[cite]Posted By: Algarveaddick[/cite]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...
How strange is that! that's the company I had just visited.
Was working for Aon in the city and was with a client, whose sister was in New York. He was panic stricken. Went into one of the insurance carriers office's on Lime Street and watched the tele' with others in disbelief before being forced to go home.
Aon occupied the 7 floors between 98 and 105 at 2 World Trade Centre, and I lost 176 colleagues, some of whom I knew very well. RIP
I almost took a job in there in 1998.
A day for reflection, the world changed forever that day and I'm not sure for the better.
[quote][cite]Posted By: Medders[/cite]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...[/quote]
Was true - Canary Wharf was said to be a target as was Lloyds. The city was awash with rumours.
I was on a training course at hotel in London hence no mobiles, etc. Somehow I didn't know a thing about it until I was on the train back down to Bournemouth at about 4:45. I couldn't work out what was going on and what people were talking about until I saw the front of the someones Standard. Everyone on the carriage seemed in a state of shock and disbelief. Got home and watched the news for the rest of the night lke everyone else. I'd been catching a connecting flight in the States the week before and remember thinking that security there didn't seem very good at the time. Terrible day and the world has changed for ever because of it.
News started to come in and we watched it on TV. Was very strange as I caught myself thinking "they could have shot that from a better angle" so like a movie was the coverage.
Saw a very moving exhibition in the Caen memorial (the Peace Museum in Normandy) on the twin towers. Very moving. artifacts, part of the fence with flowers, notes, football scarf and missing persons notices.
I was at home with my mind at the time on a university work placement that I was going to start the following week. From what I recall I got up quite late and only got to learn about it when I switched the tv mid afternoon (after it happened). I certainly wouldn't have been online as I was only on evening and weekend internet dial up access package. I also didn't have a mobile phone at the time as I hated the things. I didn't bother going online as I was expecting a phone call from a close friend to tell me that the following evening's schedule would be changed, which proved to be the case.
I went to New York about two months later - arriving back in the UK just hours before the plane crash - my response was to email all those close to me to inform them I was okay.
This is a terrible thing to admit. I was at work in a University in Dundee, someone got a phone call from her husband that a plane had flown into the WTC. It just seemed so incredible and my friend said that it could not be true " a plot of a Tom Clancy novel and Harrison Ford is probably president", we laughed. Then we tried to get on the internet and couldn't. We then began to think it might be true. I phoned my then boyfriend (now husband and the reason i moved to London - another story another time) who was off work and he was watching on tv. But even then i could not truly comprehend, when i went home and then saw it on the TV just could not believe what i was seeing. I had been there a year earlier and if you had seen them you would never think that this was possible. We went to NYC in 2005 and could not believe that people were wearing ground zero hats, we did not go too distasteful. However, we did go to see the a memorial which familes, children and friends from NYC made,next to the nearest hospital. It was a very moving experience See the website: http://tilesforamerica.com/
Just watching this programme at the moment on C4 called '102 minutes that changed America'. some unbelievable never before seen footage that brings back so many memories of that terrible day.
The most harrowing seen for me is the footage of the second plane hitting the tower. Anyone else watching this?
I was at work for a US Insurance company - we lost around 300 people!
I was on a conference call and someone came and told us to just go home. Some of those who died were my equivalents and it was thought I would have to go out and provide cover
my boss was on a call to us colleagues but nobody dialled in - we then found that one of the planes went in on our peoples floor and everyone due on the call had died
spent a lot of time there in the last few years and amazing the number of people who had lucky escapes. Even now my friends Bobby and Vahid get tears in their eyed when talking about it.
That kind of shit never leaves you I suppose!
Just got back from shopping and turned on the tv as the second plane crashed, had to pick up my daughter from school as she had an accident. I spent the afternoon in Medway casualty which was very quiet watched the news there with one of the nurses who had a nephew working in one of the towers often wonder what happened to him.
[cite]Posted By: Swisdom[/cite]RIP people of Marsh, Guy carpenter, Mercer
Do you work for Marsh? I used to work for Bowrings who were taken over by Marsh. I was in New York a few years before the 9/11 attack and I met with some execs from Marsh but it wasn't in the WTC. I wonder whether the guys I met relocated there?
was working for a broker and we were based in the Civil Aviation Authority building in Holborn, watched a fair amount on the TV in the office and then we were evacuated and sent home.
