[Closed] 9/11 - where/what were you doing...

I was getting on a plane. Tense flight that one.

Quite a horrible act of terrorism.

Lots of it has gone in the world though.

On holiday in Spain trying to watch the Arsenal match in champs league over my wife's ( then gf) shoulder and when she complained I told her it wasn't footie, just some programme about demolition :-0

Found out the actual news the following morning and had all sorts of fun with the airport security a few days later.

Just coming out of a lecture at uni when my brother rang me. Went straight to the union bar and watched the big screen for ten mins before walking away in disgust. It was an incredible, eerily quiet student union....

Watching it on the box in a semi in little hulton, before drinkies at a pub called the Stocks.
genuinely thought it wasa crash followed by the other pilot crashing due to gawking the original "crash" and being shocked in to crashing. couldnt concieve at that time it was deliberate..

Got back from college (very mature student), switched on the telly and gawped. Thought it was a film / end of the world / a dream...

sat on a beach in Roses, Costa Brava.

Went to a cafe to use los servicios, saw it all live on TV. Locals thought I was French for some reason (perhaps the proximity to the border); English didn't even occur to them.
Next day sat on the beach, the air raid sirens went off. That was a bit nervy
3 days later, Barcelona airport was crawling with army types

I was at home - but a mate of mine was on a flight into the States - this got diverted into Canada and landed at a small municipal airfield, the authorities did not let anyone off the plane for hours.. when they did no one was allowed to phone anyone...

The wife just said similar, user removed..She thought it was a film, she was doing the housework with the sound turned down..

Ho hum - Member
Quite a horrible act of terrorism.
Lots of it has gone in the world though.
POSTED 2 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

I was in Peru, about to fly over the Nasca lines.

Had transferred through New York on Sept 7th.

Coming back from Sainsburys with 22 month old daughter in car and 8 months pregnant, vivid memory of what kind of world are my children being born into.

weird, I was in Ibiza too.
found out in a scooter shop.. the English guy who was behind the counter was just in a complete daze and couldn't do his job, then explained what was happening (tried to). so we went to a bar too.. and yeah, everyone was just so quiet.. sat staring at the TV.

<EDIT> My girlfriend was pregnant too

At work. We heard about the "plane crash" and assumed it was some sort of light aircraft, tuned in to the CNN and Sky websites and then saw the reality.

mastiles_fanylion - Member
Ho hum - Member
Quite a horrible act of terrorism.
Lots of it has gone in the world though.
POSTED 2 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Your particular point is what exactly?

I meant exactly what I said.

Lots of it goes on.

Perpetrated by the smallest nations on this world and the largest.

Off day at home then glued to the telly the whole week.

Getting party stuff ready for my daughters 1st birthday,It put a bit of a downer on her 1st birthday.

[i]allthepies - Member
I was in Peru, about to fly over the Nasca lines.
[/i]
That should also be in the awesome post... fantastic..

At work. It was all over the radio, but still didn't really believe it till I got home and actually saw it on the telly. Just sat there disbelieving for sometime afterwards.

Heard it on the radio as I left the house. Turned around and sat watching it all afternoon. I turned sky news on about 2 mins after the second plane hit. Literally could not believe it when the first one came down, then the second.

Giving class to Lt. Col in the Spanish Airforce when someone came into the office to tell us what had happened. Saw the first pictures a couple of hours later.

mastiles_fanylion - Member
Ho hum - Member
Quite a horrible act of terrorism.
Lots of it has gone in the world though.
POSTED 2 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST
Your particular point is what exactly?
I meant exactly what I said.
Lots of it goes on.
Perpetrated by the smallest nations on this world and the largest.

