i was at work and the only thought, took a while to happen but it was inevitable, the attitude of the US meant it would happen eventually.

NExt day went to london via heathrow on the coach, the number of fully kitted police, thought the **** has happened bit late to start worrying about it.

I was on the 8th floor in 30 South Colonnade at Canary Wharf in meeting that'd lasted 2 hours. Came out and all the laptops were showing one of the towers on fire and people were just standing around looking at them. Asked what was going on and one of the guys told me what was going on. Just then they started to empty One Canada Square and there was talk of another plane coming into London. I had to pick something up at South Kensington so set off although there were increasing disruptions. When I went back to South Ken to head back to Chiswick the Tube network had shut down and there were huge queues for buses so I walked back to Hammersmith and managed to get a bus there.

Much as everyone else, I remember watching it in silence and disbelief – to be frank, and I know it sounds stupid, at first I thought it was a film, couldnt get my head round the fact it was real. I found out a week or so later that an old school friend had died in the attack. Just a sad and tragic loss of life. For those of you who have inferred they had it coming, bear in mind that the victims of the attack were just people going about their daily routines, people like you and me in fact. Youre free to disagree with American foriegn policy, of course, but for God's sake, spare a thought for the people that died that day – they are not the ones that 'had it coming'.

barnsleymitch, my opinion is not about the people who died which is a tragedy. The point is that something like this was IMO inevitable. In the same way as many british and irish citizens have died in the troubles, the individuals may have been innocent but the actions of those in power led to their deaths.

Like any war those in positions of power play games with the lives of others.

I was working in Telecomms and found out when we were getting customers calling us panicking that they couldn't get through to friends in NY

Saw it on the news as I got home. I had to get away from it so went riding at Swinley no radio no phone and enjoyed the beauty of being alive and away from evil people that could be brain washed into doing such terrible deeds.

I was at school, year 8 I think.. Someone said something about it when we were waiting for our buses, saw it on the news when I got home.

Filling a car up on the way back to work after visiting a client. Spent the whole evening glued to the TV.

We'd spent the day at Stonehenge and were doing some shopping in Salisbury on the way back to the campsite , walking through a shopping precinct there was a big crowd outside a shop we thought it must have been a good street performer so went to have a look.

Turned out the crowd was outside a tv rental place , the first tower had been struck and just as we saw the tellys in the window the 2nd plane hit.It was a very strange feeling to see something like this happen , we just walked away in a bit of a daze.

Just parking the fiesta back from a ride at glentress when the radio was interrupted with the news, went inside put the telly on and it was odd, couldn't believe it at first.

I was in work (school) and everything stopped while the news filtered through, TV's went on in classrooms, the whole school just fell silent…weird!

Bizarrely, doing some work with some Y10's (14) the other day I mentioned 9/11 and hey didn't know what it was which I thought was very sad and a bit ignorant but then I should have learned not to be surprised by now…

I remember my boss shrugging his shoulders as the second plan hit and saying something like 'the biggest terrorist nation in the world has just been boned up the ass'

harsh but true most likely

EDIT: I also remember remembering that GW Bush was in power and thinking 'oh sh!T!'

Was at work in the Bristol Royal Infirmary, on a cardiac surgery ward. Everybody trying to crack on with routine tasks, whilst watching the ward TVs (one per 4-6 bedded bay in those days) in mounting disbelief.

Regardless of the wider geopolitics, I still find the footage of those firemen – walking calmly towards buildings that were yet to collapse – intensely sobering. In the documentary 102 minutes you hear the fire control teams trying to contact units after the towers came down, and there is nothing – except the most appalling silence.

Had day off work and i was at the door with a double glazing salesman when a housemate came out and said that a plane had just hit the WTC. I remember saying "that was a good shot" (i thought she meant a little plane, in an accident). Mr salesman came in and stayed watching BBC with us for a couple of hours.
Then that afternoon my (then) GF rang from Athens (she greek)saying that people were dancing in the streets and celebrating-she was so happy.
Yes, i told her where to go in no uncertain terms.

We had just finished the superb 'Valley of the 5 Lakes' ride on a beautiful, crisp, blue-sky morning in Jasper, Alberta and met an American couple at the 'trailhead'. They asked us about our bikes and we chatted for 10 minutes or so before they asked how we were going to get home. 'By plane, of course' we answered and they told us that Canadian airspace was closed. We had no idea as we were camping. It seemed surreal that they had chatted about trivia in the circumstances.

The next 5 days were strange. We didn't know whether our return flight would go, there was nothing else on the TV news in the bars, I witnessed a yank crying for ages down the payphone simply about the fact of the attack on his nation, another threatened anyone who said anything 'un-patriotic' in a restaurant. I was amazed at the expressions of guilt of the Canadians on the radio phone-ins because one of the bombers had entered the US via Canada. We spent our last evening next to a group of American and Canadian golfers in a bar in Canmore. Their unanimous reaction was 'oh shit, what is George W Bush going to do next?'.

I heard it on the radio in my car, pulled over & rang into my office to see if any of our U.S. colleagues were involved. Nobody could tell as all communications with N.Y. were down. Tried ringing a few of them on their mobiles but the U.S networks were either shut down or simply overloaded.

Cancelled my meeting & went home to watch it all unfold on TV only to find out that the first plane had gone straight through 2 of my firm's floors…

Lost 374 colleages that day and, although I'd only had direct dealings with about half a dozen of those, there was an overwhelming sense of loss that I cannot explain to this day.

I'm still in touch with a couple of survivors and they are very different people than before it happened.

Totally agree and/but the victims of 9/11 didn't chose to die for the US or represent them in that way either.

Victims of geopolitics. The President and his policymakers are always well protected whereas the citizens take their chances.

I mentioned this on a different thread but I was watching a 9/11 documentary the other night and it hit home how the emergency service staff who survived had to pick through and locate their own colleagues. 🙁

I worked off Oxford circus at the time and I remember sticking my head into a meeting and saying 'some small plane has just flown into the trade centre in NY'. Looking back it seems abit daft interrupting a meeting to say 'small plane' 🙄

For a few days after the Madrid Bombings I could get ANY seat on the trains from Croydon to Victoria and the tubes were alot emptier than usual. I remember thinking 'if there were to be too targets, the strike on London could happen at ANYTIME, not the day after Madrid.

🙄 😀

I was at Frankfurt airport waiting for a flight to Heathrow. Was having a late lunch with my boss and her boyfriend called with the news…world trade centre…stock market crashing…

As we were flying business class, went through to the lounge to watch it. They had turned off all the televisions although I managed to get some update on their internet screens. Remember people talking into their phones about the fact they had people working in the buildings.
Got back to heathrow which was a scene of bags everywhere with no people (I guess all in hotels) and got home just in time to see it on 10 o'clock news. glad i made it back.

I'm sure I read somewhere that more people died in a single US bombing raid in Afghanistan than died on 9/11 in America. Which one gets tributes and days of mourning?

You read about a single US bombing mission in Afghanistan, during which almost 3,000 were killed and a further 6,000 injured?

Well, I'd love to read about that, could you provide a link please?