20 Years Ago 9/11

guitartango

RIP , such a terrible waste of life.

DrCornelius

I worked on the 105th floor of Tower 1 from 94-98. Luckily for me my Mrs didn’t want to have kids so far from our families so we came back to London . My company (Cantor Fitzgerald) lost hundreds and I lost  a lot of friends that day and 20 years on I still can’t watch footage.

Not sure why I’m bringing this up tbh as I try and stay away from it but I’d just like to echo your thoughts before I get distracted by the tennis 

guitartango

DrCornelius said:

I worked on the 105th floor of Tower 1 from 94-98. Luckily for me my Mrs didn’t want to have kids so far from our families so we came back to London . My company (Cantor Fitzgerald) lost hundreds and I lost  a lot of friends that day and 20 years on I still can’t watch footage.

Not sure why I’m bringing this up tbh as I try and stay away from it but I’d just like to echo your thoughts before I get distracted by the tennis 

I worked for a Credit Card company at the time and one of our customers had a office on the 2nd tower. The last email from this company was around 8:30..... Two weeks later I received a new email from the same person, he survived.

 

ICBM

This is the best song ever written about it in my opinion - why it's not better known, I don't know. It perfectly captures how an ordinary morning in ordinary lives suddenly became something so shocking that no-one who experienced that day will ever forget it.

Twenty years on and I can still hear that sound too.

guitars4you

I know where I was to the nth degree when the first plane hit the tower - I was on my way to Manchester airport for a holiday in Spain - On a dual carriage way near Macclesfield and at the time the first BBC report was that a small plane had hit the tower - 30/40  mins later we'd parked up, entered the airport complex  just checked in our bags and entered the food/bar area just as the first tower collapsed

As it happens we got out okay on the flight on time - But Manchester later became a nightmare as all flights to London Heathrow/Gatwick were diverted to Manchester 

chrisj1602

It still shocks me to the core. I remember watching it on the news with my dad, thinking the first plane was as accident then the horror of the second hitting.

I started watching the new series on National Geographic, One day in America this weekend, it’s a tough watch. Some of the stories are heartbreaking and some of the stories of how people survived are quite amazing. Split second life or death decisions were being made.

VimFuego

We were on holiday in Cornwall and had spent the afternoon on the beach (it was a fantastic day) and we were sat in the car early evening whilst I was rolling a smoke and someone a car over had their radio on with the news. We'd gone out that morning and the world was normal, by the time we got back to the tent, the whole world had changed.

scrumhalf

I was in my office at work (commercial property investment and management for offshore trusts) when a colleague called to tell me about the first plane. Like many I thought it was a Cessna or something that had clipped the side of the building.

It was only when the second plane hit that wirk stopped and I put the radio on. When the towers collapsed I did a quick calculation of how many people I thought might have been in the building and my blood ran cold.

I took the bus home that night, I wasn't going to risk going on the Tube.

I still think that it's a miracle that so many got out alive. 

Nitefly

guitars4you said:

I know where I was to the nth degree when the first plane hit the tower - I was on my way to Manchester airport for a holiday in Spain - On a dual carriage way near Macclesfield and at the time the first BBC report was that a small plane had hit the tower - 30/40  mins later we'd parked up, entered the airport complex  just checked in our bags and entered the food/bar area just as the first tower collapsed

As it happens we got out okay on the flight on time - But Manchester later became a nightmare as all flights to London Heathrow/Gatwick were diverted to Manchester 

We were doing the opposite - flying home from a holiday in Thassos. 

Of course none of the passengers on the plane knew anything about it, as you had to switch devices off in those days, but I remember thinking how the cabin crew seemed unusually subdued.

The first we knew of it was when my mate picked us up at the airport and told us about it as he was driving us home.

Cirrus

I was 16, and I remember hardly believing the things people were saying in groups outside the school gate. I walked home, turned on the news and saw that they were true.

But the event seems like a fulcrum now, to me, because I had no personal involvement with it. I know it sounds a bit wanky, but it symbolises a change in the world, and strongly influenced the first 2 decades of this century.

EricTheWeary

I didn’t know anybody involved, someone at work had her brother work there but one call established he was nowhere near at the time. I remember catching the second crash on live TV and that sense of seeing something both tragic but also, I think, historic. 
[ I was working in an office in Smethwick and spent the afternoon watching the TV news in a meeting room]

It’s still mind boggling that it could have happened and tragic and sad. 

I remember that week Eric Jr drawing pictures of planes crashing into buildings. I guess it was just on the news so much that even a five year old picked up on it. 

guitartango

I remember one of our sales guys, saying IT please fix the BBC website... I cant get onto it. He wanted me to phone up the BBC and complain...I looked at him and told him to leave my office

fretmeister

I was in my office when it happened and a colleague emailed me to say a plane had hit the tower.

He was known for bullshit so I didn't believe him at all. The web at work was blocked apart from pre-approved sites we needed for work so I had no way of checking.

So I called my mum thinking I'd just be able to go back to my mate and call him an arse. She hadn't heard anything but turned on the TV and then told me.

The company unlocked the BBC site as it was clear nobody was really doing any work and saw the rest unfold.

I didn't know anyone in it but my brother did - he was a trader and had worked for the several of the big guys.

Among the big events I remember vividly: Shuttle, Chernobyl etc etc this one still stands out as the others were accidents and this was far from it.