9/11 - Where Were You?

[Marmite59]

It will be 15 years ago on Sunday.

I was working in Canary Wharf; we were told that planes were on their way to London to attack! It was an awful and crazy day. It was before the advent of social media and the main information outlet was 24 hour news which was in its infancy.

Personally (not politically) it meant a lot to me. I've visited NYC loads of times and have family there. We visited a few weeks after (pre booked) and it was mournful to the point of elegiac. There was also a nationalist spirit which the 30 something me found distasteful but now I understand it better. I have family members who lost friends and some saw it first hand. I've taken my family to see the 9/11 Memorial and it is heartbreakingly sad yet - to me - a symbol of New Yorkers' unbroken spirit and incredible resolve.

So what are your memories? Have they faded? Where were you and what did it mean to you?

Lozza I'm so sorry.
kitty I was 21 and feel the same. History was split in two, pre and post 2001.

Living in the US. At work, listening to morning radio and the confusion of the hosts, especially when the second one hit as to whether it was a replay or not. Then suddenly switching to national news.

Work set up a TV in the cafeteria.

Later there was a bit of a panic because though all flights were grounded we heard a plane. Discovered later it was the president going to the bunker at the air force base.

Still cry thinking about it

On my way to hospital for 12 week scan on dc3

I was on a beach in Ibiza when 9/11 happened. There was a group of Americans behind us whose phones all started ringing. First they were talking about a small plane that had accidentally crashed into a building. Then they began to scream as the horror unfolded about the second plane.

In a field in Taunton, taking water samples from boreholes. I got in the car for a couple of minutes to move to a different field, heard the news and thought it was a film review. A while later I got in the car again and was confused that I thought I'd already heard that film review that morning. A few hours later I had to ring the office and my boss told me to stop work, get to a TV or radio and watch/listen to as much news as I could. I was staying with my mum (who lives down there, we're in Yorkshire) and we just stared at the TV all evening. DSis - a self styled airhead - rang up because her DH wouldn't go out with her because he wanted to watch the news. Fir the first time ever DM told her to stop being sk airheady.

DH and I went to the US on belated honeymoon about 10 days later. It was empty.

I was flying to Finland, with a connection in Stockholm. No announcements on the plane, I just went to the lounge, got a drink then realised it was very quiet and everyone was watching the tv.

I was working at Reuters who lost a few staff in the twin towers. We had a big screen TV in the lobby showing all the latest footage and people were watching it unfold through the windows.

We had all the reports of what was happening and I remember thinking that the death toll would be simply enormous, I still find it amazing that so many managed to get out of the WTC after the planes hit.

I was in a special needs classroom in a second chance school/centre in Florida. I had the only TV in the school and the whole school crowded into my classroom to watch.
I'd just flown back from the UK the day before, via New York. Something was up. They pulled several people out of the line at Heathrow and I was taken into customs in New York, along with several others. They scrutinized my work visa, papers etc. Once they let me into the internal flights area there was no security.
I had a friend working in downtown Manhattan. It took me ages to get hold of her on the phone.

I was at a friends house, with friends I met on antenatal classes, all with our 2yr olds. My DH called me to say that a plane had crashed into the WTC, and said this is it, the beginning of the end. I didn't understand, and told my friends that a small plane had crashed into some tower in the US. We all shrugged and carried on, not sure why he had bothered ringing me. I went home, and switched on the TV so that DS could watch some CBeebies, on BBC one. I couldn't believe what I was seeing - just utter, utter shock. I was watching when the towers collapsed.

I'll never ever forget the image of George Bush being told. The only comparison was Hollande on 13/11. When we were in New York people wanted to talk and were incredibly grateful that we'd travelled. Maybe I'm imagining it but the level of respect and 'feeling that we bearing witness' seemed higher then. I wonder if what with Facebook and Twitter we've lost that now.

I was living in Bermuda and that day was my day off. As Bermuda is only about 1.5hr flight from I was actually heading to the Travel Agents that morning to book a girls trip to NYC when my housemate called me to say turn on the TV.

I am ashamed to admit I hadn't heard about the World Trade Centre before so soon became familiar! I was called into work as lots of our guests were New Yorkers and were frantic, it was hell that day.

