9/11

[AlanBanan]

My uncle lived in Queens and worked as a bar man in Manhattan in the area of the towers, he doesn’t really remember it as he blocked it out, but he remembers people jumping and they looked like ants in the air and then all of a sudden they were popping like balloons on the ground,

He also said most of the jumpers were in one general area and not all around like you’d seem to think, He thinks a lot of people jumped from the same side of the building hence why they landed where they landed.

He wasn’t the better for it for awhile and had a big problem with drink coping with it.

He lives in dublin again and if you want I’ll ask him a question he can answer, seeming he was right in the area where it happened

 

[Moolo]

I was on a plane to Boston (first ever flight on my own at the age of 18!), due to take off at around the same time as the first plane hit.

An announcement came over the speaker and said there had been an incident in New York. Then another announcement to say a plane had crashed into the WTC and then another saying another plane had crashed and it was looking like a very serious incident.

We had to sit on the plane for a few hours and I could hear a lot of people on the plane speaking about what could have happened, talking about if they had family in New York and so on. I was quite confused by it all - like it hadn't really registered what was happening or how serious it was.

The flight was then cancelled and I had to wait at the airport for my dad to pick up - it was there I saw some TV footage and saw some armed police (never had seen police with a gun before!) and realised how serious it was. We had the radio on on the way home and just couldn't believe it - entire journey just sat in disbelief that something like that had happened.

Still feels that way sometimes even with how awful the world is - just horrendous.

 

[chandlercheesecake]

The thing that always sticks in my mind is watching the news live and seeing the second plane hit and the penny dropping that it wasn’t an accident.

Watched the Under Attack documentary on ITV the other night and found some of the calls from people trapped inside the building absolutely harrowing. One woman was asking the operator if she was going to die, I think I read that nobody on the floors above the point of impact survived so I think that lady probably didn’t make it

The whistles/ distress signals from fire fighters inside the building. Gut wrenching.

Also the recordings from air traffic control when they realised there was a plane headed for the Pentagon and mobilising the fighter jets to the United 93 flight.

Bloody hell when you really think about it, the terrorists brought America to it’s knees that day

That was Melissa Doi and she did sadly die, she was only 32.

Melissa Doi - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

14 people that were in the South Tower managed to escape past the impact zone because the plane hit it at an angle, which left one of the stairwells intact.

 

[265]

I was working for the Bank of New York on contract, commuting between London Bridge and Docklands.
I heard something was going on but I didn't have access to the internet so I really didn't know much till
I got home from work.

When I learned the full horror of the events I was concerned that New York was just the first stage of
a larger attack, I was sure London would be the next stage and working the next few days scared the
shit out of me.

 

[Lucas2018]

It was 1.46pm UK time when the north tower was hit and 2.03pm when the south tower was hit. I was in 1st year of high school (so 12 years old) and in 5th period geography which was the first class of the afternoon. Our teacher had wheeled the tv through for us to watch something and the class ended up sitting watching the news coverage in shock.

 

[Spillingthet25]

I remember I was eating dinner (it stayed with me that much I remember what I was eating and it’s 20 years ago), mum had watched both towers be hit, she was out the room when the first tower fell but I saw it happen and it’s something I’ll never forget watching it live
Visited the Museum in 2018 and it really touched me

listening to Brian sweeney voicemail to his wife Jules got me sobbing hard


The survivor tree is also very moving

 

[NP]

I was 13. I vaguely remember hearing something about a bomb in America. Walked home from school and when I got in my mum was watching the news. We watched it all afternoon and evening.

I really recommend a new documentary on National Geographic. It’s a 6-part series called 9/11 One Day in America. It’s utterly harrowing but it’s a very detailed look into what and how things unfolded in chronological order, using video footage and survivor’s interviews. Probably the “best” 9/11 documentary I’ve seen for want of a better word.

 

[Guitarwarrior]

I was 11 and it was my second week of secondary school. It was probably around 4.15/30 UK time and I was in my living room having a snack and a drink before leaving for my ballet lesson. My parents were in the kitchen and could hear their conversation and “how awful it was”. I wandered in and asked what’s awful and they told me to put the television on. I can’t remember my reaction. I obviously knew something very bad had happened and a lots of people had died but it’s only as I grew into adulthood I was actually able to fully comprehend what had happened. One thing I think did help was one of my teachers at the time ditched his lesson plan and had a discussion lesson with us where we could talk about what happened.

I haven’t watched many 9/11 documentaries but I found the two new ones on the BBC a really interesting watch. The president’s war room was possibly one of the best bits of tv I’ve seen in recent years. The snapshots of Bush having the news relayed to him were incredible.

 

[hereforthememe]

On a somewhat related note... I was in Manchester Airport when the Arena attack happened at the Ariana Grande concert. Our flight had just landed and usually you just walk through to passport control right?

They had security there, too, checking random bags etc.

 

[Solemnia]

I was about 9 when it happened. Can still remember the news reports from that time. I think it’s only now as an adult I realise the magnitude of the event. In a way it feels like a lifetime ago but still also very recent. The 10 year anniversary literally feels like it was a few years ago only.

As a previous poster mentioned earlier, it still feels like a current event rather than historical. I guess maybe part of that is because of the tragedies that have happened since 9/11 such as the London and Madrid Bombings, that Bataclan in France and the Manchester bombing to name but a few and even now with what is happening in Afghanistan.

I have watched many documentaries on 9/11, one that stands out is ‘Children of 9/11’ it came out around the 10th anniversary but I cried the whole way through it. So heartbreaking the losses suffered by so many families May all the victims RIP. X

 

[LennyBriscoe]

Have you watched the 2 new documentaries on the BBC this week? My husband is a 9/11 obsessive and we have seen every doc going but these two were incredible.

