Sitting in my shop watching it unfold on a small portable I had. Other shopkeepers hairdresser estate agents etc. were coming in for updates and customers were hanging around watching. I think at one point there was about 10 people stood at the end of my counter watching it.
Was filming an exclusive interview with someone who claimed he had evidence that the Lockerbie bomb was planted at Heathrow, that those who had been accused of planting it were innocent, and that it had all been covered up. He had witnessed where a break in had occurred at the exact place where you'd get access to transit baggage. Major shock when we phoned the newsdesk to say it went well, only to hear we'd been dropped because the first plane had crashed into the towers. Saw the second plane crashing into the tower on my return to Grays Inn Rd. Spent the rest of the day filming maybe thirty to forty interviews in the office for our open ender programme, with a brief to make them all look different. Half of our crews had been sent to various airports so they could fly to New York. Of course all flights had been grounded, so they spent a few days hanging around in airports and airport hotels, not going anywhere.
(Always remember experts who pointed out the aim wasn't so much to 'punish' America, as it was to create divisions between non Muslims and Muslims, in the hope of creating a 'holy war'. Can't help thinking we're still falling for it.)
We lived in Guttenberg from Sept 2000-March 2001, during that time I went up the twin towers around 8-10 times taking various friends up there when they came out to see us, we were long gone by 9/11 thank god, my wife was offered a permanent position and her company even said they would sort my green card out, but she wanted to come home after finishing her initial contract. On that day we were out walking in the Kent countryside and hadn't a clue to what was happening until we caught a train back from Gravesend to Eltham when we heard a couple of young lads chatting about a plane hitting a building, needless to say we caught up with everything when we got home.
I was in year 6 and we was going to the library to watch a video and the news came up on the TV. Only really half understood once I got home that afternoon.
have visited the 9/11 memorial last October v peaceful place - the only thing i found odd/sick is people getting selfies at it, the bit that moved me was the placing of a white flower on whatever victims birthday it is.
I thought the same when I went mate. Can understand people taking photographs but smiley selfies seemed very inappropriate. Extremely eerie place yet incredible at the same time. Still doesn't seem real and simply terrible that it is.
Came across the same thing at Auschwitz.
A group of idiotic Japanese tourists having their photo taken whilst grinning & doing that stupid V thing with their fingers, at the wall where hundreds of inmates were shot.
I was in year 6 and we was going to the library to watch a video and the news came up on the TV. Only really half understood once I got home that afternoon.
Same story for me basically.
I was in year 6, and a teacher took a call from her husband, and then she told us, she herself was in complete shock.
Something you just can't even begin get your head around at that stage of life.
It was a great time in my life. In the July I'd just moved into my dream home. Second daughter was born in August and in early September I had my 30th birthday at home and watched the England win over Germany with old school pals that I hadn't seen for years. I was just about to start third year of university and then the twin towers event happened and somehow the world changed forever.
I was in my office. I was 22 and remember some dick who was in his 40’s walking around the office telling us youngsters how we were going to be called up to fight and die needlessly on foreign lands…..dick
I was working at ING on London wall. Just back from a few pints in The Scottish Pound.
Dozensof us crowded round screens on the trading floor watching in disbelief.
I remember the wild rumours that more planes were missing and believed to be heading for the City of London. People were panicking so we were told we could leave early. Most of us just wandered back to The Scottish Pound for the rest of the day.
Well the documentaries have been done and the conspiracies theories been told with even the Presidents’ homogenised day recorded for posterity ……and the world moves on.
Do they tell the story? Do they convey the human experience on the day? The real time pictures of the US president probably evidenced the reality.
Seldom can anyone ever have looked so desperately lost.
The acts of pure evil pushed the boundaries of inhumanity just that little bit further though for those who lost lives, loved ones, friends, acquaintances I am still not sure the nature of the atrocity which impacted their lives really registers.
I will not forget the day.
I have visited the memorial twice. My daughter (now a resident of NY) who was 10 at the time of events still looks a little puzzled why.
For me it is simple. For no more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time I/ we saw these innocent people’s last moments of life.
