September 11 2001 - Where Were You?

[MilDoc]

driving to work with LOML. She listens to the radio as she gets ready. I don't. Got in the car just as the 2nd plane hit. She said "OMG can that be an accident?" I said "No. One plane maybe. Two, never." By the time we got to the clinic the truth was pretty much known.

We both worked for the Army at that time (she has since found another job). We held a prayer service at noon. Lots of tears.

[AndyC]

LOML and I were getting ready for work. We lived in Fort Collins, CO, back then. Got a call from a friend who told us to turn on the TV. We watched for a while in disbelief. I left the house for the 2 mile drive to work, and as I was getting into the car my wife came out to tell me that the first tower had gone down. I still can feel the sensation of my heart sinking as she told me that news.

I ran a satellite television network for an engineering school consortium. We hung around in the engineering room watching all the feeds all day. I had been on a business trip in NYC the week before.

[gerti]

I first read about it on a mailing list and thought it was a sick joke, but turned the TV on anyway. It seemed uncomprehensible and surreal, yet it was happening. The world changed that day.

Later we found out that a friend of my wife's died that day in the towers. To add insult to injury his cousin was on that fateful last flight of the Columbia shuttle.

[drumpriest]

I was cleaning off my hard drive when the company I was working for folded. I loved working at that place, it was really unfortunate, and just some unfortunate decisions made on the management side, in my opinion.

After the first plane hit, we went to my lead tech artist's house, and we watched the news for the rest of the day, getting drunk in our misery about work and shock and sadness for those involved in the attacks.

My friend was in NYC, and his wife (also a friend) worked about 2 blocks from the Trade Center, I was anxiously awaiting a call to know if she was safe, turned out she was.

Later we discovered that my wife had a friend on the plane, I think it's like Kevin Bacon, we are all less than xxx steps removed.

[OpaDC]

Been out for a bit and just saw this for first time.

I was working in Germany at the time.

Sep 10 My two children were on their way to visit, and supposed to transfer in Newark the day before. Missed overseas flight and had to stay overnight. Called me and said they were leaving on 11th now but not til late so going to go into NY to sight see a little.
Fast forward to Sep 11. Wife and I went to pick up Jeep from German auto repair shop. Shortly after arriving guy behind counter gets call from his wife. He asks us if we had heard about plane crashing into WTC in NY. Nope. Then he says wait, now she saying also one in DC. We tell him they are quite a ways apart, sounds kind of weird, must be mistake. Then his eyes go wide and says she sees live coverage and a second plane has hit towers. (Remember kids are there). TV saying America under attack. Drop what we're doing and tell him we have to go and says don't worry about Jeep get it later.
110 mph (180 kph) getting home on Autobahn, about 20 minutes normally less than 10 this time. Turn on both TV's, German and US and see news. Panic sets in. Where are my kids???? About 3 AM German time get call from my Dad sying kids finally got in touch with him they Okay. They were on subway when it all started and stepped out to chaos. About week later they finally made it to Germany.
On a side note, the German people were wonderful. Found out neighbors were keeping eye out on house for anything suspicious. Also German police started making rounds on our street. We had never seen them before. When they found out where we lived they kept checking to make sure we were okay (they talked with neighbors, not us) since we lived next to footpath to commuter train. Would get nod from people on the street and few even saying they felt bad for us. But the most touching was the flowers on our fence. Brought tears to my eyes.

[RAFlorida]

I was at work at the Avon Park Bombing Range,

Avon Park, Florida when our coordinator called and told me to secure our building, and turn on the TV. The rest of the day was watching the breaking news, and watching the AF go to full alert. Four days later I suffered a heart attack. But the day of the attack will forever live in my memory. God bless each of the victims and their family and friends.

[dbhost]

I was working on connecting our computer systems to the new corporate overlords in New Jersey. The admin I was on the phone with told me a plane hit the twin towers. Having grown up on the west coast, and living in Texas for as long as I had, the only twin towers I was aware of were on Anna Nicole Smith...

