Where were you or what were you doing when it happened on sept 11?

Im sure it has been asked before, but what were you doing when you heard the news that the first plane hit?

I was getting ready for work drinking my first cup of coffee watching CNN in my living room.
It was a commercial break when suddenly there was a breaking news bulletin: World trade center disaster.

At first it seemed like no one knew for sure what happened. Then, i couldnt believe my eyes as i watched the second plane hit, live on the air.

Right then i knew this was no accident. It seemed like the world stopped, In disbelief that someone would intentionally do this. At 9:30 am, my work called me saying that work is canceled and will be till further notice.

I live in Canada, but when i was a kid (18) i was selling insurance to GMAC mortgage holders in NY. We didnt return to work for 2 weeks.

ATS: what were you doing when it happened?

a reply to: Macenroe82
I didn't know anything happened until I got to work. I worked in a factory in Oklahoma. All these people were crying and then management called a meeting and informed us how it would affect business. I didn't actually see video until much later in the day at a friend's house.

I was at work at the local newspaper. We were allowed a radio at our desks, and I heard the first report come in about a plane hitting the Twin Towers. Then more reports about more crashes and a possible car bomb in Chicago. When I went up to the newsroom area on my break, all the reporters and editors were gathered around a TV in the boardroom watching the live coverage.

I was driving home from work at the USPS distribution center in Coppell TX and I heard the news on the radio. I got home and turned on the TV and several minutes later they showed the jet crashing into the first tower. I got my daughter up and called my son who was stationed in HI and told him. He got ordered to report to work minutes later. We watched until the towers collapsed and then I went to bed realizing I had just seen something akin to the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. It was a sad day but we just kept moving the mail that night at the Center.

a reply to: Macenroe82

I was at home. I just lost my job. My mom was staying with me and I woke her up to tell her a plane had hit the WTC. Her immediate response was, "A terrorist attack?"

I hadn't even considered such a thing, but in hindsight I realize she was probably recalling the incident of 1993. No wonder the official conclusion won versus all the questions. (small epiphany there, sorry to digress.)

Anyway, I stayed glued to the television all day like most people not involved in living the events out. I do recall seeing the first tower fall before a reporter I was watching realized it. I feel like we were all witnesses to the events -- in the truest sense -- and have been left disturbed and traumatized by the experience and have every right to want answers to our own satisfaction.

a reply to: Macenroe82

I was a sophomore in high school. A friend of mine told me that there was a plane crash in New York. We said it was sad that there was an accident, but it wasn't until we walked in to our Math class that my teacher had the tv on to the news station and we saw that it was in fact a terrorist attack. We continued to watch the news in all of our classes. We were all overwhelmed and terrified. I'll never forget that sinking feeling of watching the tower collapse on live television. Then learning about the attack on the pentagon. I remember being scared after hearing planes again once they were allowed to fly.

a reply to: Macenroe82

8th grade science class.

I was too young to fully understand how significant it was at the time.

I had just gotten a job making tumble driers and was on the line when It came around through word of mouth that a small plane had hit the two towers, I assumed it was an accident until one fella who had a radio told us all.
I didn't believe it until I got home and turned on the telly.

I was listing to NPR (US) and heard about it just after the first plane hit - They were not even announcing a plane hit yet - I had the day off and was building a Nitto Pz Kfw IV Tank (a model) - I was just applying the road wheels...

My dad woke me up after he saw the first tower go down, i got to see the second.

It was a school day for me, was getting ready to go to the the bus stop and of course it was on the tube. Ya saw the second tower fall. Was sixth grade, been a while.

Was a freshman in HS.. One of the few things I remember from that particular year.

I was at work at a local pest control office. The POTUS, was roughly 3-4 miles away from where I was, I was watching the good morning america news on the training tv with a antena, we saw the 2nd plane hit the 2nd building, I proceeded to go to the front of the office waiting for the motorcade to pass by, and they did 2 suv's with secret service hanging out the windows with m4's in their hands and a limo zoom by from the elementary school the POTUS was at, then I watched Air force 1 fly away..

