6 years ago today (11th) - Where were you?

patrickc

i was watching crossroads when it was interrupted, never did get to see what happened in the rest of that episode.. (darn terrorists)

dade

I was in work looking at the TV, I remember emailing a buddy of mine, he's in the USAF (based in Texas) i emailed coz he was due to go TDY in DC around then. fecker thought i was yanking his chain, within 5 mins the TV was on and he just mailed back saying he just been officially notified and he couldn't talk any more and thanks for the heads up This was about an hour after it happened and they hadn't been notified. That night i was planning on packing my suit cases coz i was due to fly to NYC on the 14th. my original plan had been to fly on the 10th or 11th.

rossie1977

i was at home. It was a week before i started my diploma year in college. i turned on the tv to sky news just before the second plane crashed.

my mother was in new york that day, saw the towers burning and everything. We have photos of the towers the night before they fell, just as the lights are being turned on in some of the offices for the last ever time.

i like this post from Draco at 4.47pm:

Quote:
Originally posted by yellum
Will there be a Nuclear retaliation ?

I doubt it. I suspect that severl places will be bombed back to the stone age and bush will want to send troops into a couple of places to clear them out. Expect a lose of civil rights in the states and a few other countrys as a kneejerk reaction.

Wow spot on mate, does he work for the american government

mcR

As most posters here I was in school. I had to go to the office, cant remember why now and i remember a bunch of teachers talking about it in the office says its terrible and all that and i was standing their wondering what the hell they were on about, then on the way home i went into my local shop were people were standing around watching the tv, i must of been there for half an hour just watching it and it was a small shop

:eek: wow looking at that thread for 6 years ago is just mad, good reading but in a sad way:(

Fighting Irish

Oh great the "where were you" 9/11 thread, I've been waiting all year for this

stcatherine

I was living in England and heavily pregnant, sat on sofa doing the ironing watching TV.

Jigsaw

I was sitting in my call centre job playing snake on my phone when someone tore out of the kitchen saying about the mad stuff going on in NY. Finished work at 5pm and met with some mates and got a carry out and headed home and watched the news all night.

Mad day.

admiralofthefleet

in work in bewleys, i remember the manager coming into me in the kitchen and saying that a plane had hit a building in new york but it was an accident.

Mossy Monk

Reading a newspaper while listening to an audio cd. Sky News was on with the volume of the tv on mute.

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fvj6zdWLUuk
i feel physicaly sick after watching this!

Stephen

I was just getting on the bus home from my second day of first year in college when the bus driver asked me if I heard what was going on in the US. I hadn't and then he went on to tell me about it and I thought he was taking the piss.

Ruu_Old

Internet cafe in London, an eerie buzz about the place.

CarefulNow

4th class. Found out when I got home.

Goodshape

I was asleep in my bed at the time, enjoying my first September without school to goto (leaving cert the year before). House full of people and no one thought it important enough to wake me... still pretty annoyed at that. I totally missed all the 'live' coverage.

Got up later and wondered into the kitchen, turned on the PC and first news site I visited had the headline "AMERICA ATTACKED! TWIN TOWERS DESTROYED!". I honestly thought the website had been hacked.

rainbow kirby

6th year honours Irish class when it happened... teacher came in with a TV and none of us knew why. She said nothing, just put the TV on.

TwoShedsJackson

Benjamin Shallow Carpet wrote:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fvj6zdWLUuk
i feel physicaly sick after watching this!

The antidote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AYujWCCHRk

jobonar

Trying to stay awake in a double Maths class in the warmest class room ever! A teacher came in and told our teacher to tell us but he didn't. Didn't find out till i got home and turned on the telly

jobonar

TwoShedsJackson wrote:

The antidote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AYujWCCHRk

O i shouldn't have found that funny!

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

TwoShedsJackson wrote:

The antidote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AYujWCCHRk

class!!! i lol'd

Joliegood

At work having an arguement with a client who was refusing to pay for service over a disputed bill. Suddenly a load of people starting running towards the door. I told the client that there must be a fire in the building and I was going to hang up. My colleagues had of course ran over to the tv. Next day, I spoke with the same client and the difference was unreal, we both agreed to drop our differences.

Manic Moran

Asleep in bed in San Francisco. Got a call from my ex in Wexford, whose brother was flying NYC to SFO that day, I was due to pick him up.

"Oh, hi! Why are you calling?"
"Quick, What time is John's plane leaving?"
"Don't know. I'm picking him up at about 12:30"
"Well, what time would it be leaving?"
"Umm..." (Of course, still in complete ignorance as to the backstory) "Well, let's see.. Figure a 5 hour flying time, plus gate time, knock off thr three hour time zone difference... I figure somewhere around or just before 9am local. Why?" (Of course, the first plane hit just before 9am local)
"Have you not seen the news?"
"No, I've been asleep. It's 7am over here. I'm just about to get up"
"Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Centre. Turn on the news!"