I was working in A&E and was just on the phone to a social worker letting them know a child we'd been working on had died after an rta, and in general chat she asked if I'd seen the news and that a plane had crashed into the world trade centre, and during the conversation one of her colleague's told her another plane had also crashed into it. We thought there must have been some mix up. I tried to check the BBC news website, but the screen wouldn't load up. I had to give up as some old dude that had fallen was up next. I remember it quite vividly and still remember the names of the kid and the old dude.

mastiles_fanylion - Member
mastiles_fanylion - Member
Ho hum - Member
Quite a horrible act of terrorism.
Lots of it has gone in the world though.
POSTED 2 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST
Your particular point is what exactly?
I meant exactly what I said.
Lots of it goes on.
Perpetrated by the smallest nations on this world and the largest.

So the POINT of what you said is....

It was an event waiting to happen on the soils of the arguably the largest terrorist country in the world.

I'd just landed an aircraft having flown back from the middle east; some dude came on the flight deck and told us what had happened. I felt physically sick and lost the ability to get up out of my seat.

i had spent all day in the car on my way back from the alps, radio was knackered.
when i finaly got home late that night i wandered into the room took a look at my folks and said...whats up has someone died. 😯
oh.

At a demonstration against the arms trade fair at the Excel Centre in East London. Seems almost surreal by context, now. Remember the police suddenly becoming extremely aggressive, without most of the (peaceful) demonstrators knowing what had happened in NY. The fair was closed very quickly, and the protestors kettled into very confined areas even though none of them had been at all confrontational. Only after managing to sneak out and boarding a DLR train did I realise why: they were trying to get all the arms dealers out of the area. Saw some of them, weird to see them on public transport. Had to get a British Bobby to protect the Civil Liberties of a couple of British Citizens from the over zealousness of the bodyguards of some tinpot foreign military leader (you're not so big when you're not surrounded by your private army are you you ****). Quite funny to stand toe to toe with these harbingers of death and destruction, and see them cower behind their hired muscle. ****ers.

Working on a site on the edge of the Quantocks.

The owner came down for his pre breakfast tipple from the secret garage stash, and told us.

I'd never heard of the twin towers at that point, a single atrocity in a world full of them.

Such a shame it gets remembered by so many, whilst bigger atrocities get forgotton by more..

For all those lost and whom have lost, through acts of terrorism and war, i will spare a moments thought tomorrow

i will spare a moments thought tomorrow

As will I. Politics aside, thousand of innocents died on that day. As a Londoner, having seen the chaos caused by terrorist attacks, I hope no other city ever has to suffer that. Just utterly senseless and an attack on Humanity itself.

Thousands of people man. ****.

Elfinsafety - Member
At a demonstration against the arms trade fair at the Excel Centre in East London. Seems almost surreal by context, now. Remember the police suddenly becoming extremely aggressive, without most of the (peaceful) demonstrators knowing what had happened in NY. The fair was closed very quickly, and the protestors kettled into very confined areas even though none of them had been at all confrontational. Only after managing to sneak out and boarding a DLR train did I realise why: they were trying to get all the arms dealers out of the area. Saw some of them, weird to see them on public transport. Had to get a British Bobby to protect the Civil Liberties of a couple of British Citizens from the over zealousness of the bodyguards of some tinpot foreign military leader (you're not so big when you're not surrounded by your private army are you you *). Quite funny to stand toe to toe with these harbingers of death and destruction, and see them cower behind their hired muscle. *.

...

I watched the events unfold live on tv... couldn't believe my eyes.. immediately assumed that it was anti-capitalists..

I feel sad for the loss of any innocent life but when you look at the bigger picture by god they had it coming..

I was at work when it happened. The internet died for quite a while but we got the general picture. Quite shocking but as far as deaths go, Americans are far more efficient at killing Americans than terrorists are. Even if terrorists really upped their game, they lag massively behind Americans in the cause of American death stakes.

I was working at Tesco at the time in the garage. We had one customer come in and say, "Did you know that a plane has gone into the World Trade Centre in New York?"

Throughout the day we got updates from customers - another plane had crashed, the first tower had come down, the second tower had come down. I didn't actually see the news until 6pm in the evening, I just remember being absolutely mortified, trying to comprehend that this movie-style scene was actually happening and that thousands of people had lost their lives. The scale of it was immense - not just New York, but also the two other jets that came down.

