I was just leaving a ship, and the crew called me into the mess room to watch what was on the tv. Couldnt understand why they wanted me to watch a disaster movie then they told me it was from New York and happening live......
I was at the same Silverstone track day, remember a friend telling me and seeing the shocking footage when I got home.
I was lucky enough to go up the WTC towers on 2 occasions, the first up to the observation deck (my god it was windy) and the second only as high as the restaurant at the top of the WTC due to strong winds, the second visit was early 2001 as I recall and that was the last time I've been to NYC. Unless you were lucky enough to visit NYC and go up the twin towers I think it would be impossible for anyone to imagine the scale of these buildings, and to see people knowingly fall to their deaths doesn't bare thinking about, it still troubles me today to try and imagine the fear and rationalising that decision. Also, if you hadn't been you may not know there was a large shopping mall under the towers, I recall trying to buy some sunglasses from a small sunglasses hut in the mall, the sales assistant was too busy chatting to her friend on the phone, I often wonder if she survived... I remember the day like it was yesterday, I was contracting at Barclays then and it was early afternoon UK time when the news broke, everyone jumped onto the internet and the BBC's website, to the point where the banks infrastructure couldn't cope with the demand being requested, they had to put repeated tannoys out to request people to stop accessing the internet, I think they sent everyone home early to stablise the service. That evening I just sat transfixed to the TV watching any footage I could... United 93 often gets overlooked (as does the Pentagon), those 40 or so souls saved thousands with their bravery. RIP the 2977 who lost their lives on that fateful day, and my thoughts go out to all of the families affected by this event.
My first cousin worked at the company where you saw the people jumping out from very high up, he started a new job a week earlier located in another of the World trade centre buildings not hit by an aircraft. The rubble from the towers however was so heavy that the land subsided which meant that the doors couldn’t open in the neighbouring buildings, it was also piled up about 3 floors worth too!! He went to about 40 funerals of his ex colleagues, some who were seen jumping out of the tower. Shit happens everyday in many places, and people say this is just another episode, but as it touched us it affects us, so we have every right to remember.
I was leaving work early that day, as I left someone said there had been a plane crash in NY, I got home and switched on the TV to see both towers on fire and watched for a few minutes, I went to an appointment and on return saw the buildings had collapsed and that huge pall of smoke and dust over the city, I’m nearly 60 and it’s the most shocking thing I’ve ever seen by an order of magnitude, let’s hope we never see it’s like again.
My first job in the late 80’s was for a US broker, I was based in London but the head office was in 2 World Trade. I used to meet with the US team each year. This was taken on the observation deck on top of 2 WT in 1993 by my wife, the year we got married ….
Do you know you can actually track air strikes with what missile was used, when it was made and who bought it? Each missile has a URN on it and volunteers go to these sites and feedback the information. There’s an online register. Ps. I hate Tony Blair, I recommend everyone to watch “The Killings of Tony Blair”......
Like many of the previous posts, I remember vividly the day it happened. I was 27 and working at my desk in IBMs WGC office when my Brother phoned to say a plane had gone into the WTC. My initial thought was it was an accident similar to the light aircraft crashing into Empire State some time before. All the online news sites were struggling with the hit of traffic but it quickly became evident what was happening. After an hour or so, I think the whole office cleared, everyone went home to watch it on telly. Like others have said, I don't think I've ever seen anything so utterly shocking before or since (and that's not to ignore the other atrocities that have happened elsewhere, it's more my ignorance of not knowing about some of them - probably as stated, because politically it's not as "news worthy". I did know about Beslan though, just f***ing awful as well) What made it particularly harrowing for me, was that 6mths earlier I'd taken my then GF out there on a surprise weeks holiday, proposed to her on Feb 14th (I know, corny) and we'd spent that evening in a nice restaurant called Dragonfly, in the SoHo area. Got chatting to another Brit, young lad who was over there on an internship with Cantor Fitzgerald. His Dad had called in a favour and got him the gig after he screwed up his A-levels, lol. One drink turned into many, and when we got kicked out, we went our separate ways but did exchange contact details. As you do. Later on that week, we went to the top of (I presume) 2 WTC. Again, it feels like yesterday, going through the scanning system, bag checks and then trying to buy another roll of 35mm film from an extremely grumpy woman in the gift shop at the top. I cracked some quip, she didn't get it, I made a swift exit. I must've used the whole roll of film, enthusiastically snapping away. When "9/11" then happened, it did weigh massively on my mind. The intervening period had been a relationship nightmare, being taken for a ride and almost losing everything. I then remember just being transfixed to every piece of news coverage. I found the business card the lad had given me from our engagement celebration evening; although I didn't hear back for some months, I did get a reply eventually. He had had another heavy evening the night before, overslept on the morning-of, and was walking to work when the first plane hit. Cantor Fitzgerald were amongst the hardest hit in terms of employee losses, he said in his email that he was at a memorial with a fraction of the colleagues that he worked with. I also do wonder whether grumpy gift-shop woman survived it, maybe it was her day off? I can picture her face so clearly, even now. I still have all the rolls of film in a drawer somewhere, undeveloped. They're probably no good now, but I have absolutely no appetite to find out and get them processed.
