- Notice
smellsofbiscuits
VIP Member
Are you me? I honestly could have written this. Same age, same reason for turning on the TV, saw the second plane hit and the utter stunned silence of the broadcasters. I didn't move from our sofa until my dad came home from work about 4pm.I remember it quite vividly too. I was 17 and watching the end of Neighbours (lunchtime ep), when the credits cut to the image of the second plane heading for the south tower, I saw it hit live, unbelievable!
I honestly thought they’d mistakenly put a disaster film on! It was so surreal!
I was in my final year of school and 9/11 really felt like it marked a shift from me being a child to adulthood. Such an awful thing to happen.
There's a documentary featuring children who parent(s) died in the attacks. Being a mother now, I don't think I could bring myself to watch it.
Prgirl_cesca
VIP Member
Surviving 9/11 was brilliant too but the President's War Room was phenomenal.
Savannah_xx
VIP Member
Wow! 20 years 
I remember that awful day. R.I.P
I remember that awful day. R.I.P
Smallpotato
VIP Member
HotesTilaire
VIP Member
Good point Lenny I hadn’t considered that people sold their footage.
I could totally understand they might film at the time in case something else happened and they didn’t survive, to leave some record I just couldn’t fathom why they would keep it. There is a lot of “amateur news crew” behaviour I found distasteful. At one point the wife of one “Joe Public” tells him not to point that thing at her or film her.
I just found this listicle which was interesting reading
listverse.com
I could totally understand they might film at the time in case something else happened and they didn’t survive, to leave some record I just couldn’t fathom why they would keep it. There is a lot of “amateur news crew” behaviour I found distasteful. At one point the wife of one “Joe Public” tells him not to point that thing at her or film her.
I just found this listicle which was interesting reading
Top 10 Luckiest 9/11 Survivors
As we approach the 20th anniversary of the most devastating terrorist attack on American soil, we’re reminded of the day’s cascading tragedies. Four
listverse.com
Gym&Tonic
VIP Member
There was also the hotel siege in India.
didn't want to join
VIP Member
I was in my 30's, had 2 small children and my Mum had come to babysit them as I had a job interview in London.
At first, we believed a small training plane had hit the building, then it became obvious it was a large plane
One of my children had a little blue/white/pink plastic toy house and held up the tv from it, which oddly had the twin towers on it's screen, we still have that little tv, even though the toy house is long gone. You realise watching old tv shows and films, the towers were a huge thing, like Big Ben or the Eiffel Tower, a very well know face of a country.
Seeing the first tower in flames was horrific, I've worked in tall buildings and I felt for the people there.
I got on the train and it had many shocked, saddened, worried people. My interview was rubbish, I didn't want to be there and wished I'd just stayed home. It was eerie (no planes were flying) and everyone had begun to leave and go home, I passed several people crying and in shock.
The train home had some people who knew workers in those two buildings, so very sad. To see both the buildings gone and the photo of a window (like a kind of jagged edge and small shapes that you realise are windows) really brought it home the following day.
I've watched many documentaries over the years, I guess because you just want to know why?
Thinking of all those affected.
At first, we believed a small training plane had hit the building, then it became obvious it was a large plane
One of my children had a little blue/white/pink plastic toy house and held up the tv from it, which oddly had the twin towers on it's screen, we still have that little tv, even though the toy house is long gone. You realise watching old tv shows and films, the towers were a huge thing, like Big Ben or the Eiffel Tower, a very well know face of a country.
Seeing the first tower in flames was horrific, I've worked in tall buildings and I felt for the people there.
I got on the train and it had many shocked, saddened, worried people. My interview was rubbish, I didn't want to be there and wished I'd just stayed home. It was eerie (no planes were flying) and everyone had begun to leave and go home, I passed several people crying and in shock.
The train home had some people who knew workers in those two buildings, so very sad. To see both the buildings gone and the photo of a window (like a kind of jagged edge and small shapes that you realise are windows) really brought it home the following day.
I've watched many documentaries over the years, I guess because you just want to know why?
Thinking of all those affected.
MyRightTit
VIP Member
My aunt was on holiday in NYC at the time. She managed to get a flight home the following Monday & says at JFK there was very little security & she walked through a door into a hallway by mistake & no-one confronted her. When she got home she realised she had a lighter & a pair of nail scissors in her handbag which hadn’t been detected going through security.
LennyBriscoe
VIP Member
That’s a good point actually, probably not. I know the hijackers had some flying lessons but I don’t know how many so they may have had to abort had it been different weather.
