9/11 - How Did You Hear About It?

[Robusto]

I was marking some exam scripts in the staffroom in the school where I work.

A colleague walked in and said he had been looking at the BBC website and had learnt that a plane had flown into one of the towers.

This was late on in the UK school day.

I drove home with the radio on. I switched on the TV at around 1600 and saw the chaos from that point. I remember feeling sick.

I watched the Channel 4 programmes this week with the unseen footage, and so on.

I've visited New York since then. This Brit considers it to be the most exciting city he has ever visited and would go back tomorrow.

I am a news addict. I was glued to the events for days afterwards.

[HabanoSy]

I was in the basement of a customers house converting it into a kitchen...

I didn't have a signal on my phone all day, when I finally came back up to ground level a msg came thru from my sister telling me two planes had crashed into the Twin Towers...

Like you Robusto, I felt sick to my stomach...

I didn't know it at the time, but I lost a friend that day...

Pause for thought...

Silent, HabanoSy

[skyhigh]

i was at work installing telephone lines in an arts and crafts shop when a colleague arrive to give me a hand and told me. Think i basically told him politely to" hadaway n shite" , i said they're feckin huge surely it coud'nt have collapsed, but turning the radio on confirmed his story. I to physically felt sick and was actually in tears watching the news coverage for several days after.

[Robusto]

Guys.

You've made me remember something.

A good number of people I know - none of them stupid people - had never heard of the towers of the World Trade Centre.

I found it really hard to accept that they had never seen these two massive iconic towers.

[Ramon]

As I was on the prairie in Canada on exercise with the Army and no radio or anything, we first started hearing rumours about something happening in New York.

When we had to go back in to camp for a couple of hours we popped in to the NAFFI, and that's when we saw the first pictures. Couldn't really believe it at first.

[nicwing]

I was on the M1 heading up to Milton Keynes to deliver a proposal to BPs offices.

I, like Robooosto, am a news hound and I listen to Radio 4 all the time, the news started to filter through and the thing that was extraordinary was looking at the people either side of me on the motorway and realising they probably had no idea what was going on.

By the time I got back to the office in Watford the TV was on and everyone was watching. I went home and just watched the news all evening.

Been to New York 3 times since and never managed to get down to ground zero.

The other thing I remember was the following day.
I love Robert Elms on BBC Radio London, he had been in New York the week end before and arrived back in London on the 10th. The music he played that day was incredibly poignant and I always wanted a copy of that days playlist.

[Big_T_UK]

I remember it very clearly....

I happened to be on the early shift that day and so had started to check the stock exchange computers at 6am. I finished work at about 1pm and as my place of employment was only about a mile from my home I chose to pop into town and get a quick buzz-cut. I do not recall what time I got home but it was a quick haircut.

When I got home I turned on the television in the kitchen and started to make a sandwich for lunch. The television came alive with the news as I was neck deep in the fridge. I carried over the assembled parts for my lunch to the counter and started to make my meal. I was only half paying attention to the news but I noticed the burning tower, I honestly thought it was some film or drama. I was only half aware the television was on the news channel and the penny dropped when the second plane hit, that was no film footage. I lost interest in lunch, realised this was neither a film or an accident and phoned my father as his brother worked in the world trade centre for Morgan Stanley (or was it Lehman Brothers, I cannot remember who now).

My nephew was in the US airforce at the time but was supposed to be in the Pentagon that day. We did not know that until much later in the day. It turned out both got through the day but it was an "interesting" time.

I also phoned the guys at work to turn a television on or check the web, but the BBC news website had died from overload.

I still have the BBC news and Sky News feeds on VHS tape. I do not know what made me record them.

The rest of the day was filled with telephone calls to family and endless waiting.

T.

[larrysputnik]

I was working at the University of Pittsburgh when I was told about the first plane. I turned on the TV and saw the second plane strike live. It is the single most horrific thing I have ever witnessed. Everyone began to panic; thinking that all major cities were targets. Pittsburgh was completely evacuated.

[whisky77]

Sick.

I was trying to fix my computer all that day and did not have the TV on.I eventually phoned a help line and the operater was talking me through the problem with my PC.

During the conversation he stopped and the line went silent, I thought we had been cut off and then he asked if I had a TV near to me and to switch it on.
I did as he said and switched on my portable TV, the picture on the screen was of the first tower on fire and like so many others I thought it was a movie which they were showing, it was only after the plane crashed into the second tower that I switched on the sound on the TV which had previously been muted that I realised I was watching a live feed.

I felt absolutely sick to my stomach that day.

[Pantomimehorse]

Nothing much to add but I was at home bored watching TV as my firm had put me on gardening leave following handing in my notice, I remember whatever channel I was watching being interupted by the news and like others was looking at the pictures in shock when suddenly the second tower got hit.
I have to say though the London bombings hit me a hell of a lot more, being closer and on trains I use will do that I guess.

[G-man]

Healing

This was drawn by an 11 year ole
They say a pictures worth 1000 words!
I believe hes right on the mark





Now to answer the question
I was at work finishing drywall when the asshole I worked for came on the jobsiteand told us to turn on the radio. When I heard the broad cast I told him I was leaving to pick up my daughter. He told me I was not going anywhere because The job needed to be finished.I replied"you rent my services and don't ever think for a minute U own me!"
Now I ask U If U lived less then a half hour drive from Three Mile Island Nuclar Plant would U sit and not want to be with your loved ones if they decied to fly a plane into it! Needless to say once the job was finished I no longer had a job. What an A Hole

[Deano]

Was the birth of the internet as we know it really.

So I was on IRC and MSN and suddenly people were popping up saying an airliner had crashed into one of the towers.

I was working in a computer R&D dpt at the time and we had a TV we could turn on - we did so only to see/hear about the 2nd one going in, then the other, and then all the other rumours about other flights. Was a mad, mad day.

[larrysputnik]

I have to say though the London bombings hit me a hell of a lot more, being closer and on trains I use will do that I guess.

That too was another scary moment that seemed to be an extension of the fear and madness that began on 9/11. It felt like terrorists were suddenly in more control than we were for those first few years of the new millennium in some strange way. Also, the attacks in Madrid so soon afterwards had made me uneasy.

[daverave999]

I was working in a city centre pub in Birmingham at the time. We had it on all the TVs and I saw the second plane hit. I do recall being rather freaked out that other major cities were going to be targeted and just wanted to get the hell out of the centre. People were just walking in off the street and gawping at the TVs for half an hour then just walking out again without saying anything. A sense of shock all round.

Slightly different with the London bombings. Having lived with the internet for some time, it was the lack of information that I struggled with then (as the BBC website caved in). It was quite strange trying to find US sites with the best information about what was going on in my own country. The phone networks seemed to brown out too, so it was quite a while before I heard if my friends in London were OK.

[G-man]