So I turn on the news, and see a split-screen of the WTC smoking, and the Pentagon also burning. Total shock. I said something akin to "I think someone just declared war on the US". Just at that moment, the first tower collapsed.

I put a set of BDUs and a sidearm in the car, and went to work, fully expecting that that night I'd be on military duty preparing to go to war.
There was actually a surprisingly mild military reaction. I checked in with the Armoury, was told in effect to stand by to stand by. Quiet day in the office, a lot of people didn't go to work.

BTW, her brother wasn't on those 'planes. He was on the tarmac on JFK and saw the towers out the window.

NTM

Sleepy

Dropped into the local shop to buy cigarettes while waiting for the bus to college. The shopkeeper had one of those tiny handheld TV's and showed me the footage of the first plane hitting. We were half-joking about how the pilot was gonna explain that one to the boss (thinking it was a light aircraft at the time as Sky were reporting).

Got the bus into college and walked into the college bar just as the footage of the second plane hitting was being shown. There were a load of girls screaming right in front of the big-screen TV as the American exchange students were getting their orientation in UCG that day.

Spent the rest of the day divided between the computer and the TV trying to get details on what the hell was going on. I'll never forget one of the guys in college who we all just thought was the resident funny man saying 'no doubt about it, it's Bin Laden' to which we all responded 'Who?'. Was funny because until then, none of us had realised that the guy was really smart, believe he got a first in his degree despite being one of the most heavily active people in societies on campus.

ciano1

my aunt was working in one of the smaller buildings beside the wtc and was late for the manhattan boat that morning

faceman

i was in the office working and one of the girls in the office came runnin up the office saying that "a plane crashed into the twin towers". He sat down n continued to work [she thought it was an accident]

I continued to work as i thought it was an accident too.... 10 mins later there was no one in the office at their desk. We were all in the kitchen area watchin the tv.

I dont mean this in a negative way but i remember at the time thinkin if omagh got the same response from people. (before i realised the gravity of the situation)

btw, anyone see the thing on the telly last nite about the 9/11 millionaire widows? Fireman and policemen ditched their wives and ran off with their mate's widows who got massive compensation payouts. Sick stuff.

Hypnotoad

I was at home sick from school.Watching the news about some weather thing when it went straight into the story as breaking news.Then watched the second plane hit live on air.I watched the news for the whole day.

biko

Working I guess, was it a week day?

Binomate

TwoShedsJackson wrote:

The antidote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AYujWCCHRk

You know what the funniest thing about that video is?

It was made by a Something Awful member on 9/11/01. The very same day of the attacks. Truly epic lulz.

zuutroy

In Toronto heading to work. Heard it on Howard Stern. Got the day off...yay

Sniipe

Wossack wrote:

fun, as we were flying home, I think, about 22hrs later

same for me; I was in Chicago and was ment to fly home the next day. My flight was delayed by over a week. I was at work in Chicago in a law firm and we all crowded around a TV and some guy was in bits as a relative of his was actually in the WTC.

Lazare

Myself and the girlfriend (wife now) were in NY. We were in the towers about 12 hours previous. We got up that morning and were heading to catch a bus into Manhattan when we had to turn back. Our plan that day was to go to the Natural History museum in the morning and the observation floor of the WTC in the afternoon. We're pretty lucky they chose the morning time to do it.
I took some photos of the towers the night before, probably one of the last tourist photo's taken of them.

We went down to lower Manhattan on the 13th to within a couple of blocks of ground zero and watched the rescue crews at work. Surreal.

Coming home, we were on the first flight back to Ireland on the Saturday, we had to queue for about three hours at three seperate security checks in JFK, while they searched and double searched everyone, then eventually got on the Aer Lingus flight, where on board you could buy a manicure set complete with scissors and sharp nail files, I lol'd.

tolosenc

I was on United 93 a couple of weeks beforehand. Was in school when it happened, but didn't hear till I got in.

dr strangelove

I was working on the help desk at Compaq, a large open plan office and you could hear the murmur work it's way along the office. Then everyone tried to check out Sky, RTE or BBC websites. The interweb was phenomenally slow so we only got bits and pieces of information until someone turned on a radio.

The thing i remember most was one of the managers stalking between the desks saying "just because a plane had crashed in America, don't forget we still have to help out customers" and trying to break up groups of people round the few PCs with working internet connections. There were no calls, the phones had stopped ringing.