I remember my brother being particularly grim - he was convinced that it was potentially the end of the world because he was so worried that George Bush was in power. He was convinced he'd just nuke someone...

Ho Hum; a pretty ****ing mental situation to be in, when major shit is kicking off somewhere across the globe. The mood of the demo went from pretty laid back, just a bunch of hippies banging drums and singing songs, to the previously reasonably bored yet amicable police being replaced by fully kitted out riot thugs in a matter or moments. As though they anticipated trouble.

Was a disgrace in my eyes. British Citizens exercising their 'democratic rights', then kettled like animals to allow Death Mongers to flee the area safely. Pfft. Democracy? Yeah, right.

Elfinsafety - Member
Ho Hum; a pretty ****ing mental situation to be in, when major shit is kicking off somewhere across the globe. The mood of the demo went from pretty laid back, just a bunch of hippies banging drums and singing songs, to the previously reasonably bored yet amicable police being replaced by fully kitted out riot thugs in a matter or moments. As though they anticipated trouble.

Was a disgrace in my eyes. British Citizens exercising their 'democratic rights', then kettled like animals to allow Death Mongers to flee the area safely. Pfft. Democracy? Yeah, right.

They obviously saw you lot as part of a global terrorist attack...

It shocked me when I first saw it, but I have read loads since and had my eyes opened wide.

If you poke your finger in a wasps' nest it will eventually get stung!

I was working in Canary Wharf at the time, remember watching it all and then being put on high alert so they shut the building down. We all went down the pub to watch the goings on tv. It was awful I remember so many people from the mercer office in floods as there office was at the top of one of the towers if remember correctly. I remember the memorial service at St Pauls, we went too, so many people. So moving. I'll be having a moments silence tomorrow for everyone affected by tragedies like this.

Elfinsafety...not to burst your bubble mate, but those 'riot police' were there all along. Any time there's a demonstration of any time those guys are always within a couple of hundred metres. It's not so much a matter of anticipating trouble as normal working practices.

Well I got up, wondering what to do with myself on my birthday,switched the news on and just sat there stunned,(& sort of thankful that it hadn't happened 2 weeks earlier when my son went up to the top sightseeing)feel terrible for all those lost & everything but the main lingering feeling is that the bastiges stole my sodding birthday.

Pure evil, but a disproportionate response.

The tobacco industry kills more people each week than all the terrorist activity this century. Can we have robot drones take out the executives of the tobacco industry please.

(Not biased - just both parents died horribly due to tobacco)

It's not so much a matter of anticipating trouble as normal working practices.

There was no validity in their deployment. Trust me, I was there. I have also studied the law surrounding the deployment of riot police/TSG. There was no justification on this occasion (backed up by the fact that several people won cases against the police following incidents of police treatment of demonstrators). No, the Babylonians were sent in to kettle the demonstrators so that the Death Mongers could make good their escape.

Normal Working Practices my arse. Don't give me that. The police's job is to uphold Law and Order. Not kettle British Citizens exercising their legal democratic rights. The police are as beholden to the Law as is anyone. They're not a private army employed to protect foreign Death Mongers over British Citizens.

At work, then in respiratory/acute medicine. Unlike the boatman, I can't remember the patients' names but I had C and D bays on Hexworthy ward and I remember their faces like it was last week. It was before 'patient-line' so we had one telly at the end of each bay, and I remember watching the 2nd plane and the towers collapsing as I worked my way round the run-of-the-mill blood pressures/dressings/commodes etc just thinking how lucky we were to be half way round the world from it and how unbelievably easy my job was compared to anyone in an NY hospital. I didn't really think about the human cost, families etc at first, it just seemed all so unreal.

Derriford hospital is near an airport and between 7 and 12 stories high depending one whether you are at the bottom or top of the hill its built on. In the 90's one of the emergency plans/drills was based on the evacuation of complete stories or 'halves' of the tower part in the event of a plane hitting the building, using alternative lift shafts and fire control zones. I wonder what that plan looks like these days...

