Where Were You On 9/11?

[nord1899]

At work, getting everything ready for the day. Boss gets a call from his wife as she got off the subway beneath the WTC towers. She tells him about the plane crashing into it. We all run downstairs to the cafeteria where there are TV and just stare in disbelief.

BTW, I live and work about an hour away from Manhatten.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

I was in class. Then when the second plane was hitting, I was in another class, and the substitute made us take notes instead of go to another classroom to watch the news on TV.

 

[Aceshigh]

Asleep, (worked nights). Several people called me and told me about it. Spent the rest of the day glued to the tv.

 

[Johnnie]

i awoke that day around 9:30 am...(i work at night) i was here on Anandtech...checking the FS/FT...
I will never forget that day...

 

[bleckywelcky]

I was walking into the library immediately after the first one hit and saw some CNN reports on it (they have TVs set up right near the entrance for the latest news, etc). Walked out a a little later but before the second one hit and saw the TVs again. I kinda passed it off because it seemed just like any other news, just more terrorist attacks, bombings, etc. Went to class then came back out and saw the rest of the crap going on. Rest of the classes were canceled for the day, went home after a tad.

-

 

[Hammer]

I was at work. I was checking the news sites in the morning like usual and then they stopped working. I thought it was our proxy but I saw a post here, and then went to find a tv.

 

[Platypus]

Why?

Shooting photos if you really want to know.

 

[CurtCold]

I was at work. Some lady came in and was talking about what happened, but didn't say what buildings, just that some bombs had went off, and alot of people were hurt. I didn't really know what was going on until I actually got home and watched the news that night.

 

[Jhill]

I woke up and started reading anandtech. People here were talking about terrorist attacks or something so I was like What the hell are these people taling about? Then I went to www.cnn.com and saw what happened.

 

[CraigRT]

I had just come into work... guy it work with says " u hear the news? a plane flew into the world trade center " it's absolutely INCREDIBLE how fast the news spreads.. at this point it had happened a mere 10 mins or so before this point. no one worked that day... most of our department huddled around my PC as we were listening to C|NET radio live the entire day.

 

[denali]

Taking a bus from Copenhagen to Stockholm. Get to Stockholm around 10PM with no place to stay and while looking for a hostel an Arab guy walks up to me and asks if I'm looking for the hostel. I say yes and he tells me how to get to it, then says someting about an airplane crashing into a building in NY. When I get to the hostel a couple of Arab guys are watching TV and I see what happened. Stayed st the Hostel a few days and had some nice conversation about what happened. A few days after 9-11 I saw an anti-american protest in downtown Stockholm which I saw no mention of in the US media.

 

[Grasshopper27]

I was out flying, had a customer on a photo shoot. While doing such flights around a major city, I always keep one radio tuned into regional approach so I can listen to the other airplanes flying near us.

First thing I heard that told me something was wrong was an airliner reporting that he just heard from his company that there had been a crash of some kind in New York. We all assumed it was an accident of course. Within a few minutes, ATC (air traffic control) got on the radio and said "we have a national emergency in progress, everyone just stand by and stay off the radio". A few seconds later they came back and said "All airliners, please secure your cockpits".

I remember thinking, damm, that's weird, they don't say things like that. What on Earth is going on?

Another minute, ATC came back on the radio and said "attention all aircraft, the FAA has ordered the National Airspace System shut down due to the national emergency in progress. All aircraft are ordered to land at the nearest airport. Any noncompliance with controller directions will constitute an attack on the United States and fighters will be scrambled."

Nothing but silence, I don't think anyone could believe it. I almost thought they might be kidding, but ATC does not joke about such things. Someone came back on the radio and said, "can we cancel our IFR flight plan and continue VFR?". The controller replied, "this is for all aircraft of any type, any flight plan, the United States is under attack by unknown forces, any aircraft refusing to comply with instructions is subject to being shot down by fighters."

Not another arguement from anyone, we all followed instructions and got everyone down within 30 minutes or so. I landed about 15 minutes after that last ATC warning, shut down and went into the hanger and turned on the news. I couldn't believe it, I was in shock.

Grasshopper

 

[deerslayer]

At class.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: Millenium
At Mississippi State University about to go to my morning class.

Hey, you went to MSU? I had a scholarship there, but I chose Ole Miss. That was a stupid move.


Anyway, I was at work, and we heard that the US was under military attack by bombers and ships and whatnot.

When I got home, I couldn't believe it.

 

[xuanman]

Midtown Manhattan on the 34th floor of my building watching everything unfold

 

[Beau]

In my office, watching Fox News and MSNBC

 

[imported_Tomato]

In Mandarin Chinese class at Smith College. Someone opened the door and cried "A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center!", and the dick of a professor said, "Yes yes, that's nice, class is in session, please close the door." He wouldn't let anyone leave the room until we'd finished the lab. I dropped the class one week later.

Peace,
Dezign

 

[Ultima]

I was in college

 

[nord1899]

grasshopper, I had wondered what went out over the radio to all the planes. Definitely interesting how they got everyone down as quickly as they did.

 

[Tallgeese]

I was asleep until 11:30 a.m. that morning.
I had been up VERY late workin remotely on a client's network.

When I called to check on that client after I got up, they said "Turn on your TV..."


I felt kinda like Rip Van Winkle...

 

[Blieb]

At work ...

 

[kt]

Driving to work which is right next to LAX and wondering why all these police cars are at the airport. I thought they just opened up a Krispy Kreme there or something.

 

[slpaulson]

I was at school. A friend of mine said something about the world trade center, but I had no idea what he was talking about. Our guidence counceler was coming in that day to tell us some stuff on graduation, and before she started she said that despite all that has been going on she has to get this done now. I found out next class period what was happening... Good thing it happened to be on a half day of school.

 

[Grasshopper27]

Originally posted by: nord1899
grasshopper, I had wondered what went out over the radio to all the planes. Definitely interesting how they got everyone down as quickly as they did.

In the days following, we kept expecting to fly again. It was a week before we were in the air because of all the Class B airspace around here. When I finally got back into the air, the one thing I most noticed was how empty the skies were and how silent the radio was. The controllers were all super nice and we all sort of just were in shock over it. A few controllers up in the North East commited sucide in the days after 9/11 because they heard the killing on the planes (the pilots left the mics open) and heard the hijackers praising Allah over the radio as they hit the towers.

I've never for one second doubted the need to crush these evil-doers, anyone who thinks we should let evil get away has been under a rock.

Grasshopper

 

[Armitage]

Driving to work listening to NPR.
They were talking about a plane crashing into WTC when I turned it on, but it didn't seem to be a huge story at that point. They had no clue whether this was a cessna of a jumbo jet at that point. I'm thinking it was some kind of accident like when that B25 hit the Empire State Building back in '45. Then they announced that the second tower was hit as well. I knew it wasn't an accident at that point.