I ran to the customer waiting room and turned on Fox News to see what they were talking about... It went from bad to worse obviously...

Nothing got done that day...

[RayintheUK]

I had to work a late shift, as I was a main player in the regular Gatwick Airport Safety Certificate re-qualifying exercise. I worked in my shop all morning, then ate, showered and set off for my office at Police HQ without having switched on any radio or TV. I arrived and was climbing the stairs when one of my staff said that the exercise has cancelled. When I asked why, I was told it was because of the WTC. I asked what about it and when I was told, my response was "Yeah, right!"

My office was also rigged for 2/IC major incident use, so I had a live feed to TV news. I turned on CNN just in time to see the South Tower fall (time difference between US and UK). I'd stood on top of that wonderful building the year before and I simply couldn't believe it fell. When the North Tower went too, I had tears in my eyes and a huge lump in my throat.

I've no family or other connections with the US, but I really felt a sense of loss. I'll never forget it.

Ray

[TCAS]

I was the captain of a regional airline flight that departed Providence, Rhode Island for the John F. Kennedy airport on that morning of September 11th, 2001.

As we were on approach to runway 31R at JFK my First Officer made mention of a fire on lower Manhattan which was the only thing standing out in the clear blue sky of that fall morning. Shortly thereafter we heard the NY Approach Controller telling the Japan Airlines 747 ahead of us to execute the missed approach procedure and then gave us a turn to the east with another radio frequency to contact.

We made the turn and called the next controller but there was no answer. We tried a few times and then called the previous controller we were talking with... again no answer. I told my First Officer to contact the Approach Controller for Islip since we would be entering their airspace shortly.

Islip Approach Control informed us of the attack on the twin towers and told us we would not be going back to NYC since they closed the airspace and asked what our intentions were. I informed them we'd go back to Providence. They cleared us direct to the Providence airport.

As we approached Providence the printer in the cockpit we have that prints out messages from our dispatchers started spewing out message after message about securing the cockpit and giving cursory information about what was occurring. As we were cleared to land in Providence the word came down about the grounding of all aircraft.

My crew and I spent the next four days at the hotel in Providence with other airline crews watching the TV and hoisting a few cold ones to the friends and fellow colleagues we lost that day.

Osama bin Laden should pray the United States Army gets to him before an airline pilot or flight attendant does. The Army might have mercy on his soul!

[sscherin]

Nope I won't forget that day..

It was my 2nd day back at my old job in Tacoma

I flipped on the TV for no good reason right before going to work and saw the replays of the 1st tower going down. Then people started jumping out the windows of the 2nd tower.. Some holding hands.. Then the 2nd tower fell about 15 minutes later. I think I ended up an hour late for work but I was one of the few that even showed up.. Some people were talking about evacuating the Wells Fargo building a few blocks away in Downtown Tacoma. The internet was almost useless.. everyone was on trying to hit the news sites but they had all tanked under the load.. Slashdot.org kept going with people feeding in all the news they could find.. Then the Pentagon was hit. Then reports of a 4th plane crash in PA. We spent a bit of time watching the Air Force fighters patrol the local airspace around McChord. Going home to my house in Fife just added to the strangeness of the day.. We were used to seeing jets getting ready to land at SeaTac all the time. That day and for a week later it the sky was clear except for the occasional fighter patrol..



Just to add to the oddity of it all..

The 2 weeks before the week of the 11th I'd spent working at Valley Medical in Renton.
One of the people working there was a middle eastern guy. Devout Muslim with a little rug he kept in his desk for praying and all. I forget his name now.. Anyway the week before 9-11 he just stopped showing up for work.. Didn't collect his things, didn't call in, didn't return the company phone, just dropped of the face of the earth. It was really odd at the time.. When the news came out about the 9-11 hijackings you can be sure we were all thinking about him.. What did he know? I heard from another guy there that management had called the FBI about him after 9-11.