9/11 - Where were you?

Oakster

I was working from home, first saw the news on Netaddicks of all places - spent some of the afternoon looking out of my window to check the twowers on Canary Wharf were still there

Can't believe how fast the last 5 years have gone

Did CAFC have a game the following evening? I seem to remember a half empty Valley & a surreal, subdued atmosphere

suzisausage

I remember being at a previous job and hearing about it on email from some friends off netaddicks, and worrying about my dad who worked in canary wharf up the top!

dunno about the evening home game. i think we lost 2-0 to leeds at home the weekend after tho

cafcpolo

Was at college, girlfriend at the time text me saying a plane had gone into one of the towers. Then spent the rest of the lesson on the net looking at news. Sacked the rest of the day off, went home & watched it on the news.

Dont think we had a game the following day though, maybe at the weekend?

StanmoreAddick

Driving around seeing clients all day- needless to say, the last meeting (3pm ish) was nowhere- we just looked at it on TV-had a coffee and went our seperate ways.

Went to my local pub for a swift pint ( TV was on there as well) and tried to work out how the hell to explain it to my seven year old Daughter.

AFKABartram

was very strange. Working in a dealing room, we heard of it within minutes, and financial markets started going crazy. Saw on CNN the second plane fly in live. It just didn't seem real, and found very hard to take seriously at first, or to even feel sadness, to be honest. It just looked like something off a film, or a computer game. Rest of the day was filled with rumours etc. of various other attacks. Very strange day.

Was flying this morning on Sept 11 again, and felt unnerving. There was a group of young Asian males on the plane, and everyone kept looking at them uneasily. Felt sorry for them, they had just had a nice holiday like everyone else, but sadly this is one of the effects extremism has had.

paulbaconsarnie

was on austin lodge golf course when playing partner got a phone call about it. didn't really take much notice until we got to the clubhouse and saw the tv.
also on that same day a freind suffered a brain heomorage whilst up north and died without regaining consiousness.
a very sad day.

BlackForestReds

I was at work when I caught a newsflash that a plane had gone into the first of the two towers, I spent ages trying to get into CNN's site which was slow to access with all the traffic. When I eventually got there I discovered that a second plane had gone into the second tower. A few weeks later I also discovered that an old work colleague was in the South Tower. He didn't get out in time.

ThreadKiller

i was on a plane to new york with work friends for an afternoon meeting in the wtc.

the pilot announced that american airspace was closed and that we had to land in the first available airport which was to be stephenville (similar to biggin hill)in newfoundland.he was unable to give any other details at that point.the plane had credit card phones so was able to ring home and hear the news from my wife who was frantic with worry.

we were kept on the runway for 18 hours while all the other planes were looked after and eventually we were taken off last as our plane had the most spare seats for us and then processed by the canadian red cross who were brilliant and we were given small necessities.wasn't till we were in cornerbrook another few hours after getting off the plane that we saw for the first time the horror of what the rest of the world had been watching continuously for the previous 24 hours.

being an american airline, it had to return to their own u.s. airport once the skies were open,so we had to stay in newfie till saturday where we were really well looked after until newark was opened again.managed to get on a virgin plane home,and from the terminal you could see new york's skyline,but with billowing smoke replacing the twin towers.

security was cranked to the max,nearly had to write an essay on why i should be allowed on the flight back home,and once sitting down, everyone was looking to see who was on the plane with them.if anyone made the slightest move,then the whole plane was ready to take them down.

AFKABartram

Christ mate, what a story.

Bet that 18 hours on a plane felt like a lifetime.

Medders

I thought we had a game the following day too, and I've found that we did.... Port Vale at home in the Worthington Cup..... Just over 7000 of us there. Didnt seem right watching a game of football, whilst thousands of families were searching for their loved ones.

Me, I was at work in sleepy Hampshire. I can remember the work idiot coming into our room and saying that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. No one believed him, the sort that was always telling exagerated stories. Then he came in again later and said a second plane had also crashed into the WTC. Cue 6 of us trying to get onto the internet to find out more. A terrible day. The whole firm were gathered together at the end of our working day that day, about 400 people, and stood together in silence for a few moments. A very sad, emotional day - and that was from all those miles away from New York, Pennsylvannia, and Washington DC. Can't even begin to imagine what it must of been like for the people who were closely affected by the events of that day.

AppyAddick

Just coming out of a meeting in Uxbridge, had to get back around the M25. Put the radio on and there was the news, did not believe it at first i thought it was a story of some kind. The M25 was like a ghost town.................very very sad.

Charlton Dan

I had left the City the year before and was working from home. A mate of mine (bit of a windup merchant) rang to tell me the news. Flicked the TV on just as the 2nd plane hit. Initially thought it was a replay of the 1st plane.... Soon realised what was going on.

Then spent the whole day glued to CNN/BBC/SKY as I had a close friend who's first day in ICAPs NYK office in WTC 2 was supposed to be 11th Sept. Later found out that fortunately for her she was running late and arrived at the Metro station about 10 mins after the first plane hit and she was diverted away.

I then spoke to a couple of guys I knew at Cantors Ldn and found out that 3 guys who had been our Link guys at ICAP NYK had moved to Cantors the previous week. They never did find any of their remains as the 2nd plane (I think) hit their floors. Still feel for their families especially as I later found out that one of the guys I'd worked with for 3 yrs, had been on the piss with on quite a few occasions and was such a nice bloke, that his wife was 3 months pregnant with their 1st child.

A bit like when JFK was shot. I'll always remember where I was when I heard the news.

kigelia

I was working at a web company in Dartford at the time and was talking to someone at the bbc who told me about the first plane. The office bar one person spent the rest of the day getting news updates and it was a very strange atmosphere.

