen yet. My dad, on the other hand, started to immediately prep for a world war and attack on the UK. Nobody knew what was going on. Everyone was scared, and when you’re scared you take out your frustrations on other people over the most insignificant of things.

@gillefc82 yes!!! That episode is wild 🤣unforgettable🙈

People didn't have mobile phones then. I was at work in a shop and had no idea what was happening till I got home. I had a couple of odd conversations on the train and I had no idea what the people were referring to.

And if you are stranded somewhere and can't get home it can be immensely stressful whatever the cause. You may need to get back for caring responsibilities,.or because you will run out of medication. You may be worried about not getting paid if you don't show up at work. Or you may have saved long and hard for a badly needed holiday. I can feel horror at what happened and compassion for the people stranded by it

It’s how casually the man giving the voiceover drops the bomb that they’re cousins, almost like an afterthought! 😂

Same, we had one customer make a comment when they came into the shop that we couldn't understand. Something about it probably being a weird time to buy cheese. But we had a classical music cd playing as the background music and no Access to internet radio or TV so none of us thought anything much of it till we all got home

Some people behave strangely, confrontationally, unhelpfully when stressed and afraid.

Instant news to your phone wasnt such a thing back then. Nobody knew what was happening at the time

Nonsense. I was listening to it in the radio.

But people going about their business, working, shopping, travelling on a train werent glued to their smartphones reading all about it, were they?

Exactly the same in my experience about 5 hours after it happened.

You never forget where you were when you first heard the news. I was in my classroom after school marking books. The cleaner came in and said the Head and a couple of others were watching some 'terrible accident' about America on a screen in his office but she didn't know what it was. I said ...interesting I'll put the TV on when I get home then continued with my marking
Drove home, put TV on and couldn't believe my eyes. They were showing again and again these two passengers planes driven into the towers and coming out the other end. Horrific!!
As awful as the whole thing was I think in those days I was too naive to understand the horrific world wide significance of the attack
Someone older and wiser than me remarked at school the next day ...attacking the US this way ...they've pulled the tail of a sleeping tiger and the world will never be the same again.
I've often thought of what she said in the years afterwards
Going back to op's original comment ... Personally I would have been terrified to take a flight anywhere that day or for a considerable time afterwards. It must have been terrifying if you were away from home and had no choice about getting a flight back when airports opened again.

What is the difference? It was on tv. It was on the radio. It was constant news. People going about their business would have seen it and heard it.

You've seen the footage so often that you've forgotten that that's not how it happened at the time - there was little immediate footage. It was hours before there was a shot if the first plane hitting the tower. It was the next day before there was film of the second plane. People weren't getting live updates in their phones. It was much more chaotic. People can be forgiven for not understanding the seriousness of what had occured.

There's a fascinating study in the US where they ask the same survivors of 9/11 of their memories of the day, every year. There are now huge differences between what they 'remember' now and what they initially saw. They have obviously seen the footage and now remember things they never saw, things are out of order, they saw things happen in places they had never been. It shows how fragile memories actually are as we get further from the events.

TBH it was a strange time and I think it took people a while to understand exactly what had happened. Of course people shouldn't be shouting and abusing airline staff but as has been said people were scared and confused and unfortunately it was the staff that took the brunt of it.