I was in an office in England when the news came through. However, I had left New York on the Sunday morning before. Hell, was I relieved to get out in time? I was thinking of staying on for the following week to attend an annual conference that I have attended 3 or 4 times before while I was in New York, but I decided that the programme wasn't very interesting that year, so I came home. Thank you, programme committee.
i was in the bookies in webber street blackfriars everyone was in disbelief all the punters stopped betting and looked on shaking there heads unbelieveable.
[cite]Posted By: falconwood_1[/cite]Where did you end up Threadkiller?
got put down newfoundland.very small airport. plane was a third full so we weren't a priority to get off and were kept on runway for 18 hours. only water was allowed once down, before being processed then transported to a hotel and seeing what the rest of the world had been seeing for the previous 24, for the first time.we were there for 4/5 days before heading on to new york and then trying to get the first flight back out of there.
I was driving down to The Foundry in Canterbury to collect my new Harley-Davidson when the news came through on the radio, I remember thinking when the first jet hit it must have just been an accident, however when the second jet hit it was a chilling moment.
When I arrived at the shop nobody was interested in filling out the forms for my new bike, all the staff were watching events unfold on a portable tv.
I visited ground zero a few years after with some friends who live in NY, one of the guys lost several family members in the disaster and whilst we stood there paying our respects there were a few tears in eyes, I could not bring myself to take any pictures, it just did not seem right.
However the silence was broken as a large coach pulled up spilling out what seemed like hundreds of japanese tourists all taking pictures and gabbling away.
Comments
How strange is that! that's the company I had just visited.
Aon occupied the 7 floors between 98 and 105 at 2 World Trade Centre, and I lost 176 colleagues, some of whom I knew very well. RIP
I almost took a job in there in 1998.
A day for reflection, the world changed forever that day and I'm not sure for the better.
Was true - Canary Wharf was said to be a target as was Lloyds. The city was awash with rumours.
News started to come in and we watched it on TV. Was very strange as I caught myself thinking "they could have shot that from a better angle" so like a movie was the coverage.
Saw a very moving exhibition in the Caen memorial (the Peace Museum in Normandy) on the twin towers. Very moving. artifacts, part of the fence with flowers, notes, football scarf and missing persons notices.
Not sure if it is coming to or has been to the UK
I went to New York about two months later - arriving back in the UK just hours before the plane crash - my response was to email all those close to me to inform them I was okay.
I remember we went for Fish & Chips that evening from the chippy at Blackheath Standard, up from where the Safeway used to be.
We got engaged on top of the World Trade Centre a year or so earlier.
The most harrowing seen for me is the footage of the second plane hitting the tower. Anyone else watching this?
I was on a conference call and someone came and told us to just go home. Some of those who died were my equivalents and it was thought I would have to go out and provide cover
my boss was on a call to us colleagues but nobody dialled in - we then found that one of the planes went in on our peoples floor and everyone due on the call had died
spent a lot of time there in the last few years and amazing the number of people who had lucky escapes. Even now my friends Bobby and Vahid get tears in their eyed when talking about it.
That kind of shit never leaves you I suppose!
RIP people of Marsh, Guy carpenter, Mercer
This programme on ch4 is very harrowing but fascinating.
petrifying.
I remember driving on the M25 just after the second plane struck, then driving around the M25 as the news got worse as the buildings collapsed.
RIP
Do you work for Marsh? I used to work for Bowrings who were taken over by Marsh. I was in New York a few years before the 9/11 attack and I met with some execs from Marsh but it wasn't in the WTC. I wonder whether the guys I met relocated there?
RIP
Thought he was just the local idiot.
got put down newfoundland.very small airport. plane was a third full so we weren't a priority to get off and were kept on runway for 18 hours. only water was allowed once down, before being processed then transported to a hotel and seeing what the rest of the world had been seeing for the previous 24, for the first time.we were there for 4/5 days before heading on to new york and then trying to get the first flight back out of there.
When I arrived at the shop nobody was interested in filling out the forms for my new bike, all the staff were watching events unfold on a portable tv.
I visited ground zero a few years after with some friends who live in NY, one of the guys lost several family members in the disaster and whilst we stood there paying our respects there were a few tears in eyes, I could not bring myself to take any pictures, it just did not seem right.
However the silence was broken as a large coach pulled up spilling out what seemed like hundreds of japanese tourists all taking pictures and gabbling away.