The strangest thing was that this one person in the office remained oblivious all day. As I was leaving we were talking about it and her words to me were:

"Has something happened then?" This was at 6pm after the rest of the office had spent the best part of 5 hours listening to the radio and attempting to get a response from news websites.

Ketman

Was Working for Lloyds TSB at Hays Lane heard some chinese whispers about some mad American crashing a plane into Trade Centre so whent downstairs to watch on TV joining about another 100 or so people downstairs then saw the second plane hit & realised it was not some mad yank.

Curb_It

same, heard in the office from someone at home and didnt believe, then we ran next door to the bar to watch the updates... also whilst watching Tower 42 get evacuated opposite us. I work for a New York firm so my colleagues went home in tears and i locked up the office about 3pm and then sat and watched in a bar all day and night in disbelief.

awful day.

Charltonparklane

Was in Villamoura, Portugal, Playing golf at the time. Came back into the clubhouse and this non english speaking woman was trying to explain to the best of her ability, even doing airplane noises and wings (I kid you not!) I thought she was fcuking crazy and went and sat down with the brother in law (who honestly did not give a shat what was happening) and was gobsmacked.
I was hooked, watched it day and night and still watch all the programmes that are on now about it, even repeats. Missus said they were sitting by the pool and all of a sudden it just emptied, nobody told her what was going on and she sat there with the kids until me and the BIL got back from golf.
Nightmare getting home, everyone was a suspect and didnt want to put my kids (3 & 5 at the time) through the whole flight/airport scenario.We flew back on the 13th Sept and everyone was suspect on our flight back.
Never been so relieved to touch down on home soil.

mascot88

I was working in Farringdon selling Ad space...... we had literally called New York is open! when we all started huddling around pc's trying to get information. I headed straight to the pub as I'd been up the twin towers only 18 months prior and saw them collapse in shock drinking a stella in the pub opposite farringdon tube.... never thought they'd collapse.

InspectorSands

The memory that'll stay with me is being on a Jubilee Line train going home through an eerie Canary Wharf station at about 11pm that night. It was almost deserted.

cfgs

I was driving around my local patch distributing fire safety posters, I had just left my local library and got back into my car to hear the first news flash. At first I listened incredulous that a plane could ever accidentally fly into a skyscraper and when the second one hit I knew I was listening to something that would change the world forever. When I went back to my proper job I found it hard to work as I listened to the radio, hoping that the death toll would be far lighter than they feared and wondering what the attacks meant for the world.

valleyman1973

I was in auckland, New Zealand. This actually happened on their 12th September, my wife felt so far away from home.

I've just finished watching the documentary screened this week '102 minutes that changed America' it really does make you sad and mad all at the same time. They had a timeline on there and they were with a lot of fireman at the bottom of the towers just minutes before the first one collapsed. Utterly devastating

Swisdom

My wife was in a meeting room on a conference call waiting for our new York office to pickup. They never did. They were on the floor that took a direct hit

Our company lost 300 employees a few of whom were friends of mine

:-(

I also have several good friends who survived either through being late that day, I'll or just ridiculously lucky

Truly horrid and unbelievable day

ken from bexley

Working on Nursing Times at Emap..... The news editor came in and said that people were 'flying planes into buildings'.....
At first people just carried on working, then the realisation that the world would never be the same again......
I then realised what a shallow trival job I did!
By 5pm everyone went home, and watched it on tv.......

nth_london_addick

I was working at our distribution site listening to talk sport as normal

Mike parry was being his normal jovial wind up merchant when all of a sudden he changed into describing how reports of a plane hitting the wtc .

Phoned home where the missus was on maternity leave told her to put the news on.

Phoned my dad And asked him what sort of a world have I just bought my son into when there is people willing to do such terrible things.

You knew then that the world was changing for the worst.

Couldn't believe the tv footage was truly horrific.

Made worse by watching certain people and countries celebrating the fall of the western world and dancing like they had won the world cup.

Makes me feel sick now thinking about it.

I can't stand the conspiracy theories and the crap sprouted about the us blowing up The building.

Some folks really do need to take a good look at themselves.

Found out later that some of our pensions guys from aon had lost lives and we were only with them weeks before.

Rip all those lost.

NathanPrior

I was in primary school, dont seem that long ago really

valleyman1973

I actually know someone who was on a plane on the way to mexico and was grounded at boston. That is scary!

valleyman1973

.

adrian

I was in a casino, playing roulette. After about 20 minutes, management decided it was not good for business, switched off all the tellies.
More than half the customers left. Might have been a bad day for casinos but the images of this horror will haunt us all forever.

Elthamaddick

I was working for a broker and we were leasing the top floor of the civil aviation authority building on Kingway, Holborn. Given the building we were in, the security went mental and we watched it on the TV for about an hour before they evacuated and sent us all home.

A very sad and surreal day

Killarahales

I was in my office in the brewery in Cork.

My wife phoned to say that one of the towers had fallen. She was in tears; I offered to come home but she said I should stay at work.

I had a picture in my mind of the tower falling over like a domino; I just couldn't work out what had happened.

Watching footage even now it seems hard to believe it was real.

Of course nothing good has come out of this, but the Springsteen album 'The Rising" is one of his best.

Having seen footage of funerals where the deceased were said to be big fans of his, he very respectfully contacted the bereaved to offer sympathy.

The song "You're Missing" came out of conversations with Suzanne Berger, whose husband was killed that day.

C.Walsh'sLoveChild

I was at school. Knew nothing about it till I got home

HarryAMuse

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