I would never diminish the fact millions will have experienced many challenges in their lives before and after 9/11 but to stand viewing the 3 wide screens in the staff restaurant of the recently separated sister company of American Airlines, with circa 70 or 80 bewildered US colleagues will on this day always be a moment of reflection.
It just registers as the old fashioned habit of the quiet doffing of the cap as a hearse passes by.
The then look of pain, shock, horror, complete lack of comprehension could but register. The silence beyond the restrained sobs, the quiet tears, the side ways glances trying to register the enormity of the loss for ever deserves my appropriate reflection.
Many around me weeks earlier were working for AA. Known or unknown these were their former colleagues being murdered.
The day before I had spent an excellent first day of 3 planned days of talks with American Express personnel. Based in the TT Building 5 on day 2 they were frantically fighting to find a way home, to find out about work colleagues and how loved ones were coping.
We never revisited those opportunities. Ultimately corporate America did what corporate America does and over 500k working in the US Leisure Industry lost their livelihoods. Indeed I reckon I wrote off over $50mn of business revenue opportunities in one day, it really didn’t seem important.
The business plan did not account for such evil or the incompetence of US military intelligence and defences.
The life had and would for some time be sucked out of the business. I stayed for 8yrs and am now very happily long retired in France but I am not sure it was ever quite the same.
We are however here to tell the tale where far, far, far too many are not. May their loved ones have found and they rest in peace.
I was working at ING on London wall. Just back from a few pints in The Scottish Pound.
Dozensof us crowded round screens on the trading floor watching in disbelief.
I remember the wild rumours that more planes were missing and believed to be heading for the City of London. People were panicking so we were told we could leave early. Most of us just wandered back to The Scottish Pound for the rest of the day.
Worked for NatWest at Drapers garden and also went Scottish Pound after work.
My wife worked forAON insurance in the city, she phoned me at work to say what had happened I was driving back to Belvedere from Leatherhead after a meeting AON lost about 60 people, she knew some of them quite well, including a chap called Mike Egan, who sister had chosen that morning to meet Mike for a coffee. A shocking senseless waste of life.
Having a 1-1 with my boss by phone as he was from Plymouth. We were chatting about various things when he said turn on the TV, you won't believe what's happening. We did just in time to see the second plane hit.
My wife worked forAON insurance in the city, she phoned me at work to say what had happened I was driving back to Belvedere from Leatherhead after a meeting AON lost about 60 people, she knew some of them quite well, including a chap called Mike Egan, who sister had chosen that morning to meet Mike for a coffee. A shocking senseless waste of life.
My dad worked for Aon at that period of time. Their big offices in the US were New York and Chicago. Can remember him being on the phone non stop after school.
I was working at ING on London wall. Just back from a few pints in The Scottish Pound.
Dozensof us crowded round screens on the trading floor watching in disbelief.
I remember the wild rumours that more planes were missing and believed to be heading for the City of London. People were panicking so we were told we could leave early. Most of us just wandered back to The Scottish Pound for the rest of the day.
Worked for NatWest at Drapers garden and also went Scottish Pound after work.
At home listening to talksport when the news started filtering through. Put sky news on and witnessed live the second plane crashing into the tower.
Awful moment.
Exactly the same, was sitting in my kitchen in Sydenham and heard it on TALKsport. Put the TV on and sat there for hours watching the horror unfold.
Watched a show on Channel 4 a couple of nights ago "102 minutes that changed America." Powerful stuff. Watched BBC iplayer "9/11 Inside the Presidents war room" last night. CIA fella said that some of the names of the hijackers were on their "watch list".
I was at work watching when the news came on the radio,we then put our tiny portable TV on a watched the horror unfold.I felt chilled to the bone,a few years earlier I had been up the towers on a trip to New York,the sheer size of the structures was incredible,when they came down,I said to a colleague,they will take years to clear the debris,but they did it in 9 months.Also although nearly 3000 died,that is a fraction of how many could have been in there and I really thought the figure could have reached 5 figures.This action by these bastards was the reason we went to Afganistan,and although many brave soldiers lost their lives,I am sure further similar scale attacks were prevented,although you can never stop these maniacs blowing themselves up.And they do it in the name of religion.
