Where were you on September 11th 2001?

Aussie Sean

I was in work. I remember FM104 first reporting it at the tail end of the 2pm news,having a couple of newsflashes up to about 2.30ish before going into rolling news for the rest of the day. I was working next door to a hotel and slipped in to the bar to have a look just in time to see the second plane hit. I was off work the next day and stayed up all night watching the TV.

The next morning I bought all the newspapers and I remember still feeling shocked as I read them even though I had absorbed so many images from the TV over the previous 15 hours or so. FM 104s Strawberry Alarm Clock that morning was excellent,Colm Hayes linking up with stations from the States getting their perspective on the events was well handled and made for excellent radio.

I visited Ground Zero a couple of years ago and if I'm honest I was expecting it to be a typical American moms apple pie moment. How wrong I was,I found the whole experience incredibly moving. I was and still am amazed that the little church close by that became a meeting point for rescue workers and survivors alike that day survived the Towers collapsing without any damage done to it considering the Hotel nearby was flattened. The museum on the far side contained many artefacts for want of a better word which told the story of the day without being tacky and sensationalist.


Sean

Piste

I was 10, as the events kicked off I was getting given out to by my 5th class teacher for messing during PE (later that day I knew it would be important to remember what exactly I was doing at the time in case there was ever a thread about it online, so I made sure to burn it into my memory). Then my dad came to pick me up from school and told me what had happened and we watched the rest of the events unfold on telly. I remember making a scrapbook of all that had happened in the following days from newspaper cutouts. Wonder what became of it.

ShamoBuc

I was cutting the grass in the front garden when I went in to get a cuppa and watch TV for 5 mins. following morning I noticed the lawnmower was still out in the garden.

mohawk

I was 16 and in sixth year and can still remember my maths teacher coming into class and saying a plane went into one of the towers. Didn't realise that it was terrorist until our next class when our English teacher told us a second plane went into the other tower. It all seemed so surreal.

Richard Noggin

I came in from Primary School and saw it on Sky News.As far as I remember,that's all that anyone talked about for the rest of the day pretty much. Like someone else said,I thought WW3 was about to commence.

Thomas828

I was on my lunch break, walking down Leyton High Street, about to buy my lunch at around 2:30pm when I overheard the TV in one of the shops giving a report about New York.

I didn't realise it at the time, obviously, but this was only the start of a media frenzy, one that the Bush administration milked for all it was worth. It would lead to, among many other things, the war in Afghanistan.

In fact all this achieved was removing the Taleban from their place in Kabul. Now they are all over the country waging a guerilla war. And anyone with even a passing interest in history will tell you how difficult it is to fight a guerilla war, let alone win it.

Mayor Adam West

My cousin was working on the 22nd floor of Tower 1.
When it was hit,he got himself and some of the others downstairs,only to be told to go back up!!! Everything was "ok". Then the 2nd plane hit.
He was outside on the ground. When the first tower collapsed,he was far enough away not to be hurt,but suffered bad dust and smoke inhalation.
Was in hospital for 2 days.
I will be forever grateful he made it out,coz i thought he was dead. I didnt know he was ok for about another 10 hours.

I was working in a certain Irish DIY company at the time.Now.....the shop used to have the radio wired in to the speakers attached around the shop ceiling. 98FM/FM104/2FM - one of them was usually on. However,stock-take rules......NO RADIO!!
So my manager just walked out of his office at about 2.15pm,calls everyone up to the front and said 2 planes had hit the WTC,and the Pentagon was hit too. We all (about 70 of us) went up the road to the local pub and had lunch,but mainly to see WTF was going on!!!!!!
3 people in the pub! 2 massive projector screens showing Sky News,and what had happened. My heart sank.
I was stunned. It was just complete silence and shock.
Got back to the shop then,but we didnt finish that stock-take.
All ended back up in the pub at about 5pm.
Stayed there til 2am or so. Place was empty except for the gang of us who went back up. Fair play to the owner,he closed at midnight but let us stay. Nobody could believe it.
I had my first mobile phone at the time - Siemens C25!! :rolleyes:
My parents were texting me too,and finally told me around 1am that my cousin was alive. I cried in happiness......and sadness.
When i got home,i think i stayed up til 5am with my parents - just watching....and watching.
Visited Ground Zero for the first time this year in March.
Was still so eerie to me. Went into the little tiny church where firemen and survivors had gone for cover and to rest. Tears ran down my face.
Unbelievable feeling to see the pictures and memorials and firefighter clothing and marks left behind.
I will never ever ever forget it,and i hope everyone who died in all 3 incidents can RIP.