I was in the shower having come home from holiday the day before and my mum rang the landline so I ran down soaking wet and she told me to put on the telly as she had heard about a plane crash in NYC. I was a teenager and not very worldly so I didnt quite get the magnitude of it at the time.

We’ve just finished watching ‘The President’s War Room’, it was really good to hear things from their perspective. I’ve got ‘Surviving 9/11’ on the planner.

 

[bubbadabut]

I had just come home from a half-day at work and I think the 2nd plane had just hit. It all seems like a dream now. I wouldn't have even known what the twin towers were had my sister not been to the top of them in the January of that year with school. Awful to watch but sadly, morbidly fascinating, and I too watch all the documentaries.

I was massively into the NY music scene at the time, Strokes, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs etc. When 9/11 happened I felt like something was pulling me to go, like I had to get it out of my system. Anyway I went a few months later, to see the ground zero, which just looked like a building site, apart from a girder which they'd left standing. It was a lot smaller than I expected. I just stood there for a while, taking it all in. Can't believe its been 20 years. Has the world become a better place since? Probably not

 

[RosieBella-01]

You know it’s really lucky that social media didn’t exist then and camera phones were only in their infancy because I dread to think what would have been shared online. Not just images of jumpers etc but people trapped inside would have no doubt filmed and uploaded, as happened with Grenfell Tower. It doesn’t really bare thinking about does it?

I agree. Thankful there was no smartphones back then because people are so stupid, careless, media obsessed these days, they would film all the dead & wounded people just to get attention and a few likes on facebook. I can’t understand why everyone has to film everything these days. Literally they take pointless pics & videos of their dinner, cleaning, new clothes, groceries & upload it to social media. If people are getting bullied or hurt, fools be standing there recording it instead of helping. Surely I am not the only one who finds it all creepy, pointless, embarrassing & boring

 

[Chewingthefat]

I remember I had skipped college that morning and walked to my best mates bedsit, she was on holiday and gave me a spare key. I sat down with a cuppa and switched on the tv, the news was on and the first tower was up in smoke, as I was watching, the second plane came into view and hit the second tower. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and actually thought at one point that it must be a film or something. Just unbelievable. The people falling from the towers will haunt me forever.

 

[Meangirl815]

I was at work in a travel agents. One of my colleagues took a phone call from a family member who told him what had happened. I worked in foreign exchange and we had to stop all transactions with dollars as the stock markets had closed.

I worked inside a shopping centre and i remember it being empty for the rest of the day apart from staff. We all took turns to go and watch the news on the TV's in argos window.

 

[footylass2021]

It’s 20 years on Saturday since the 9/11 atrocities. I was at work when the news filtered through and I still remember the disbelief at what was happening.

Every year I watch documentaries, it still fascinates me (for want of a better word).

Where were you when 9/11 happened? What sticks in your mind the most?

i was approx 5 blocks away , hence why i have chronic asthma now

 

[Ems55]

When I think about it, it really was one of 3 defining points in my childhood:
1) Princess Diana's Death
2) Omagh Bombing (I'm from NI)
3) 9/11

All within a few years of each other.

 

[openbook1]

What is also often forgotten is the 500k-1m people killed in the Vietnam war and the ongoing issues with reparations paid.
It's a miracle the death toll was so low for 911, imagine if they had of done it an hour later when people were at work!!

It happened around 8:45-9. I imagine many were already at work, hence over 1500 being killed above the plane level. My husband is from North America and the work hours in an office like that are very different than the UK. It is not unusual for my husband and others to be at work from 6 am for a meeting overseas. General start time is around 7:30 am.

 

[dorydaryl]

I was only 8 but I remember getting home from school with my Nana and she told me to ‘sit down and watch the news because something bad has happened in America’. I remember seeing the Towers collapse on TV.

When I visited NYC a few years ago I visited the site of the Towers and the memorial. Although it’s a ‘tourist’ attraction and is busy, there’s a solemn atmosphere.

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I like watching the documentaries too. I need to catch up on the ones on iPlayer.

When I visited the site in 2008 (before the pools were installed), that's what struck me. For such a small space with the chaos of a big city happening all around, there was an eerie calm/ silence. It was also a building site itself back then but the silence is what struck me.

On the day itself, I came home, early-afternoon, from a joyous occasion (helping to promote an awards ceremony for local Yorkshire achievers and chatting away with Lisa Riley). The local press and TV had been there. (Obviously, they had far more important things to cover later that day!). I got home, early afternoon and flicked the news on. It was just after the first plane hit and that was shocking enough. Then, the second hit as I was watching rolling coverage. It was such a beautiful day both here in the UK and in NY. By teatime, it was if the skies were dark here, too, despite the bright sunshine that lasted all day.

It was the people trapped and falling out of windows that sticks with me most. There was nothing anyone could do. This was happening live on TV and the immediacy of it....Also knowing that the emergency workers who we had witnessed entering the towers with a the aim of rescue, nor all those trapped for the most part would never be coming out alive as the towers fell. The anxiety not knowing how many hijacked planes were airborne and what damage they were yet to do was quite palpable, especially when everyone knew the Pentagon was also hit.

Just horrible. And it does feel like yesterday.

 

[BigMavis]

One day in America (national geographic) is phenomenal. Not sure if anyone has mentioned it but highly highly recommend.
Shows FDNY trying to figure out what to do... they would hear crash after crash and realise it was people...falling. absolutely heartbreaking.
Just makes me so sad.