Nimbus

A year ago today. How did you find out about the events of 9/11?

I had gone to Castle Combe with my brother for a Caterham track day. Sometime in the early afternoon I overheard some people saying that they had got messages that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre. I asked them for some more details and they said that a light aircraft had hit one of the towers. A bit later they said that another one had hit and half of one of the towers had collapsed. It all sounded very unbelievable and a said as much to them, but they insisted it was true. The afternoon continued as before and eventually one of the drivers brought his Range Rover into the paddock. It had LCD TVs in the front. It was amazing watching the reports coming in. Completely unreal. I called my wife then, who was very upset at what she was watching on the news. She said it was like a nuclear bomb had gone off on New York. She was almost crying.

It was a surreal drive home. We had no radio in the Caterham and the only news we could get was News alerts on our mobile. It wasn't until we got back home that we realised just how big this tragedy was.

Our daughter was born on 19th Aug 2001. We both wondered what kind of world we had brought her into. We new it would not be the same again.

astraboy

I was on the road, driving down to dover at the time. When I left nothing had happened and when I got there all hell had broken loose.
It was really surreal watching the aircraft go in. I remember thinking "Theres no way those two are gonna keep standing" Got on a train back to london and lo and behold when I arrived in London Bridge they'd both come down.
astraboy.

Nic

I was in a caravan on the west coast of Scotland with 2 mates, in the heaviest rain I've ever seen, got a text from Mojo telling me to turn the TV on. Spent the rest of the day watching the reports in a state of shock & disbelief

super_si

i was just walking up to watch Neighours at best mate, didnt know the 1st plane had got in.

it came as a total shock , barley belivable at 1st

Si

RB170

I was in an interview in the city when it happened.

I left the interview walked out of the building to find that every building in the square mile had been evacuated.

Walking to Moorgate I heard someone say that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre but thought it was a wind up.

Only when I got home did I realise what was going on.

Mike

Dan B

In the pub.... (was a student then).

MarkO

Actually, sorry. Just realised. On the 9th of November I think I was at work. My earlier post describes where I was on 11/9/01.

MarkO

Without wishing to sound facetious, but it was perfectly obvious to me how massive it was when the first tower collapsed.

SimonH

I was in a meeting when it happened. Wandered back over to the squadron to find the crewroom packed out with the news blaring out. Watched the towers fall then spent the rest of the day wondering where exactly in the loft my kevlar helmet and repirator were
Five months later I was sat on the apron at Kabul airport on a dark night watching tracer fire going over the top of us and our aircraft as we unloaded....certainly hadn't imagined that was a possibility way back on 10 Sept 01.

C

I was trying & failing to recover from the biggest hangover of my life after a mates birthday. Had been out getting food & our other housemate came running to the door to tell us what had happened.

Was pretty scary watching - about 2 mins after we sat down we saw the live footage of the other plane slam into the other tower on Sky.

What didn't help was my father is a pilot & was in America then, due to fly back that day....

Made me think.

Chris

Nigel H

Canary Wharf in London, and I can tell you it was pretty scary, especially after having had an office near where an IRA bomb went off.

RB5320

I was in Chicago. Went out for a walk (I think it was about 8am) and saw a crowd gathered at the local radio station which has live TV screens outside. First plane had recently hit - everyone presumed an accident until we watched the second one hit. Then went back to the hotel and watched everything unfold. Very very scary, wondering what was next. Could not get a flight back to UK for nearly a week.

PG

I was on the drill square of the Scottish Fire Service Training School when it happened. The senior instructor came out and told us all that it had happened. It was kind of difficult trying to concentrate on what we were doing thereafter. We had a full parade that night with a 1min silence.......alot goes through your mind in 1min !
It was made all the more distressing when it was said that the number of Firefighters lost was the equivalent of the whole of Grampian Fire Brigade

Jen

Mark - obviously it was massive - but it was stuff he deals with that really put the s*its up me for want of a better expression. It was the fact actions over there were bringing the possibility of things closer to home...the fact the this could mean *massive* implications in such a short space of time....(I was thinking actions in a couple of weeks after - luckily this didn't occur)...you knew it was big as soon as the 2nd one hit and it wasn't an accident anymore

dsmith

I was at work. 1st found out about it via phone call from colleague who was watching it live on CNN at home. Internet went absolutely **** up as none of the news sites could cope.

Spent the afternoon keeping on eye on our network (as it happens very interesting. sessions went through the roof but b/w dropped - indicating everyone was trying to get details but web-sites weren't responding. Our Dial-platfrom instantly saturated all available channels). whilst news kept filtering through.

Remember rather selfishly being glad I wasn't working in the city anymore.

Deano

wilko999

I was playing a card game on the net with a load of Americans and one heard the report straight away, went downstairs and turned tele on, strngely both myslef and my housemate were throwing sickies that day to play golf in the afternoon. we watched live as the second plane hit, then he remembered his brother was in New York! when they finally got hold of him the dozy git hadn't even realised, he'd slept through the whole thing, went out his hotel and saw smoke from downtown but wasn't until he sat in the coffee shop watching tele that it dawned on him this was all happening 3 miles away! My cousin was underneath the towers too in the subway, got out and just got away as the first one came down, was very lucky.