Dudess

I was in my parents' house, on my ass in my pyjamas, eating cornflakes and flicking around the TV stations. Briefly couldn't understand why the same film was being shown simultaneously on a number of channels - including channels that don't show movies.
I was on a week off and about to start college the following week.

mental07

At home reading the newspaper. Had neither TV nor radio on, which was very very rare. Only heard about it when my dad came home and told me to switch on the TV - the 2nd plane had just hit.

Like everyone else, I was glued to the TV for the rest of the day.

Anto McC

I worked delivering wine at the time, i was on my way to Gorey and was listening to Gerry Ryan when he broke the news. I should've been in school that day. I didn't actually get to see any footage of the incident untill about 9pm that night, which was wehn i finished.

The Hill Billy

I was in work - just came back after lunch & logged onto cnn.com.
Read that a plane had flown into one of the WTC buildings.
Thought - Christ that's a nasty accident!
Got on with some more work & logged back on 30 mins later to see what was happening.
Read that a second plane flew into the other WTC tower.
Thought - FFS! 2 plans crashing into the Twin Towers within such a short space of time - now that's just careless!

May they all rest in peace - apart from those lunatics who made it happen.
May they burn in hell.

Mental Mickey

I was in work, watching it on our TVs in the canteen. I couldn't believe what I was seeing!!!!:eek:

Thought it was something straight out of Hollywood...?

Pepe LeFrits

In a netcafe working. I don't really recall much about it to be honest; the significance of it didn't really register at the time.

July 7 was much more real for me.

Jello

Was in school (5th class) when the teacher came in and told us to ''bow your heads and pray for America''. We all looked at each other wondering wtf she was on about. Then got home and saw the TV.
Remember it well actually.

qwytre

I had just finished college that May and took the summer off. I was 23 and that september I decided to start looking of a job in IT.

I got my first interview with a company based in Blanchardstown and had made the drive up from Galway that morning for the interview. The IT industry wasn't great at the time due to the dot.com crash and all that so I was desperate to get any kind of IT job really. Fixing my tie in the car just before the interview I heard on the radio about the first plane crashing, the speculation was that an airplane somehow went off course, no one on the radio suggested terrorism at that stage.

Then just as I was getting out of the car to walk in I heard about the second plane. I was just thinking what the hell is going on but the enormity of what was happening was secondary to my interview. I remember it was a nice summers day in Dublin and going into the interview I dont think anyone heard about what had happended, or at least no one was talking about it as I walked through the offices. Myself and the interviewer spoke for about an hour with no idea that one of the greatest (I dont mean that in a glorious type of way) historical events of our time was unfolding.

I didnt get that job. But I got one about a week later, thankful for it.

I never get tired of watching those images of the planes crashing, I can never get my head around it.

jb91

I was in 4th class doing PE. The teachers didn't tell us but we knew something was happening. After school everyone was talking about World War 3 starting :rolleyes:

Then I got home and saw the smoke billowing out of the tower on TV but I didn't really know what was happening/where. I really only found out what was going on the next day when the teachers told us about it in school.

aidan_dunne

Anto McC wrote:

I worked delivering wine at the time, i was on my way to Gorey and was listening to Gerry Ryan when he broke the news.

It was Gareth O' Callaghan who broke the news on 2FM, actually. I was in the kitchen at home eating a sandwich and listening to him on the radio when he mentioned that a "light plane" had crashed into the WTC. Turned on the telly to Sky News and watched the second plane hit live. Before Kay Burley or anyone else even said it, the next thought that popped into my head was "terrorist attack" and that Bush was going to view this as his own, personal Pearl Harbour and use it as an excuse to wage war as a result.

When they showed the pictures of people jumping out the towers in desperation, I nearly got sick. When the first tower collapsed, I did! So much for the sandwich! :rolleyes:

I'll never forget that day as long as I live. As others have already said, that was definitely our generation's Pearl Harbour / Hiroshima / JFK moment.

lemansky

I didn't even realise that it was the 11th. I was in school. I remember when the bell went at 4 o clock and we were getting our books for homework from the lockers and one of the guys told us. He had heard because he was the last to leave our last class and another teacher had come in and was talking to ours about it.

Conor108

4th class primary school, heard it on the radio going home

EdgarAllenPoo

I was in geography class when the towers were hit. The news spread all over the school in minutes and everything stopped. We were all brought into the assembly hall and watched what happened on the news.

Zebra3

Dunno know where I was.

Conor108

Zebra3 wrote:

Dunno know where I was.

Fascinating

latenia

I'll always remember that day-I played 5-a-side and scored two goals.

Glowing

I was on a Club Med holiday in Corfu. We weren't really sure what was going on since the commentary on the TV wasn't in English. We only realised the full scale of the disaster the following morning when the english papers were out.

I still get a shock when I see the news footage.

Zebra3

Conor108 wrote:

Fascinating

Thanks.