Three weeks before 9/11 I was on the 63rd floor of tower two meeting a client. Stayed in the Marriott that stood between the towers. The night before 9/11 I got home to Milwaukee very late from a short trip to Minneapolis. I had put in a buy order for Nokia stock at the open because I expected a good earnings report. I woke up at the market open, saw that the earnings were great, the stock was up, so I went back to sleep.
A friend in the business woke me with a call after the second plane hit. I remember everything about that conversation. I would usually have been watching the financial news when it happened but slept in because it was long night of travel. From that point I was glued to the the TV day and night for a couple of days.
I don’t know anyone who died on 9/11 but two of my clients had brothers die. One worked for the fire department and the other for the Port Authority. It was 9/11 that got me thinking about whether I was in the career I wanted. Three years later I quit and started over in wine. I can’t believe 20 years passed.
I knew someone by reputation at a company I worked for in Los Angeles from 1991-1999. A week after 9/11 a friend still at that company told me about a freak close-call by that worker.
I don’t like to fly. Apparently he hated it and so did his wife. So much so that when they flew with their kids, the husband and wife would take separate planes for separate airlines, each with one kid in tow.
They were on vacation at her parents in Boston. They were due to fly back to LA on 9/11 but over the weekend cancelled their flights and decided to stay a few more days.
Turns out the husband and daughter were originally scheduled on United Flight 175 that flew into thw South Tower and the wife and son were booked on American Flight 11 that went into the North Tower. The all would have died in the same place despite all their planning. They would not have known the other died just 20 minutes apart at the same spot.
That story also freaked me out. Not as much as him though. He retired a few weeks later. Never heard about him again. That’s “Final Destination” kind of stuff.
Fortunately, I wasn't on my normal commute that morning, which took me the 100 yards from the Millennium Hilton, opposite Tower 2, to my office in 1 Liberty Plaza, opposite Tower 1.
I'd managed to persuade my boss that it was normal for Brits to take 4 weeks off for a honeymoon, so I was on a beach in Mauritius, trying to call countless colleagues and friends and fielding dozens and dozens of in-comings from people assuming I was there.
If I'd taken the standard two weeks, that Tuesday morning was going to be my first day back.
I knew someone by reputation at a company I worked for in Los Angeles from 1991-1999. A week after 9/11 a friend still at that company told me about a freak close-call by that worker.
I don’t like to fly. Apparently he hated it and so did his wife. So much so that when they flew with their kids, the husband and wife would take separate planes for separate airlines, each with one kid in tow.
They were on vacation at her parents in Boston. They were due to fly back to LA on 9/11 but over the weekend cancelled their flights and decided to stay a few more days.
Turns out the husband and daughter were originally scheduled on United Flight 175 that flew into thw South Tower and the wife and son were booked on American Flight 11 that went into the North Tower. The all would have died in the same place despite all their planning. They would not have known the other died just 20 minutes apart at the same spot.
That story also freaked me out. Not as much as him though. He retired a few weeks later. Never heard about him again. That’s “Final Destination” kind of stuff.
That's shocking and astonishing. Lucky, lucky people. I imagine the FBI were all over them when they investigated.
On stage during my regular Tuesdays night gig at Minsky's bar Nedland Perth WA. a group of students suddenly burst in and swiched the tv on. I carried on to the end of the song being convinced that they got a new video game. Nick came over all apologetic and drew my attention. And then the 2nd plane hit...
I knew someone by reputation at a company I worked for in Los Angeles from 1991-1999. A week after 9/11 a friend still at that company told me about a freak close-call by that worker.
I don’t like to fly. Apparently he hated it and so did his wife. So much so that when they flew with their kids, the husband and wife would take separate planes for separate airlines, each with one kid in tow.
They were on vacation at her parents in Boston. They were due to fly back to LA on 9/11 but over the weekend cancelled their flights and decided to stay a few more days.
Turns out the husband and daughter were originally scheduled on United Flight 175 that flew into thw South Tower and the wife and son were booked on American Flight 11 that went into the North Tower. The all would have died in the same place despite all their planning. They would not have known the other died just 20 minutes apart at the same spot.
