9/11 where were you?

At Work in Chorlton at the time
Frantically trying to get through to my Gf at the time telling her to get other daughter home from school
We left the office for the day after that
Horrible time .
 
Home in bed when one of my mates (also a United pilot) called me to tell me a plane (American) had flown into the WTC. I asked him how the stupid fella got so far off course in the weather, as it’s not that close to any airways we fly. He said, “No, I think it was a big one, and it’s clear and a million!”

I immediately got up and turned the TV on to see the second tower hit by a United 767.

Then, the American 757 hit the Pentagon and the United 767 went down in Shanksville, PA.

That was all bad enough, and one wondered how many people might have died from the impact with the WTC towers, but when the first tower came down, then shortly after the second one, then Building 7, it started to dawn on me that this was going to be the deadliest day in recent American history. Worse than the attack on Pearl Harbor, which was labeled ”a day that will live in infamy,” by the President at that time.

As I sat there watching this unfold, it was all about connecting with my family and letting them know I was safe at home and not out flying, but I knew my life was going to change forever that day and boy did it ever.

I recognized a few of the Flight Attendants from the United flights, but I actually personally knew the FO on United 93, that was taken down by the passengers before it made it to DC. We had gone through flight training at United at the same time. His voice was the one shouting “Mayday, Mayday” on the radio call as they were being overpowered from behind and murdered.

That day, I lost friends, and in the aftermath of that tragedy, I lost my initial 737 Captain position (20 yrs later I’m finally moving up from that same position to 787 Captain!), lost untold amounts of money (pay, benefits, pension due to the airline filing for bankruptcy), led to me getting trained as one of the cadre of armed pilots (had never handled a gun before), inexorably changed my daily work life (gun on my hip, security procedures at airports, in the cockpit and especially on international flights) and it has forever changed the modern American mindset on war being a distant rumble.

As Condi Rice points out in the excellent new 9/11 documentary about the President on that day, mainland America was attacked on home soil for the first time since the war of 1812. That’s 189 years without a drop of American blood being spilled in a foreign war on the soil of the American fortress, which we all thought was protected on both sides by vast oceans and the strongest military on earth.
 
Gray said:
P.S. It was my 25th wedding anniversary that day, so I can never forget the date.
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Certainly not the same, but my 3rd wedding anniversary was the day of the United 232 crash in Sioux City. That was the DC-10 that crash landed at the airport after losing all hydraulics from a #2 engine (the one through the tail) exploding and slicing through the only place all 3 hydraulic systems met.

Hard to forget those things when you’re trying to celebrate.
 
In Palma, Mallorca on a lads holiday when I got a phone call off my Mum to tell me a plane had gone into the World Trade Centre. They thought at the time it was the Palestinians she was telling me.

Went to the local bar to watch and it felt like we were watching a Bruce Willis film.I had to drive back to our resort and not a word was spoken.

One of the lads was flying back that night whilst me and the others were staying on for another week. The lad flying back on his own was a nervous passenger as it was but he was now shitting himself. On our flight back I have never looked at other passengers quite so suspiciously before.

I still can’t get my head round what happened and find it quite macabre watching these documentaries even though I do.
 
ChicagoBlue said:
I recognized a few of the Flight Attendants from the United flights, but I actually personally knew the FO on United 93, that was taken down by the passengers before it made it to DC. We had gone through flight training at United at the same time. His voice was the one shouting “Mayday, Mayday” on the radio call as they were being overpowered from behind and murdered.
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Watching a documentary on tv as I’m reading this. It’s at the exact moment where you hear the mayday call from the cockpit on flight 93. Poor lad.
 
give it to gordon said:
And thinking this is what happens when you keep trying to get the world to live the way you want them to. America imposing it views on other countries.
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So you're saying America was asking for it?
Bloody hell, with friends like this the West doesn't need enemies
 
I was working at golden West in heywood and popped into asda at pilsworth and overheard someone say it's weird two planes Crashing into the same building.
Didn't think nothing of it and got home and turned the news on to be met by the scenes of utter devastation. I rang my mate who's parent live in Boston and he said they was fine, his dad was in one of the towers on the Saturday previous.

I couldn't compute these poor fuckers jumping from the towers, they woke up for work that morning and then an hour later being left with a choice of either burning to death or jumping to your death. That shit messed me up and I didn't sleep for a week thinking about.

One thing I will say is how easy the plot was. Forget putting a bomb together, building a car bomb and buying materials, using there own planes as flying Bombs completely gazumped everyone.
 
Walking home from school with my mates and there was talks of a plane crash in New York. I was only 10, so didn’t have the imagination to picture what had happened. Got home and my mum was glued to the tv.


Genuinely surprised there’s been no idiots claiming it was an inside job on here this week, you normally get a few!
 
manimanc said:
One thing I will say is how easy the plot was. Forget putting a bomb together, building a car bomb and buying materials, using there own planes as flying Bombs completely gazumped everyone.
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The plot was,the planning was meticulous genius.
 
Was over from Tenerife for a week visiting Liverpool with my ex and was in a bar on the docks when reports started to filter through of the first incident.
We walked over to Mathew Street not really giving it much thought but as we got to where Liverpool one is knew something serious was going down because everywhere had people rushing into bars, restaurants, basically anywhere with a television and standing in silence watching what was happening.
We got ourselves into a pub and spent the next 6 hours glued to the TV open mouthed, not speaking along with hundreds of others.
It was the most surreal afternoon with strangers hugging tearily, as the reality hit home to what was happening.
 
I was at Paramedic training school.Iirc we had just had lunch,and was returning for our afternoon studies,when the TV was switched on and then of course our attention was focused on the unbelievable and surreal events happening before us....many of us thinking how easily it could be one of us contending with such events.

It matters not how many times the footage of the incident is watched,it never quite sinks in that it was possible,and that fellow humans were capable of such monstrosity.
 
Was at work in Radcliffe when my mate told me about a plane hitting one of the World Trade Towers.
I thought it was just a little Bi plane at first and that some old pilot had misjudged their flight path.
But then he told me it was a passenger jet and its all over the news.
i remember walking through the factory and seeing groups of workmates all stood around different radios in silence and shaking their heads.
It was a very surreal day
 
I was working nights on the ship so I was asleep in the daytime when it happened. As was usual back then I woke up mid afternoon and turned sky news on in my cabin to catch up with what was happening in the world. I thought I'd hit the film channel by mistake as it was going on about planes flying into buildings in New York etcetera. I started flicking through channels and they were all showing the same thing. In my half asleep confused state I thought I was going mad. Then I realised it was the world that had gone mad.
 
I was working behind a bar at the time and watched it on the big screen in the pub.

I went in the kitchen to tell the landlady about it and she slapped me across the face as she was trying to get the landlord over his fear of flying!

Then the second plane hit and it just became compelling, gruesome viewing.
 
We had returned from a mini break in Paris 24 hours previously. There were quite a few Americans on our flight back to Manchester, we wondered afterwards how many had caught connecting flights onwards.

Went for a swim in the afternoon and only had a few minutes in the pool. It was difficult to get motivated. In the changing room afterwards normally people don't chat but that day you just felt the need to share your horror.

RIP to those that perished.
 
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