The company I worked for lost millions in the following days and I was eventually made redundant. So sad it had such effect on companies worldwide like that.

I was in the "top shop" up from my dads fruit shop and the shop keeper dropped a tin looking at the tiny tv above me. I asked what was wrong and he got really upset. I went back to my dads shop and told him. He was also upset. It wasnt until my dad explained what had happened properly that I got upset.

I was about 12 weeks pregnant and suddenly scared for my unborn ds. I think we thought it was the beginning of the apocalypse.

At home with DD1. We thought BIL was in the first tower. It was several hours before we found out his regular meeting there had been cancelled.

I was home with my then 1 year old son. My older son had just started school so was only there in the afternoon by that stage. I'd just taken him, come home and the little one was having a nap so I was chatting online to a friend in Australia. Suddenly she asked if I was watching TV. I said no so she told me to put it on as a plane had crashed into the WTC. BBC1 were showing it. I called my husband at work and told him to put on the TV in the conference room, he asked which channel and I told him that it wouldn't matter, everywhere was showing it.

I had to collect my son from school and the playground was silent. No one was really talking. We walked home past a TV shop and it was on the screens in the window, it looked like one of the towers was missing but I just assumed that the smoke was blocking it out.
When we got home I put on the TV just as the second tower started to collapse. Really couldn't believe what I was seeing.

I was on holiday in Lanzarote. We had been on a daytrip and were having a drink in a bar. The news was on and loads of people were watching. I saw the headline thing that runs along the bottom of the screen saying "America attacked" and the plane being flown into the building.
I was absolutely shocked, even more so when the buildings collapsed.
Coming home, we had massive, massive delays. We were in Arrecife airport hours, no one complained.
On the plane, a small boy started crying and asked if we were going to get hijacked.

I was working in Kuwait which was odd in its own way as you felt like most people didn't care (probably not the case) plus it's a Muslim country so that in itself felt odd. I remember none of the news websites were working due to volume of traffic and our satellite tv was in the process of being fixed so for an hour or so had no idea what was happening. We went to someone else's house to watch Sky News. Can't believe it was 15 years ago.

I was at work. A colleague's sister who was working in the BBC news office rang and told him what was happening. We put the news on and couldn't comprehend what we were watching. I went straight home, then sat on the sofa just watching in disbelief - I still had my coat on and my bag on my lap when DH got home a couple of hours later.

I was in the trafford centre - I and been in work that morning and dashed over. Women in the shop I was in was talking about it and they said the Empire State Building had fallen. I thought at the time 'oh that's awful as its one of my favourite buildings..'

And then in the next shop they were saying it was the twin towers - my blood ran cold as I knew my brother had business in one of the towers and he said he was going over ... I rang my mum and she just said immediately 'he is in London don't worry'

I didn't have a smart phone ( did they exist?) so I didn't know until I got home what had happened.

That morning I had a checkup after having brain surgery. I found out why listening to the radio getting a taxi back into the centre of town before meeting my mother at her work. Horrendous.

Working for a US investment bank in the City.

Heard it first on Reuters and then we all stood on the trading floor watching TV trying to get hold of the NY office .

I recall one of the American guys saying it was an act of war.

Only one of our colleagues was caught in it and she was relatively un-injured, thank heavens.

I was living in New York and had just turned on the tv and was watching the local news as DH (then DP) was getting ready to go to work. We watched it on the news and thought it was a small plane. Terrible, but not a reason not to go to work near Grand Central Station.

Before he headed off, he rang a friend who lived near and worked in the world trade towers and said don't go to work yet it looks like an accident's happened.

Our friend had an apartment filled with dust but he was very lucky that most people in his business didn't start work till 9.30 so he hadn't set off yet.

I remember an eerie silence over the city - no cars honking, people sobbing quietly in cafes. It was awful.

Had gone to bed for a nap, after a night flight home from Greece. I was 21. My mother came to wake me up to watch the news. As I turned the corner in the hall, I saw the tele as the second plane hit. Surreal.

My nana was in hospital and that eve we went to visit her. She hadn't heard and her reaction was "that's like pearl harbour, it'll take us into ww3" I left the hospital feeling very uneasy. Agree the world split that day between pre / post 9/11.