Jump to content

Where were you 10 years ago today (9/11)


Thedelldays

Recommended Posts

I was at work and my manager came over and told us a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Centre.Like most people at that time,we thought it was an accident with a little plane,or something like that.When the second plane struck,all work seemed to stop and people were glued to the tvs in the office.

My wife was working in the then new,soon to be opened air traffic control at Swanick.

She was giving me regular updates.What surprised me,is even though everyone eventually knew it was a terrorist attack,the security at NATS(National Air Traffic Control),wasnt upgraded at all.In fact no one even stopped me when i picked her up later that day.

The whole day seemed surreal to say the least.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had the day off, went to the cinema at lunchtime before intending to head down to Brighton for the League Cup game (Scott McDonald brace won it I think?) Got home to see the 2nd plane hit and hear reports that a total of 5 or 6 big jets weren't responding to hails. First thing I said to the old man was that Bush would take out Afghanistan and Saddam, that was as th report of the Pentagon crash came in. My second thought was that 50,000 people worked at the WTC and I wondered how many had been killed. Suddenly the world was very small, changed by a dozen men who werent powerful or rich or famous for the next few decades. Thats a powerful symbolic message that will encourage terrorists for years to come.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was at Chek Lap Kok airport in Hong Kong, waiting on a flight to London and then connecting to Miami. Watching it on the television in the Cathay Pacific lounge. A colleague phoned me he was in Beijing, he was really worried that it was the start of something big and was worried about getting out of China. Anyway flight took off for London a little late and remember the pilot saying they would keep us up to date with what was happening. Even though we were in the air there were concerns that Heathrow might be shut when we got there, no one really knew what was going on. Anyway landed in London ok but found out all flights to the US had been grounded. Hung around London for a few days waiting to see if there was a flight on to the US, then my boss decided to give up on that idea of Miami and sent me to Brazil instead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was leaving work having been working with a colleague who was going through capability proceedings. I first heard what was happening on the car radio as I drove home on the car. I was particularly concerned as my wife was on business in Belfast on that day and was due to fly back to Heathrow in the middle of the afternoon. Rather scarily she watched the whole thing unfold live in an airport lounge in Belfast. She got home very late that evening. Trying to make sense of it to my then 5 year old daughter who had seen some TV footage at the childminders was difficult.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We lived in Dubai. Our two eldest children were on a flight from London. I'd gone home to collect my wife and the first plane had just hit - obviously when your kids are on a plane it makes you worry, doesn't matter where they are going.

 

When we got to DXB it was crawling with half the Emirates army (clearly been tipped off that EricOf Arabia was on his way).

 

Bizarrely my boss was on his way back from Houston - via New York and his plane was diverted to some small airport in the boondocks. There were not enough hotels in town for the half dozen planes that had been diverted there so he was eventually bussed back to Houston and couldn't get out for well over a week.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At work, failing miserably to get feeds from BBC/Sky/Reuters etc etc. Ended up getting in depth coverage on Ugly Inside courtesy of Um Pahars who, IIRC, was working for Meridian TV at the time and was obviously getting all the live links in from all the relevant channels

 

Think I listened into Radio 4 for the next 3-4 weeks on the way to and from work, a departure from the usual Radio 1 at the time, just totally fascinated by all the stories the coverage the rescue and recovery attempts.

 

10 years ago? jeepers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had just got home from school (year 8) and my Mum was watching tv in the kitchen and said "Look what's going on". I was with my mate and our first reaction as it was showing a replay of one of the buildings was "COOL!!". I don't mind admitting that. I was 12 and it looked awesome in the same way it would if it was a film.

 

After the initial reaction though, I started realising how bad it was and was glued for a while watching the tv in disbelief.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was in a small guest house in Tahiti. I was travelling with two mates and we were the only westerners there. The owner of the guest house came down and put the TV on, Tahitian national TV was just filming a lap-top on a news caster's desk that was showing the CNN website. We did could not understand what the news readers were saying and it was not for another week or so that we got to hear the full story when we got to the English Speaking Cook Islands. Before we got news from back in the UK there was rumours amongst other travellers that there was going to be a war between China and the USA!!! We were pretty scared, but happy to be on a small island in the middle of the Pacific and away from it all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was living with my parents at the time. I was studying for my ATPL (Airline Transport Pilot Licence) exams. I was actually studying Flight Performance and Planning and had the tv on in the background. I remember the volume changing and a News Flash started broadcasting what was going on.

 

I remember feeling rather numb watching this and realised that mine, and most other peoples lifes would never quite be the same again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was at the WTC around 8.30 local time priming the fuses for the multiple explosives me and some pals had planted. I then spoke to a BBC journalist and told him WTC Building 7 would come down later that morning and whatever he did he mustnt announce it too early

 

I then hot footed it across to the Pentagon to oversee the 2nd controlled explosion, then I flew a military craft and scattered bits of an AA plane across the lawns.

 

Busy busy busy day for me

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...