The Crushinator

I was in work, chatting to me mate, when we were told what had happened, i thought it must have been a light aircraft, and just laughed & told him to shut up. It wasn't till we managed to get snippets of info (from a japanese news website), that it was becoming believable. So i left work early to go home and watch the events unfold on the news. Everything just seemed so insignificant in comparasion, it seemed that the impossible became possible and was happening in the worst possible way.

What annoyed me the most was, some people i know, even 2 family members![img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] are anti-america and felt little sympathy, saying that they were asking for it, and they deserved it. That angered me so much, that i didn't even talk about it to them.

I don't think people should ever forget what happened, it serves as a constant reminder of how precious life is, and why you should stop and take a look around once in a while.

MarkO

Funny, isn't it, how nobody said that after 10,000-12,000 people died as a direct result of the chemical emissions at Bhopal....

Neil Smalley

I was at a conference in Bradford. I'd gone out of the room for a toilet break and came back in to loads of chatter and hubbub. My wife said to me that terrorists had crashed planes into new york and and tens of thousands of people had been killed.

My first reaction was "What?" as her message had been rather garbled. Then went out to the car and listened to the news reports of people jumping out of buildings etc. They then managed to get a TV set up and we watched the towers fall as it happened.

My in laws were in the US at the time, had planned a quick stop over in NY about the time of the attack. Naturally it was a worrying time for us, until they emailed us that night saying that they were fine.

I remember being glued to CNN for most of the rest of the day/following day, praying that the US would'nt do anything stupid.

Dougster.

I was at Glasgow airport passing the time of day and listening to air traffic on my scanner.

Quite unreal as nobody realised what had happened and three AA aircraft dumped fuel in the Irish Sea and were diverted to Glasgow.

I put the radio on then returned home where I watched the footage on tv until around 4a.m. the next morning.

I have an uncle who is flying this morning from Dallas to DC. I've told him to mail me once he touches down.

JayRaj

MarkO yep have to agree there.

The Media have had a big play in the significance of the tragedy, but thousands are killed everyday in other countries and nothing gets reported on it.

BOB.T

I was doing the wheel alignment on a knackered Fiat Cinquecento

Mark and Lard announced the events on Radio1 and then just played records for the rest of the day. We also watched the tv in the canteen, I know I'll never forget that day

chockymonster

We'd just had a team meeting in the pub and saw it happen on tv.
Spent the rest of the day in the pub watching events unfold. The office basically closed for the day.

Geezer

I certainly don't agree that the people in the WTC deserved to die like that, but the US certainly were long overdue for something after everything they have perpetrated in the past.

In case anyone has failed to notice, the current state of affairs with regards to the IRA has come about thru talks, not killing them all, because you can defeat an ideal or a nation, only armies. That is why the US will face more attacks. Their insular view of the world and **** you attitude only perpetuates the depp rooted hatred of them by the Arab world.

I am not anti-American, I think they have a great deal to offer the world, but not like this.

Geezer

Little Miss WRX

I was at work when a phone call came through from our Nottingham depot telling us to log onto CNN/BBC/anything news wise that we could access on the net.

It was like watching Independence Day - we thought it was a movie at first or a complete **** take.

Then the shock set in. Whole office was quiet.

Beef

I was at home eating pizza. I think it was a Meat Feast stuffed crust.

Foot_Tapper

Was working in Barclays, on their helpdesk.
Received hundreds of calls;
them :"my internet's not working, its crashed".

me: "what are you trying to do ?"

them : "get the bbc news"

me : "thats why its crashed, everyone is trying to do the same thing; it cant cope"

concentration was a bit hard that day, working in a high rise building.

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

I was at a company karting event. We had just packed to go home and heard it on the radio in the car It was a strange drive home listening to it and thinking this is mad. It was mad and one of those things you will never forget. That's why they did it I suppose It still seems so unreal a year on.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

I was in Texas on business. The news was on TV in the hotel restaurant where I went for breakfast - everyone was mesmerised by the images of the smoke pouring from the building after the first plane hit.

As the reports of the other planes came in, I began to wonder just what the terrible scale of the attack would turn out to be. When the news came in that the FAA had grounded all aircraft, I was left with the terrible realisation that I was going to be stranded in a country that could be going to war, against an enemy that uses commercial airliners as weapons. I was due to fly home the next day...

The feeling I got from the American people at the time was as scary as it was understandable - they wanted the head of whoever was responsible. I now have a lot of respect for the President, for waiting before retaliating. I don't think that some of the people I spoke to on the day would have been so patient.

A.

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

The original thread I read on here makes for quite chilling reading. For some people Scoobynet was the only way they had of getting news as all news sites were too busy so they had to rely on people sat in front of a tv set relaying information by way of this board.