That story also freaked me out. Not as much as him though. He retired a few weeks later. Never heard about him again. That’s “Final Destination” kind of stuff.
I knew someone by reputation at a company I worked for in Los Angeles from 1991-1999. A week after 9/11 a friend still at that company told me about a freak close-call by that worker.
I don’t like to fly. Apparently he hated it and so did his wife. So much so that when they flew with their kids, the husband and wife would take separate planes for separate airlines, each with one kid in tow.
They were on vacation at her parents in Boston. They were due to fly back to LA on 9/11 but over the weekend cancelled their flights and decided to stay a few more days.
Turns out the husband and daughter were originally scheduled on United Flight 175 that flew into thw South Tower and the wife and son were booked on American Flight 11 that went into the North Tower. The all would have died in the same place despite all their planning. They would not have known the other died just 20 minutes apart at the same spot.
That story also freaked me out. Not as much as him though. He retired a few weeks later. Never heard about him again. That’s “Final Destination” kind of stuff.
That's shocking and astonishing. Lucky, lucky people. I imagine the FBI were all over them when they investigated.
Every time I hear a story of a near-miss like this, it absolutely chills me. Partly because of how close the survivor would have been to a terrible fate. But also because, for every passenger who just missed a stricken flight, there would probably have been someone who just made it, and for everyone who cancelled their flight, there would probably be someone who booked in their place. RIP to all the victims. And to all of those who came close: Carpe Diem.
I knew someone by reputation at a company I worked for in Los Angeles from 1991-1999. A week after 9/11 a friend still at that company told me about a freak close-call by that worker.
I don’t like to fly. Apparently he hated it and so did his wife. So much so that when they flew with their kids, the husband and wife would take separate planes for separate airlines, each with one kid in tow.
They were on vacation at her parents in Boston. They were due to fly back to LA on 9/11 but over the weekend cancelled their flights and decided to stay a few more days.
Turns out the husband and daughter were originally scheduled on United Flight 175 that flew into thw South Tower and the wife and son were booked on American Flight 11 that went into the North Tower. The all would have died in the same place despite all their planning. They would not have known the other died just 20 minutes apart at the same spot.
That story also freaked me out. Not as much as him though. He retired a few weeks later. Never heard about him again. That’s “Final Destination” kind of stuff.
That's shocking and astonishing. Lucky, lucky people. I imagine the FBI were all over them when they investigated.
Every time I hear a story of a near-miss like this, it absolutely chills me. Partly because of how close the survivor would have been to a terrible fate. But also because, for every passenger who just missed a stricken flight, there would probably have been someone who just made it, and for everyone who cancelled their flight, there would probably be someone who booked in their place. RIP to all the victims. And to all of those who came close: Carpe Diem.
Very true Chizz, makes my guts turn just thinking about it tbh.
@usetobunkin@SouthWest_Addicks I work at Aon and spent a lot of time in the WTC. I also worked in the Aon Center in Chicago post 9/11. I was in London at the time too. Horrific day. Aon lost 176 people on 9/11, many I knew, and there were 531 insurance professionals killed between Aon and Marsh and a few others.
I have heard literally hundreds of stories from that day. One of the more familiar ones within Aon was a large client presentation (that client makes the Covid-19 vaccine) which was moved late the night before from the 105th floor of the south tower to the Hilton hotel opposite due to the large meeting room in the Aon office being double-booked.
The meeting started at 8.30 and everyone in that room watched from the hotel window across the street as the planes hit the towers. My old boss from Chicago was in that meeting, and I have only ever heard him talk about it once.
Comments
Awful moment.
A truy unbelievable day.....
RIP
Major shock when we phoned the newsdesk to say it went well, only to hear we'd been dropped because the first plane had crashed into the towers. Saw the second plane crashing into the tower on my return to Grays Inn Rd. Spent the rest of the day filming maybe thirty to forty interviews in the office for our open ender programme, with a brief to make them all look different. Half of our crews had been sent to various airports so they could fly to New York. Of course all flights had been grounded, so they spent a few days hanging around in airports and airport hotels, not going anywhere.
(Always remember experts who pointed out the aim wasn't so much to 'punish' America, as it was to create divisions between non Muslims and Muslims, in the hope of creating a 'holy war'. Can't help thinking we're still falling for it.)
