Where were you on 9/11?

Talking to my brother, his career was in NYC. He had TV on in his office and told that there was a plane accident in NYC. A bit later, still talking, he said "oh no, it wasn't an accident, I must leave."

I was at a friend’s house when we heard the news and we put the television on. Her daughter was in New York on her honeymoon and we knew they had lunch booked in the tower. Of course there was no communication so we had a very anxious time until she rang. They were on their way there and saw it happen.

I was at home must've been my day off, first I knew was when my teenage son got off the school bus & came running in & then I knew something had happened but never could I have guessed what.

I was teaching at a secondary school. I remember having to reassure many of the children as they were petrified World War III was about to start.

I was at home with a kidney infection, lying on the sofa watching neighbours - I think - anyway suddenly the screen changed to show a plane flying into one of the twin towers, initially I thought what a horrible airline accident, but as I watched another plane flew into the other tower. Then my stomach fell. My husband rang from work and told me to call relatives in NYC, they were all ok but shocked and very upset.
Just kept watching the news in disbelief.

I was on early playground duty before school started, when the first plane hit. A parent burst into the playground as the children were going in, shouting something about a plane crash.
By break we’d all heard and went to the staff room to see details on screen. We tried to keep it from the children, especially the younger ones, but by the next day, even they were full of it.

I was doing my rounds at a London Teaching hospital and on the Cardiology ward the TV sound was on which was very unusual. Like others we thought the first was a nasty accident until the horror dawned. It is not something I will ever forget.

I was in the canteen at work, some of us were just going back to work; the television was on and everyone stopped and looked at the tv in horror wondering what was happening. It was utterly shocking.

The full horror struck me when I learned that the planes were full of passengers; until then I thought the pilots were suicide bombers.

I didn't find out about it until the evening.

I had a day in the house completely alone, pottering around doing chores and reading (I rarely put the tv or radio on in the daytime and had no mobile phone back then.)

I put the tv on in the early evening and couldn't believe what I was seeing. Those poor, poor people. Horrifying.

I had just got home from my part-time job at the surgery and turned the TV on, as usual. It was Breaking News, My youngest son and his friend were painting the outside of my house, to make sone money. I ran out and called them in to watch the TV. What a sad day 😂

I was at work in a nursing home. We had the TV on in the lounge. When the regular programming was interrupted with the news report of the attacks on the twin towers we watched in shock. One member of staff was just coming on shift, she remarked to one of our residents that it was a horrible film they were watching and the resident said "it isn't a film, its the news from New York."

I was working in a day hospital for learning disabled adults. The TV was on and showing the horrific footage. The staff members were horrified and appalled and quite worried especially when it seemed like there unaccounted for planes in the air. However we had to maintain calm demeanours so as not to distress the patients .

I was at home and switched on the TV for no good reason. The sentence 'an aircraft has flown into the Twin Towers' just didn't make sense. Then I saw the other plane fly into the second tower. It seemed in bad taste to watch it but I couldn't stop myself.

I had got home from my part- time job and unusually turned on the TV to watch the news whilst I ate a sandwich. Just at the time when the second plane hit the building. Unforgettable .

My dd was doing school work in her bedroom with her telly on. Suddenly she appeared in the lounge and told me to switch the TV on. It was horrific to watch especially the second plane knowing there was nothing to be done. The voices of the people on the doomed plane was dreadful.

I have already mentioned this on the GM thread. It is still clear in my mind until this day.

When 9/11 happened, I had been decanted to the local high school, in charge 120 pupils, because my own school was being extended.
I passed a number of staff, crowded around a TV. I was horrified, when I saw what was happening, for my MIL was in New York, visiting my BIL and SIL, who worked for the Scottish Government. She was due to fly home that day.
I frantically phoned my husband. Of course, we couldn't contact MIL.
My BIL was stranded in Philadelphia, not knowing if his wife and mother were safe.
It wasn't until the next day, we managed to contact MIL, we were frantic.
She had flown out, not long before the attack and had gone straight to bed, oblivious to everything that had happened.
It was three months, before BIL could get back into his apparent, which had to be fumigated and deep cleaned, due to rotten food. His fridge had to be destroyed.

PS My father had died a few days previously, and I remember being glad he didn’t know about it.

Eerily, I was watching a neighbours funeral cortege set off just as Steve Wright on Radio 2 was announcing that it seemed a plane had flown into a skyscraper in New York.

I imagined it was one of his routine unfunny 'jokes'.

My sister and I walked into her house after collecting our Mums death certificate just as it came on the TV. She had died three days before. It was odd, I didn’t feel I had the right to grieve until much later as so many had died so young and so violently whereas my Mum died peacefully and with the hope of heaven.

I was at home when I got a phone call from my son, who was driving hastily out of London. At that stage it was thought there could be similar attacks in any major city. He just told me to switch on the television. I remember wishing passionately that my offspring lived in some obscure village rather than the capital.

Both of my sons had worked briefly at the World Trade Centre, but mercifully were not there that day. They easily could have been.

In the evening I'd arranged to meet a good friend in a pub and although I was still reeling from the event and not feeling at all sociable I met her and was amazed that she didn't react at all to the news. Months later she told me that she can't feel empathy but doesn't know why.

I was at home, I had taken a year off work, can’t recall why the TV was on, I flicked channels to see the appalling footage everywhere.
MrJ was working at Swindon hospital (new building), the site shut down, he came home, lots from our village congregated in our local, hushed voices.
I had seen that skyline so many times driving on business from JFK airport to Westchester.

DH and I had just finished a thirteen mile bike ride round Derwent and Howden reservoirs and had stopped for a coffee at the visitor centre. There was a small portable tv on the wall and everyone there thought they were watching a disaster movie until we all realised what it was. We drove home in total shock and put our tv on. Sat there in floods of tears.

I watched a tv programme recently on Netflix about it. It was as shocking then as it had been at the time and left a generation of young Americans in total disarray.

I was at work and my husband was on a business trip in New York. Someone came down from another department and said they had heard on his car radio about the attacks. I was horrified, we had no mobile phones in those days. Somehow he managed to get a message to one of our sons to say he was ok. In fact he was in an office on the other side of the river and saw the second tower come down.