They obviously saw you lot as part of a global terrorist attack...

A bunch of White mainly middle class Trustafarians? I was one of the only Brown people there!

Anyway's up. Thousands of innocents died that day. Tomorrow I will spend a moment in contemplation of those lost souls. Their slaughter was utterly disgusting, as is the slaughter of innocents across the globe.

Where has mastiles_fanylion gone?

I was hoping for a good debate about the USA's foreign policy and their neo-conservative leadership 😉

What happened was horrible and it shook me, but after reading up on modern geo-political history you could see it coming.

Derriford hospital

**** me I've been treated there! As was my nan before she died.

Elfinsafety - Member
They obviously saw you lot as part of a global terrorist attack...
A bunch of White mainly middle class Trustafarians? I was one of the only Brown people there!

Anyway's up. Thousands of innocents died that day. Tomorrow I will spend a moment in contemplation of those lost souls. Their slaughter was utterly disgusting, as is the slaughter of innocents across the globe.

The ...s were instead of a 😉

My remark was tongue in cheek, honestly.

..

double post, sorry.

In work - guy came into work ( we call him the dinner-lady because he likes to gossip ) and said a plane had crashed into a skyscraper in USA ... ignored him as usual ...

Got home the wife said plane had crashed. Big news ...

Turned Tv on to see one of the twin towers collapse ... hmmmm

Went to pick boy up from school (rugby training) ... small talk conversation .... muslims were blamed asap .... kinda correct infact.

Friend phoned bit later ... been to warehouse. Couldn`t understand why bunch of ****stanis were kinda celebrating something to do with USA ...

Rest is history I guess...

S'ok Ho hum. I kind of got what you were saying!

Too often, the innocent suffer, while the guilty get away with murder.

Thousands of innocent people. When I watch the footage now, all I see is all those souls being extinguished. Without reason.

Jeeze.

And the ones you saw jumping from the burning building. 80 odd floors up. WTF man. You saw people jumping to their deaths. As though it was TV entertainment.

I'll never ever forget that image. ****.

I was working in RD & E (Exeter) at the time (not a doc or nurse - sorry) as a Porter. Took a patient into a ward, and spotted it on the TV. asked the patient if he would like to see what was happening and together we watched the second plane fly in. I then carried on to take the patient to his bed. Took a break and watched some it in A&E.

I studied the subject at Uni and the next essay we wrote about was designing buildings against terrorist attacks.

I was also in London during the summer of 2005 and was very involved in the response to that incident. I hope and pray that we never have to deal with something like these events again, but unfortunately I think that some people will try again and again...

at a pool bar in Milia, like most people just thought it was a movie trailer.

I was driving between Newport and Cowes on the Isle of Wight, listening to Radio 1 and Mark and Lard announced the first crash.
Got home and sat glued to the TV for the rest of the day.
Saw the second crash live on the BBC.
Madness.

working my notice in newcastle so I spending the days bumming about in IRC channels and it all kicked off. ended up going into the northern electric shop next to our office and watching it on the TV's when the internet died (didn't take long). Was very worried as I knew the brothing-law was in NYC and that he was planning on visiting the WTC that day, turns out he was on the corner of the next block having breakfast at the time....we didn't hear from him till late that night.

the world changed that day....very much for the worse.

Standing over bike at Bathgate bmx track and someone said "have you seen that on the tv.. planes flying into the towers?"

Didnt know much else about it for the next couple of hours then it was all there to be seen on tv when i arrived home.

I was a t work. To be honest I didn't think that much of it. I do have compassion so I thought it was terrible thing but I was much less shocked by it than I am when I see some of the shit that is going off in the Congo / Rwanda or when I've read about incidence that happened by pol pot, or the issues in eastern Europe e.t.c. It just never seem like that big a deal compared to most of the other atrocities that occurred over the previous decade.