Saw the tennis last night, it was a lovely day and there were so many people in the audience that it felt a bit like a potential setting for something awful to happen. But I’m sure/hope that every person goes through a metal detector and after all the terrorist attacks in the last 20 years they would make it as near as impossible for something to happen.
UnknownTattler
VIP Member
I was 12, I came home from school and put the tv on to watch citv, and the picture on the telly was of the New York skyline from across the water all covered in smoke. And I was like what is this, where are the kid's programmes, so I kept watching to see if they would come back on, before soon realising that regular programming wouldn't be back on for a while.
I too found the President's War Room documentary fascinating, hearing from all the top people in power at the time was really interesting. Another documentary that I have watched a few times now is '102 Minutes that Changed America' which is all footage filmed by people in the area that day, it's currently available on All 4.
I too found the President's War Room documentary fascinating, hearing from all the top people in power at the time was really interesting. Another documentary that I have watched a few times now is '102 Minutes that Changed America' which is all footage filmed by people in the area that day, it's currently available on All 4.
HotesTilaire
VIP Member
I was at home trying to have a siesta when a friend knocked and said a Plane flew into a towering NY. I put the tv on and all the stations were showing the live footage. I don’t recall if the second plane had hit yet. I was living in Cyprus we only had a few tv stations in Greek and an Egyptian station. I don’t remember the detail but I know the reporting was quite different to the UK/US output, I feel it was more objective and less emotional. I have been watching all the tv shows I can find things were so different 20 years ago. I was caught up in 7/7 in London so when I see the WTC and streets of NY I get that same feeling of dread in my stomach- knowing shit has gone down but not what it is, no transport, no phone signal.
TravellingPants
VIP Member
I’ve been watching the documentaries this year too, it’s so powerful how they are predominantly just the footage with no commentary or narration. My heart breaks for those who have been missing their loved ones fof so long now and that the way they died was so public.
it was really interesting in the Children of 9/11 documentary to hear the perspective of the kids whose mums had remarried and they had younger siblings. That butterfly effect or sliding doors thing, if their dad had been somewhere else they’d have had a different life with a family unit they never got to experience, but would they choose that if it meant they didn’t get the family they did get to grow up in…? An impossible question.
I was 11 when it happened, just started secondary school and I remember coming home and watching Friends with my older brother, we must have put the TV straight on to VHS or DVD because we were totally unaware anything had happened. My mum came running in from work about an hour later and switched over to the news. I didn’t realise the scale of it for a few years afterwards but growing up in London I remember being really worried that something would happen to my dad and I’ve always had a bit of an anxiety issue with the tube, even before 7/7.
I think why it morbidly fascinates so many of us is that it was all gone so quickly and was right before the age of digital cameras/camera phones becoming ubiquitous. So other than the eyewitness accounts, people who weren’t there can’t really understand what it was like and as humans we have that curiosity. As an earlier poster said, it was just a normal day going into work and we can all identify with that.
it was really interesting in the Children of 9/11 documentary to hear the perspective of the kids whose mums had remarried and they had younger siblings. That butterfly effect or sliding doors thing, if their dad had been somewhere else they’d have had a different life with a family unit they never got to experience, but would they choose that if it meant they didn’t get the family they did get to grow up in…? An impossible question.
I was 11 when it happened, just started secondary school and I remember coming home and watching Friends with my older brother, we must have put the TV straight on to VHS or DVD because we were totally unaware anything had happened. My mum came running in from work about an hour later and switched over to the news. I didn’t realise the scale of it for a few years afterwards but growing up in London I remember being really worried that something would happen to my dad and I’ve always had a bit of an anxiety issue with the tube, even before 7/7.
I think why it morbidly fascinates so many of us is that it was all gone so quickly and was right before the age of digital cameras/camera phones becoming ubiquitous. So other than the eyewitness accounts, people who weren’t there can’t really understand what it was like and as humans we have that curiosity. As an earlier poster said, it was just a normal day going into work and we can all identify with that.
RosieBella-01
Active member
Heartbreaking....devastating.
Absolutely shocking, disgusting & an act of pure evil by brainwashed vermin.
The heroic bravery, unity, kindness, strength & humanity, shown by all Americans that day was special. The whole world was united in grief that day.
America saw no colour that day, There was people of every colour, race, religion, status helping each other, carrying injured people, sharing water, letting them use their phones & homes & comforting each other.
On youtube search Brian Clarke & Stanley Praimnath. Two of the survivors from above the plane imapct. Amazing story. There was 4 survivors in total from above impact zone
Absolutely shocking, disgusting & an act of pure evil by brainwashed vermin.
