Where were you?

Charlton Dan

On the 7th anniversary of 9/11 I was wondering where everyone was and what they were doing when they heard the news of what had happened. Today's JFK moment.

I was working for a small company and based from home. My best mate rang me and told me to turn the news on. I did so just as the 2nd plane hit. Couldn't believe what I was seeing and assumed it was some horrible air traffic control accident. Very quickly it dawned on me that it wasn't and my thoughts then went out to people I knew who worked in the towers. Especially a good mate of mine who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. I later found out that he had had the good fortune of having booked the day off. Other people I knew / had met on a few occasions weren't so lucky.

RIP.

Brunello

I was at work in the City. Saw it all. Fascination turned into a horrific realisation. Good to hear people on the radio this morning talking about all the good that came from it but that horror will never be forgotten. Three friends, two of which I call good friends died that day but all will be remembered.

RIP.

Fishnets

I was off that day, taking a load of gardening waste to the tip. Was listening to the radio as I made about 6 trips......something hopefully will never be repeated.

RIP.

WSS

RIP indeed.

I was walking around Bluewater buying a new laptop for me to take to uni the week after. We were just walking past the Sony store when the first plane hit and i think we must have stood there for a good hour watching the terror unfold, the second plane hit and then the falling.

Rumours were flying around that the White House had been hit etc and it was horrible. No matter how many replays of footage was shown everyone was equally as shocked each time.

My cousin was New York at the time and was based in the Wall Street area. We were terrified for her and others - her building was badly affected and damaged but thankfully she was unharmed.

suzisausage

I worked in an office in the west end by great titchfield street and someone had a call from their sister in New York telling her she was ok which baffled everyone as we hadn't heard anything. Someone grabbed the portable telly and balanced it on a chair and we all sat round it watching it unfold. I rang my dad as he works in canary wharf and they were saying on the telly that they could strike in london as well I told him to go home. 1 person left the office to get lunch for everyone as I recall it was about 1pm.
can't believe it was that long ago.

RIP

leftbehind

Was at Work in the Marylebone area working for a Kids Bubble Co

Normally a fun lively place most were watching live pictures on teh net the whole office was very quiet and shocked

carlingaddick

i was at work watching it on the news.. i had been in my office there just the week before..
i lost a couple of friends that morning

RIP

kigelia

I was working for a small start up in a serviced office in dartford at the time. Was chatting to someone at the BBC at lunchtime negotiating a prize for a competition i'd won, when the second plane hit. The woman I was on the line with just paused for a second and then said 'fuck' as she was in the bbc news office and watching the events unfold.

Those of us in the office spent the rest of the afternoon attempting to get various news sites up on the web to find out updates all but one of the staff were glued to the screens. All talking about it as we left. One woman in the office had not noticed nobody was working but heard the chat as we left for the day, she then asked witha bemused look 'has something happened then?'

charltonkeston

It was a post on Netaddicks. I'd been beavering away and took a break. That was the first me and any of my work mates knew of it.
As for the good that come out of it , I think it brought the best out in some but since then IMO the world has become a crappier place.

DA9

Lobby of Cable & Wireless office I worked at near Borough tube, was taking my kids to see Hearsay that night at London Arena, originally told it was going to be cancelled over fears of Canary Wharf as a target, it went ahead, but very subdued atmosphere.

R.I.P.to all that died that day, and total respect to their families & friends.

Algarveaddick

I was working at Classic Papers in Charlton, one of my workmates had been in the warehouse and came dashing up to put the telly on and we all sat around aghast.

I rang the missus, who worked for the HSBC branch that shared New Scotland Yard with the OB, and told her to go home. Ever caring of their staff, the management said that it was totally safe. I pointed out that a plane had just been flown into the Pentagon, that NSY would be in the top ten targets in the world, and if they thought a few bobbies with nightsticks would be a bigger deterent to terrorists than the entire US military they really ought not be in management. They let the staff go home...

stonemuse

I was working in the City at the time. Whole office was dumbstruck.

Lost a friend who was on the first plane to hit the towers.

RIP

Goonerhater

Was working for an American Oil company in the City. Any world incident has to be put on all floor monitors and the BCP room opened. By the time i opened the BCP room, turned to see the first tower come down. 60 % of the workforse being Yanks was very very quiet. Then our Global security herd we were a target and had to ask if anyone wanted to go home-- most did.

Few weeks later had to chair a meeting re security H+S and it went on for 7 f**kin hours ! One question to me by one of the Yanks "if 4lb of semtex was left out side what damage would it do ?" it went on and on and on and on and on till one lady (a Brit) said "look these guys (us) have been dealing with bombs and bomb threats from the IRA for 30 years they know what they are doing ". Loved it, loved it. Of course the fact that the money for those IRA scum bags had come from the USA was probably lost on them.

DA9

No, working, next home game for me, Sheff Wed, 27th Sep, birthdays on the Monday so may have a drink, then back to working alternate weekends from 11th Oct

supaclive

I was actually in Spain on a golf tour. We got back to the hotel and were lounging around the pool when when of our friends' wives called. She told her husband what had happened and he (a yid) turned round to another yid friend and said, "you'll never guess what" ... to which my mate said "Ronaldo's signed for Spurs"! Spurs fans never learn, do they ...

RIP everyone. It was a very sombre moment when the 2 minute silence took place

Terry Naylor

I remember coming back from Notting Hill and logging onto Netaddicks and a thread had been posted about a light aircraft hitting one of the towers.
Someone posted about the pilot being blind and it wouldn't make a dent in the building(Not knowing what really hit it?)
Then 20mins later another plane hitting the tower the the pentigon!