I was lying in bed and woke at around 5pm (nightshft)with the radio alarm clock ging off, thinking to myself CIA. Then I woke up a bit and saw the tv, still can't get my head around it.
Spent the next few weeks waiting to get called up, having not long left forces

I was in Toulouse in a meeting at Airbus.
French guy came running into the room talking at a million miles an hour to his French colleagues before one of them translated for us. Went back to the hotel and watched the news (in French), jaw on the floor.
That night met some guys in the restaraunt from Pratt & Whitney who were stuck in Toulouse due to all the flights being grounded. They had family who worked in the WTC and couldn't get in contact.

Scary.
Rob

It just never seem like that big a deal compared to most of the other atrocities that occurred over the previous decade.

I can understand that, and of course it gets more coverage than the conflicts in Rwanda and congo etc. And n no way should it be considered any greater a tragedy; all Human Life is equal.

But it was the instantaneous nature of the destruction; you're watching thousands die when you see those towers collapse. Thousands. That's what will always stand out for me. Utterly sickening.

Was at Alenia Spazio in Turin, 1st week of new job. Think it was a Thursday, flew back to Holland for the weekend, the next day, which was spooky.
Someone on the team, who was surfing rather than working, mentioned a plane crashing in to first tower, and we just assumed it was a Cessna or something... until we saw BBC News24 and CNN that evening in major breaking news loop mode.

But yeah; there are horrific things happening all over the World, and we should all be acutely aware of these atrocities in the same way as we were of 9/11. Too much 'out of sight, out of mind'.

got up off night shift at about 2pm, never moved from the telly untill had to go back to work at 9.45pm

9/11 has no strong meaning to me, maybe a slide show, compared to the more immediate 7/7 bombs, especially considering that my bank (co-op)was in the Angel, Islington.
My personal banker was among those murdered on a bus going to work,
A really nice woman, with a habit of wearing scary blue contact lenses, they really stood out, considering she was a Muslim.

On holiday in Halkidiki, Greece.

it didn't seem real or even imaginable that people would do such a thing.

The plane home was Ok as most folk had got the message from the papers / holiday rep regarding all the no scissors in your hand luggage rules etc.

The whole affair seems even stranger if you read "The New Pearl Harbor" by David Ray Griffin.

It was an event waiting to happen on the soils of the arguably the largest terrorist country in the world.

You're a c0ck

Where has mastiles_fanylion gone?

Sat in front of a balance, divvying up 1kg of 100% pure, weapons-grade cocaine into smaller portions.

I'd found out that my dad had a terminal brain tumour three days earlier, so wasn't in the best of spirits. When my wife rang me at work and told me a plane had flown into the side of the world trade centre and that it was a terrorist attack, my first thought was that flying a light aircraft into the side of such a huge building was a rather odd way to make a point.
I can remember the sinking feeling I had when I realised what had actually happened - partly for the poor people in the planes and buildings, and partly (and selfishly) for the fact that the huge grief that I and my family were feeling had been so comprehensively overshadowed (or put into perspective, as I later felt).

Having our 2nd wedding anniversary while stuck in a hotel in Norwich 200 miles from the missus!

Watching it unfold on TV at home. I had the day off to pack ready for our flight on September 12th to...America. Needless to say, that didn't happen!

Very weird day for me

Started by dropping someone off at work a prison which was a little odd, then as I was driving back an old guy on a bike hit a pothole and went over the bars in front of me - landed on his head and was bleeding pretty badly out of his ear. Didn't look good.

I stopped to help, call an ambulance etc - there was a woman who also stopped who went over the road to get a towel to try and stop the bleeding, and as she was crossing the road got run over by a car.

Came home and the news was on - at that point they thought it was probably an accident as only the first plane had hit, but then the second plane hit.

Really ****ed up day.

edit: I know this sounds awful - but it was probably one of the most amazing, if not the most amazing thing on TV I've ever seen - and I don't mean that as in celebrating it.