The heroic bravery, unity, kindness, strength & humanity, shown by all Americans that day was special. The whole world was united in grief that day.
America saw no colour that day, There was people of every colour, race, religion, status helping each other, carrying injured people, sharing water, letting them use their phones & homes & comforting each other.
On youtube search Brian Clarke & Stanley Praimnath. Two of the survivors from above the plane imapct. Amazing story. There was 4 survivors in total from above impact zone
The famous case is the TV producer Seth MacFarlane, who should have been on one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center, but was hungover and overslept so missed the flight.
VicksterIcon
VIP Member
I was 30 and working for the head office of a hotel group in Winchester and when I first heard the news on Radio 2 from Steve Wright we went straight to an unoccupied bedroom to watch it unfolding on the TV. Speaking to my sister too on the phone each time something terrible happened.
9 months later I was newly married and with my husband NYC was the first stop on our honeymoon - the time after 9/11 we didn't even know if our honeymoon would happen as we were flying with United Airlines. Visiting Ground Zero so soon after was very emotional and seeing all the missing posters around the church railings. We saw the "cross" that had been formed in situ which is now in the Memorial Museum. We then flew to Vegas and the exterior of New York New York hotel had been turned into a shrine with Fire Department and Police Department t-shirts pinned to the railing surrounding the "lake" containing the Statue of Liberty.
We have since returned to NYC many times over the years and have watched Ground Zero change over those 20 years. I have a friend who lives in Brooklyn and he lost his best friend who was a Fireman. He has never been able to visit to see his friend's name on the memorial as it is just too painful for him especially as my friend's birthday is 9/11.
9 months later I was newly married and with my husband NYC was the first stop on our honeymoon - the time after 9/11 we didn't even know if our honeymoon would happen as we were flying with United Airlines. Visiting Ground Zero so soon after was very emotional and seeing all the missing posters around the church railings. We saw the "cross" that had been formed in situ which is now in the Memorial Museum. We then flew to Vegas and the exterior of New York New York hotel had been turned into a shrine with Fire Department and Police Department t-shirts pinned to the railing surrounding the "lake" containing the Statue of Liberty.
We have since returned to NYC many times over the years and have watched Ground Zero change over those 20 years. I have a friend who lives in Brooklyn and he lost his best friend who was a Fireman. He has never been able to visit to see his friend's name on the memorial as it is just too painful for him especially as my friend's birthday is 9/11.
Stillwater
VIP Member
I’m not sure how accurate that is actually - at least in the UK. The mother of one of the victims of the Manchester Arena bombings continues to campaign for better and consistent security checks to big events because they are so variable and often not good enough.
But yes, you’d hope yesterday in NYC checks would have been thorough.
Gym&Tonic
VIP Member
Another thing I’ve often wondered was how the weather affected it. It was a beautiful, clear sunny day. But the weather in New York can change really quickly and it can get very foggy, meaning poor visibility. I can remember walking down Fifth Avenue and the top of the Empire State Building randomly disappearing behind mist and cloud. Would they have been able to pull it off had that weather been like that on 9/11?
TwooTwooTwitTwitTwoo
VIP Member
I was in my late teens, my mum had given me a lift to the Health Centre with my son for his monthly check up. On the news on the way back we heard a plane had flown into the tower. We assumed, like so many, that it was a random accident.
At my mum's we watched the plane fly into the second tower. We knew instantly that there was an enormous problem.
Then came the reports of further planes. I was only meant to pop in but I stayed there for hours just glued to the screen.
It changed everything. There was a similar feel with the London bombings in 2007 but not the same as this.
It's really hard to express... so many of us literally watched people jump to their deaths, on screen, in front of us.
I'm very fortunate I didn't know anyone directly involved but even just watching left a mark, if that makes sense. It wasn't like now when everything is available, on screen immediately. Live happenings were really unusual. It was just absolutely awful. The world literally didn't know that type of tragedy, whatever had gone before.
At my mum's we watched the plane fly into the second tower. We knew instantly that there was an enormous problem.
Then came the reports of further planes. I was only meant to pop in but I stayed there for hours just glued to the screen.
It changed everything. There was a similar feel with the London bombings in 2007 but not the same as this.
It's really hard to express... so many of us literally watched people jump to their deaths, on screen, in front of us.
I'm very fortunate I didn't know anyone directly involved but even just watching left a mark, if that makes sense. It wasn't like now when everything is available, on screen immediately. Live happenings were really unusual. It was just absolutely awful. The world literally didn't know that type of tragedy, whatever had gone before.