I was in year 6, and a teacher took a call from her husband, and then she told us, she herself was in complete shock.
Something you just can't even begin get your head around at that stage of life.
I remember driving home and hearing all the latest news of the car radio and thinking that the world wasn't going to be quite the same after this.
Do they tell the story? Do they convey the human experience on the day? The real time pictures of the US president probably evidenced the reality.
Seldom can anyone ever have looked so desperately lost.
The acts of pure evil pushed the boundaries of inhumanity just that little bit further though for those who lost lives, loved ones, friends, acquaintances I am still not sure the nature of the atrocity which impacted their lives really registers.
I will not forget the day.
I have visited the memorial twice. My daughter (now a resident of NY) who was 10 at the time of events still looks a little puzzled why.
For me it is simple. For no more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time I/ we saw these innocent people’s last moments of life.
I would never diminish the fact millions will have experienced many challenges in their lives before and after 9/11 but to stand viewing the 3 wide screens in the staff restaurant of the recently separated sister company of American Airlines, with circa 70 or 80 bewildered US colleagues will on this day always be a moment of reflection.
It just registers as the old fashioned habit of the quiet doffing of the cap as a hearse passes by.
The then look of pain, shock, horror, complete lack of comprehension could but register. The silence beyond the restrained sobs, the quiet tears, the side ways glances trying to register the enormity of the loss for ever deserves my appropriate reflection.
Many around me weeks earlier were working for AA. Known or unknown these were their former colleagues being murdered.
The day before I had spent an excellent first day of 3 planned days of talks with American Express personnel. Based in the TT Building 5 on day 2 they were frantically fighting to find a way home, to find out about work colleagues and how loved ones were coping.
We never revisited those opportunities. Ultimately corporate America did what corporate America does and over 500k working in the US Leisure Industry lost their livelihoods. Indeed I reckon I wrote off over $50mn of business revenue opportunities in one day, it really didn’t seem important.
The business plan did not account for such evil or the incompetence of US military intelligence and defences.
The life had and would for some time be sucked out of the business. I stayed for 8yrs and am now very happily long retired in France but I am not sure it was ever quite the same.
We are however here to tell the tale where far, far, far too many are not. May their loved ones have found and they rest in peace.
Watched a show on Channel 4 a couple of nights ago "102 minutes that changed America." Powerful stuff.
Watched BBC iplayer "9/11 Inside the Presidents war room" last night. CIA fella said that some of the names of the hijackers were on their "watch list".
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/september-11-anniversary-survivor-story-b1917176.html
A friend in the business woke me with a call after the second plane hit. I remember everything about that conversation. I would usually have been watching the financial news when it happened but slept in because it was long night of travel. From that point I was glued to the the TV day and night for a couple of days.
I don’t like to fly. Apparently he hated it and so did his wife. So much so that when they flew with their kids, the husband and wife would take separate planes for separate airlines, each with one kid in tow.
Turns out the husband and daughter were originally scheduled on United Flight 175 that flew into thw South Tower and the wife and son were booked on American Flight 11 that went into the North Tower. The all would have died in the same place despite all their planning. They would not have known the other died just 20 minutes apart at the same spot.
That story also freaked me out. Not as much as him though. He retired a few weeks later. Never heard about him again. That’s “Final Destination” kind of stuff.
I'd managed to persuade my boss that it was normal for Brits to take 4 weeks off for a honeymoon, so I was on a beach in Mauritius, trying to call countless colleagues and friends and fielding dozens and dozens of in-comings from people assuming I was there.
If I'd taken the standard two weeks, that Tuesday morning was going to be my first day back.
I have heard literally hundreds of stories from that day. One of the more familiar ones within Aon was a large client presentation (that client makes the Covid-19 vaccine) which was moved late the night before from the 105th floor of the south tower to the Hilton hotel opposite due to the large meeting room in the Aon office being double-booked.
The meeting started at 8.30 and everyone in that room watched from the hotel window across the street as the planes hit the towers. My old boss from Chicago was in that meeting, and I have only ever heard him talk about it once.
Never forget.