Time stopped roughly for a few days after that, NO one wanted to talk business and everyone was glued to the TV..

After that attack we lost most of all of our privacy, and to this day we still have not gotten it back over one lone terrorist attack...

The patriot act can kiss my ass.

originally posted by: Cheddarhead
Then more reports about more crashes and a possible car bomb in Chicago.

I also remember hearing about the van on the George Washington bridge and a few other odd stories about vans, suspects, and explosives. Looking back, i wonder if those reports weren't diversions and disinfo and meant to cause confusion. There were suddenly so many reports of possible/found explosives....that's not typical enough to be a coincidence when none of them 'panned out.'

I was at work. I taught 8th grade then. I didn't know anything about it until the teachers' meeting, and then all anyone said was something about did you know we're under attack or something? I thought it was a joke because not much more was said. Then I got upstairs and turned on the TV ... and the first thing I saw was people jumping out of the towers.

I had to try to keep an even keel and continue teaching for the rest of the day.

Words can't describe what that was like.

Working for the biggest software company in Denmark, which just merged.

I had a bad feeling then.

Next year in february, we were bought up by Micro$soft. I quit my job.

Then i read about WTC 7... not until then have i heard about wtc7. In February 2002!!

i remember it was a tuesday cause i worked 12 hours on monday with tuesdays off.
i got the call around 9 and i was sleeping. the caller said "a plane just hit the towers" and my answer was "what towers"

when it clicked i turned the news on and saw the 2nd plane hit.
as soon as i saw it i went and got my kid out of school and gassed up the car.

went back and was glued to the news. the stories coming out were nuts.
so much panic reporting with a lot of it untrue.

a reply to: Macenroe82

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was one day away from my solo flight.

I was a student pilot flying a Piper Warrior N38267 on that clear, cool Tuesday morning. As my instructor and I where returning from our practice area, into TYS Knoxville when the radios went nuts. My standard request for touch and go practice got refused by the tower, and I was ordered to extend my downwind until notified. Pilots from Delta were arguing with the tower trying to takeoff for Atlanta. That's the only time I ever heard the voice of Air Traffic Control show any emotion. A Delta flight was ordered to turn his Damn plane around and return to the gate. All aircraft in the pattern were order to return to their home field and land immediately.

Knoxville' s TYS is host to a USAF, SAC base, KC135 takners and other not so well known at the time, aircraft. From my position at a thousand feet, I could see lots of action on the military side of the twin runways. People running and trucks seemed every where.

I saw eight FA/18's rollout out on runway 5 R in two by two echelon formation and take off at full afterburners and they had white one on the hard points. White ones are "war shots" , live missiles! This freaked out my instructor big time. We continued as directed by the tower as the big, lumbering KC135s followed the fighters.

We were then instructed to land immediately and expedite. After we tied the bird down, we headed over to the pilot lounge for my after flight debriefing. The other guys had a TV on CNN, and we're watching the replay of the towers coming down. I looked at the shocked faces of my fellow pilots and said, "Guys, the world as we know it has just changed for ever".

In my Homeroom class, where a friend told me.... Then onto my psychology class were the substitute teacher pulled in a TV and we watched it. I was a sophomore in high school and cried myself to sleep thinking of the people that jumped to their deaths rather than burn.

a reply to: Macenroe82

I was asleep as I worked nights at the time.My older sister called me until I answered the cell phone and told me we were under attack. I was like "what are you going on about'? She said to turn on CNN and see for myself,so I did. I sat there watching the disaster unfold and then the 2nd plane hit and I screamed. I sat there crying when the buildings came down,thinking "all those people that didn't get out! OMG". Got the call from our union guy not to come in to work.It was cancelled until they could figure out what was safe and what wasn't.