9/11 - Where were you?

Much like the “where were you when Kennedy was shot?” which I guess for many on here will be way before their first breath, “where were you on 9/11/2001” is perhaps more in line with most people’s ages.

For me (and Mrs FB) we were in Chamonix and had been out for a good walk and came back to our apartment - was mid-afternoon. Stuck the TV on to catch up on any news and there it was - the North Tower had been struck and was on every timeline, followed shortly by the jet flying into the South Tower.

Just sat there transfixed for a couple of hours as the towers eventually collapsed.

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In Sydney, working for Oracle. Mobile was going fucking bananas about 1am and 30 mins later, we were in the office talking about BCP and how to protect the Sydney office. (which was buried amongst other buildings, whilst ignoring the fact that the Melb office was stuck up on a hill!).

It was a weird period where our practical concerns came first and emotional reactions came later. I was part of the team that had written our BCP and we went back to square one in a heartbeat.

Yes, I was at work, IT dept for an advertising agency in West Kensington and saw the news come up - watched horrified as the second plane struck like Hollywood had come to life…could it be real? Worried about friends in Canary Wharf, other London friends still in banking etc.

Some people couldn’t stop watching like me, others couldn’t see the importance that we saw.

However it was three days after my fathers last birthday and a month before he passed away so personal events soon took precedence for me. Global events are vanishingly unimportant when you’re terminally ill, which gave me some perspective.

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I found out in year 8 French

Wasn’t sure why anyone would want to attack the twin towers in Wembley until someone explained it was the ones in New York.

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At work. And a colleague listening to the radio just saying “ha ha a little plane has just flown into a building in New York” - as if to say, how blind are you that you fly into such a big building. And then it all unfolded.

My dad picked me up from work (we worked near each other so shared lifts), and then we were glued to the radio and the tv when we got home.

My brother sent this article. Written by a guy he went to school with and he describes so well their situation and the surreal nature of it all - I remember the discussions on the radio about him and his band being in New York at the time. And summing up at the end just how pivotal it was with all the major events that have happened since.

Half my life ago. It is weird to think of it like that.

Forgot to add, Oracle lost 8 employees in the attacks :frowning_face:

In my old studio. Mate popped his head round curtain and said, ‘ you think you’ve got problems… ‘ that evening transfixed by news footage on telly. Crazy

bizzarely I said to Mrs FB at the time of the attacks that Bin Laden was behind it before this was generally accepted on news channels. He’d been fingered for a couple of other major attacks including the one on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in '98 so had to be the person behind 9/11.

Absolutely, ex-FiL died around the time of that Diana woman, didn’t think her death was global at that time until I met a few tearful Thai people a week or so later.

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Diana died about midday Sydney time. I was on the phone to a mate and he had the tv on and said ‘one of your mob has karked it’!

Was driving to my job at an after school club when the news broke.

Then remember talking to about 20 7-10 year olds about was going on before their parents picked them up

Was on nights for both Diana and 9/11.
For Diana that meant I followed the news as it unfolded through the night.
For 9/11 that meant I went to bed at 7am, and woke up to a different world. Remember turning on Sky News with a tired “night shift” head and seeing the aerial view of Manhattan. Crazy times.

I remember it so clearly. I worked for the police at the time, in IT. I was sat in the office and remember seeing the news on BBC about the first plane. I said to people in the office, fucking hell a plane has hit the world trade centre. No one really responded, I said a fucking passenger plane. Everyone stopped and we were just glued to it then. There were TVs in the next office so we put those on. That office was the Gold commanders room and a plane was over the Atlantic heading for Gatwick (which Sussex police, policed) and hadn’t responded to ATC calls so we were chucked out of there as they came in to run the incident, which obviously turned out to be nothing.

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She died on my birthday

I dunno if it’s a bit morbid but I do like to watch the 9/11 documentaries. There was one on ITV this week which was pretty grim for one bit which I hadn’t seen before.

The fire chiefs were in a covered area next to the towers, there was a series of several very loud bangs on the ceiling. Then another fire bloke says people are falling from the building, and the bangs were them landing on the roof.

Yes I saw that - wasn’t the relaxing piped music still playing as well in that lobby area as the bodies rained onto the roof.

Still does my nut in that hundreds rocked up for a normal day in the office and an hour later were concluding that leaping out of the building was the best life choice facing them.

I also remember a picture of two coming down holding hands.

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At least one fireman died by being hit by one.

I was at the CNN offices for a meeting, meeting started before 2nd plane hit, but we still had carried on the meeting, and I don’t remember thinking the actual CNN lobby with all the TV’s etc was actually that shocked, perhaps it was all too early in the day for people to have realised the impact.

9/11 had a half day at work we didn’t have the internet on our desks at the time and no radio or tv in a law office. Jumped on the tube to attend my brothers graduation from UCL, I saw the front of an Evening Standard and said oh a plane into a skyscraper- the person with the paper said no two planes I was like oh gosh, not sure I believed they had the story correct, went on to the graduation ceremony and only picked up the details later when I got home.

London bombings: I was at Waltham Forest magistrates court that morning. At least one of my brothers was working in central London at the time, couldn’t get through to his/their phone or anyone else’s phone for a couple of hours, that was a bit worrying. Can’t remember how I got home that day, I presume all the tube lines shut down?

Diana’s death: we drove up to my mates holiday home in Buxton during the evening. They didn’t (still don’t) have a tv in the place, we had some beers etc and went to bed. In the morning I turned the radio to Radio 1, expecting a few tunes to get us in the mood for a days rock climbing. Very somber music - straight away I said someone’s dead. It ruined my breakfast, but I think we all recovered soon enough to get ourselves out the door for our planned activities.

As far as remembering where you were when these sort of things happen, I was just leaving work when I got a text from a mate saying John Peel was dead. I said no fella you’ve made a mistake he’s just on holiday in Columbia. Worst fears realised when I turned on the radio.

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I was working for HSBC at the time, call centre just outside Glasgow.

Was on 12-9 shift and basically just sat and watched tv for the whole shift with the other team leaders.

We’ve watched a lot of the 9/11 documentaries over the last few weeks, still unbelievable and so much you don’t realise.

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This isn’t a celebration of what happened, but from the terrorist side of things, as far as plans go it was an incredible one and so well executed, they surely couldn’t have expected what followed.

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