9/11 almost ten years on

I was sat at my desk in a tower block near Liverpool Street Station. The decision to move to Ireland had been made, and I was about to hand in my notice. After watching the towers go down, I knew London was a case of "when" not "if". Got up at 2.00 and told HR I was never coming back to work in London.....

 

Was working in a High School in America

We had Tvs in the classrooms and watched with a feeling of surreal disbelief. Concerned as we had a number of ex-students in NYC but overall sense of numbness as it unfolded. Had to focus on the job and keep the students minds' occupied. Got home that night and had about 10 messages on my answer machine from friends in the UK checking if I was ok which brought tears to my eyes

 

I'd just started a new job in Sheffield. One of the lads came in the office and said a plane had crashed into the WTC. I remembered reading about an incident in 1947 when a B-25 bomber flew into the Empire State building in fog. I thought it was something of the same.

We tried to get onto the internet but every site was unavailable, mainly due to others trying to get on.

It was only when I got home, and saw the footage that the realisation of what had happened hit home.

I heard about the number of firefighters that were killed, and as a retired firefighter, I was shocked and appalled by the loss of life (see my signature).

I have since been lucky enough to visit New York on 3 occasions, and everytime I visit a firehouse I have been touched by the warmth of the welcome from the firefighters. But one thing I learned - you never ask about 9/11.

I will be at Barnsley Town Hall on Sunday to lay some flowers at the memorial to the men who died.

 

I was in florida at the time on holiday, i think we had just woken up, turned the tv and saw the devastation unfold i was only 7 or 8 at the time but can still remember that day to every detail

 

I had missed all the earlier footage of it due to sleeping off a night shift. When I got up I was doing the weekly shop in Asda and it was on all the TV's. I thought it was a film at first and just thinking how good the CGI work was when it suddenly struck home what had happened. Truly earth shattering moment and the victims should never be forgotten!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEwY8uZ4BAI&feature=related

Awful at the end. feel his pain. awful.

 

totally shocking and hard hitting

 

In the office, then driving to Colchester listening to it all unfold on R5L. Lots of matches called off that night, but ours went ahead. Minute's silence. Seemed a bit inappropriate celebrating winning a football match.

 

I was on a flight coming back to Heathrow from Valetta (Malta), when the Pilot announced that due to events in New York he wasn't sure where we would be landing. None of us onboard had any idea as to what those events were!! we'd all been waiting in the departure lounge. Eventually we were told that the plane was going on to Heathrow so everything was OK (we still had no idea what he was talking about re. New York. It was only when my mate picked me up after landing and told me did the enormity of what had happened hit home. It really was a very surreal experience walking out of Heathrow.

 

I happened to be watching Sky news when it started I switched on the Video and have a full tape somewhere in the loft . I just could not turn the set off. Plus panic set in when we remembered the Son in law was in America at a business meeting, Those were long hours till we got word he was OK, just couldnt get out due to no fly rule.

 

I had just started a new job in York.

The daughter of one of the blokes in the office was in NY at the time.

You can just imagine how it was for him that day. He eventually managed to get her on the telephone and she was thankfully ok but it sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it.

 

I was working at home that day and had just spent the morning catching up on some admin and had finished with a trip through to Hemsworth to pay my petrol cheque from the office into my account, in the days before they were paid directly into the bank.

Picked up a sarnie on the way home as it was about lunchtime, and, for some reason I'll never know as I absolutely never do it normally when working at home, I decided to switch on the telly to watch the news whilst having my lunch. I did not know anything about what had happened until I did - it was purely by chance that I switched it on.

At that point the first plane had just hit and it was being discussed as an unconfirmed tragic accident.

obviously, I did not do another scrap of work all day, or all the next day either - I am news junkie at the best of times, so could not think of doing anything else but watch the coverage,

There are 2 things in particular I'll never forget

The first was the silence of the presenters when the second plane hit - as if they were trying to take in what had just happened - they were all discussing it seconds earlier as an accident.

The second was ringing my other half at work to see if she had heard, and she was telling me that they had heard something but none of them could get on the internet as it was timing out. As I was explaining to her, the first tower came down and she was relaying what I was saying to everyone else in her office - it was just so surreal.

When they then started talking about a third one hitting the pentagon, I recall detecting panic in the voices of all the commentators on the TV, as it became apparent that no-one knew at that point where it stops - nothing seemed certain any more

10 years on the images are still the most compelling and shocking images I can ever imagine seeing.

 

I now live in America, and some of the tv channels have been showing documentaries all this week. Still brings a lump to my throat. We are doing a charity walk on Sunday for the wounded servicemen and women, they say that more than 800 people have died since the date due to disease and injuries. Such a waste of innocent lives.

 

I was packing welcome bags at Newcastle Uni ready for freshers arriving the next day. Was convinced there was some other reason for it such as a faulty airport beacon, but then I was watching as the first play came in of the plane going directly into the tower over someone with a camera and I was convinced.

Again, felt so bad for the jumpers in particularly, what a choice...

Two years later, 9:11, Newcastle freshers, I met my fiancé.