I then ran in the cheuffers office who I knew had sky news and watched it all afternoon as the office closed down as we had an office in the south tower(Luckly based onn the 22nd floor!!)

RIP

Red Riding Hoodie

I was on maternity leave, my daughter was just 3 months old and my husband and I had taken her to my work (in Westminster) to show her off. We had literally just got home when the phone rang - it was my mum telling me to turn the tele on, that a plane had hit one of the twin towers. We both watched the second plane hit, so it then became apparent it was no accident. Spent the rest of the day/week asking myself why the hell we'd bought a baby into this world - have asked myself the question many a times since too. Still find the whole thing unbelieveable really.

Shag

You're whispering very loudly mate

Kap10

was reading an article in The Times about Sarah Palin and her Preacher. He was basically saying that he could see the forces of evil around the world rising against christianity as predicted in the bible and that soon evil will be left to the anti christ and true christians woudl be raised to heaven and he was hoping to see this in his life time. There are people in the USA who see the "end of modern" civilisation as the fulfilment of the prophecies and rather than trying to prevent the catastrophies of war, terrorism and global warming want to speed them up so tnat their salvation and the second coming of the Lord may take place. 9/11 is seen as part of this. Sarah Palin is a believer and she could be one heart beat away from the Presidency.

DA9

noted...and changed lol

adamtheaddick

I was working for Merrill Lynch near cannon street at the time. i was only a post room boy but the whole comapny from the ceo down to us, all came together to watch the events, we had offices in one of the towers and people were franticaly trying to call fellow traders the they knew were in the towers. i used to work closely with the bank of new york department who were the young wanabee traders, wide boys and wankers but that day changed them all. i was on the trading floor and it was so weird, no phones ringing no shouting, just silence watching the TV. People who i had never spoken to before came over just to share what was going on. As the towers fell there was just stunned silence, a few people just could not accept what was going on, when it hit them they just broke down. We found out that over the next few days that out of 90 odd merrill lynch staff only 2 or 3 passed away on that day. We had memoral services up until i left every september the 11th. The sad thing in my eyes as a lowly mail room worker at the time is that feck that would have been me and the lads as we got in so early before everyone else, along with the cleaners and canteen staff who would have been there makes me cold still to this day.

C_f_W

I can't remember the exact moment I heard but like many, the first I heard was that a light aircraft was supposed to have flown into the WTC.

My most abiding memory was that, one by one we all mustered in the meeting room/lounge and watched the events unfold on TV then the boss - a man who hardly ever challenges what anyone does - walked in and, obviously completely oblivious to the severity of the situation, asked if we could possibly get back to work.

Needless to say that once he was told what had happened he felt very, very small indeed.

MrOneLung

Was working for Natwest just off London Wall - 24 floor building.
Came down from canteen at lunchtime back to desk and manager said the BBC website has said a sightseeing plane had hit one of the world trade centre buildings. looked it up about 10 mins later and realised it was a bit more than that, so we got the TV's on. Every other tall building seemed to be getting evacuated around us, stock exchange,natwest tower,shell building etc but we were told to remain !!!

Chunes

I was in a water-park in Portugal. They kept making announcements on the tannoy, and it was incredibly eery because we couldn't understand a word they were saying and all the locals were just staring up at the speaker. We had no idea what was going on. We got back to the villa and my sister was sitting there watching it on CNN.

BlackForestReds

At work, just got back from lunch, flicked on the BBC to see what was going on in the world and saw that the first tower had been hit. I tried to log on to CNN (being American I thought they'd know more) - that took ages and then I discovered that the second tower had fallen.

I then spent the rest of the day watching the coverage on the TV. Around six months later I found out that a friend had been killed in the south Tower.

southamptonaddick

I watched it at home.

Remember just sitting there watching it opened mouthed trying to take in what was happening. Two friends of ours were there the week before and had shown us there holiday snaps with the towers in the background. They had gone on a visit to the towers exactly one week before it happened.

Although I don't know anyone who actually died my thoughts are with the famillies and friends who lost loved ones.

cfgs

I was just leaving my local library after dropping by with some fire safety literature for them to display

LenGlover

At work.

Found out at lunchtime that something had happened but didn't appreciate the sheer horror of it until I got home that evening and saw the news coverage.

RIP

bingaddick

I was working in my retail business in Norwich and one of my plant suppliers asked me if I'd heard about the planes crashing into the Twin Towers in New York. I stuck on the radio, just as the first tower collapsed. I had the afternoon off and watched the TV news feeds transfixed in horror and disbelief. I can't believe it was 7 years ago.

RIP

Medders

Do I remember rightly that there was mass confusion, both here and in the US, regarding unaccounted for planes that were in the air, believed to also be hijacked. Seem to remember the count was something like 15 in the US and several over here at one stage...

T_C_E

I remember leaving my last job in Charlton at 2ish and I'd been playing a cd in the car and it just kept playing on a loop, I remember in victoria way thinking this album starting to bore me a switching to the radio and the news was on which I thought was strange (because of the time), they was talking to a witness in New York, it all seemed almost like listening to film and not seeing the pictures, on getting home I went straight inside to find Mrs T.C.E watching Sky news in tears saying those poor, poor people, we hugged and watched the same channel "very glassy eyed" until 1.30am when finally we went to bed absolutely exhausted.

RIP