I was at work in San Francisco, got sent home from work as there were fears the golden gate bridge, BART or the financial district could also be targets!! Pretty scary stuff.

heard about it at 5.30 am on the radio as me and 3 mates were off for a couple of days snowboarding, the cheery morning "crew" were clearly shaken and apologised for not being able to make anyone laugh as they were so freaked out, initial reports estimated 35,000 deaths so i figured i'd better get a good day in on the slopes as the northern hemisphere was probbly gonna be toast by the end of the day. realy didn't feel like I should have been frivoulously enjoying myself as thousands met an awful death.

I was a student so watched the whole thing on rolling news. Remember thinking what a terrible accident but then when the second plane hit it all came into focus and it was obviously a terrorist attack. I'll never forget the sick feeling in my stomach as I considered who the chimp in charge of Americas big red nuclear button was! I genuinely feared I was witnessing the beginning of the end of the world. Maybe it was.

In Amsterdam with my then girlfriend.

The girl behind the counter in Global Chillage told us about it, but we were pretty far gone and didn't really take it in. I think she thought we were Americans because my girlfriend was wearing an LA Lakers tee shirt.

Watched the footage on Sky News at the hotel, then went and watched an American comedy troupe. Discussed the events with a nice Irish couple who were sat beside us.

Was at work when guy I work with walked in saying he'd heard on his car radio about a plane hitting the twin towers. Thought it was a light aircraft or something. Looked online just as they said another one hit. Knew right away it wasn't no accident. Stood in the boardroom with the rest of the office in complete silence watching it all on the news for hours. Plus I'd been standing underneath the towers about 3 weeks previous.

house sale had fallen through that morning so on a bit of a downer,went to the beach with my wife and daughter
to lift our spirits met a guy in the car park on our way home who mentioned he'd heard on the news about a plane crashing into the twin towers like a few people before i assumed it was a light aircraft accident,got home flicked on the TV couldn't believe what i was seeing sat up all night watching it on CNN
i'll spare a thought for those who lost there lives that day

Receiving text messages from Mrs North scared stiff for her father.

Her father was in working in New York that day. He had flow down from Boston the day before and had been working in the World Trade Centre on 10th september.

Lucky man, though he's completely sanguine about it.

(He and four other colleagues from the UK then tried to leave the USA. Somone suggested splitting up. He told them that was foolish, not least because one coleague was a Muslim with a big beard....)

Camping in St Davids, Pembrokeshire.
Listened to the coverage on Radio 5 and then stood in the Farmers Arms gawping at the TV for a couple of hours.

The most vivid memory were the pictures on the fronts of the papers on 12th though.

Nearly as vivid as when I heard about the Dunblane massacre.

I was at a hotel in Heathrow. Specialized were having a dealer roadshow at this hotel, in a load of big basement rooms. Bike shop staff from all over that area went to the hotel and had a look at the shiny 2002 bikes due into their shops, few informal presentations etc. Anyway, about lunchtime I headed off with a journalist mate I'd met there, got a lift back into London with him. We were listening to some cassette he had on then it finished and on the news was Tony Blair speaking to the Teachers Union and saying that "in light of these terrible happenings I obviously can't give my speech..." We were screaming "WHAT'S HAPPENED?!" at the radio and it was AGES before it was announced that a plane had hit the WTC. Even then I was thinking Cessna or similar and wondering why TB would cancel a speech for that. Facts were still really scarce, no-one knew anything so the channels were jammed with speculation.

He dropped me off at Waterloo and I got the bus home, turned the TV on in time to see the first tower fall. Just sat there in complete disbelief.

Edit: a uni friend of mine had flown out of NY on the same flight the previous day! 😯

I was driving to H&J wholesalers in Manchester, and heard it on the radio that the first plane hit. Bought some stuff, came back to Tod, picked son up from childminders, after the 2nd plane had hit.
Got home, son wanted to watch "Bear in the Big Blue House" on the video, and at the time we only had one telly!

Incredibly, the day after I got an email from a New York based Planet X customer who was "very dissapointed" that the head tube badge had fallen off his Planet X Zebdi Trials frame.

I was riding on Exmoor, only heard the news back at the campsite that evening then saw a few pictures on the tv with no sound in the pub later on that day.