WTC 911 2020 - 19 years on.

[Zapp Brannigan]

I landed at New York Newark on September 10th 2001. A lovely clear day with amazing views of Manhattan (twin towers and all) just across the water as we came in on final approach. Connecting flight down to Washington DC just after.

The following morning I was sleeping off the jetlag. Woken by an American friend on the phone:
"dude, put on the tv..."
"what channel?"
"All of them..."

 

[FridgeMagnet]

That was when "rolling news" was like this new sort of news, basically CNN, which went on all the time even when there was nothing new to report.

People were sceptical of the model and said it would just lead to continuous nonsense that fed off itself. Now that's just "news".

eta: also when I first encountered the comedy name of "Wolf Blitzer", which is still a joke

 

[Jay Park]

Hang on, what's this? You mean he diverted it to other stuff, or he just pocketed it (which is quite likely, knowing him)?

I was in a cafe in Belfast, and someone walked in to say that a plane had hit the world trade centre in New York . . .

The next place I went into, the girl at the till said "that's a terrible thing that's happened in New York".

Finally, I arrived at the office to find all my colleagues gathered round the radio, with very grim looks on their faces. . .

Later that evening, one of my English housemates said "bloody hell mate, you don't think they'll bring back the call-up do you". . .

other stuff I think, into the treasury

 

[Jay Park]

‘Pure Evil’: Report On Trump Administration Draining Fund For FDNY’s 9/11 Responders Draws Outrage

“What would cause you to withhold money from our American heroes who need this money NOW?”

www.forbes.com

 

[two sheds]

okay obviously thatvwas cut off but the FUCKING glitch on this board, weeks old, has made it impossible for me to type on phone. fix it mods.

You using Chrome? If so it's the browser not the boards - there's a thread on it.

 

[freakydave]

When do you remember conspiraloonery rearing its ugly head?

I remember it being a thing in the 90s as well. I first became aware of it because of the Oliver Stone film about JFK and the X Files, but I was a teenager and wouldn't have been aware of it anyway before. The 9/11 attacks definitely took it to another level though, especially once YouTube appeared, I remember the first few years of YouTube there were so many of those conspiracy videos

 

[Nylock]

I remember being in work when it happened. I saw it flash up on these forums as I was bored and browsing. I remember initially thinking it was something similar to an incident that happened not long previously where someone had flown a light aircraft into an office building. And then the footage came in. I remember the grim expressions on my work colleague's faces and the look of utter hopelessness on the face of the news anchor as reports of the second impact came through. When the news of the attack on the pentagon broke, the atmosphere at my workplace went from grim and somber to apocalyptic. Everyone was convinced the USA would be going to war in a very emphatic and world-ending kind of way.

That evening I just wanted to make it home to my girlfriend and son before the balloon went up. It was horrible in all sorts of ways and it's impact is still being felt to this day

 

[two sheds]

Conspiracy theory started from the moon landings I'd say (and JK?), I remember a lot of it in the 80s and doubtless before.

Was when I was listening to R4, heard it and phoned my mate. Don't remember watching any of it though.

 

[Elpenor]

Was working at my Uni hall of residence in my summer vacation as a porter.

Went on duty about 2pm - expecting a few requests for new light bulbs, maybe some parcels to distribute and a few international students checking in as they arrived from overseas for pre-sessional language courses.

All the hall staff were watching on a big tv in the JCR bar. We kept watching. I think everyone did that day.

Later that evening, perhaps it was after midnight I was called on the out of hours mobile to help a student who was incredibly upset as their brother worked in the twin towers and she couldn’t get hold of him. I let her use the office phone for about an hour or so. Didn’t know what else to do, I certainly had no training on that sort of thing.

 

[freakydave]

On a sort of related note, it's kind of messed up how it was never in the conversation how there was that White Nationalist guy who had tried to blow up the WTC a couple of years before. He was not operating on the same level as the 9/11 attacks, but from memory he set off a pretty huge bomb outside the twin towers

 

[petee]

You using Chrome? If so it's the browser not the boards - there's a thread on it.

I'm in that thread. So why only on this board?

 

[two sheds]

ah ok - dunno sorry

 

[marty21]

I was on honeymoon, staying in Snowshill , in the Cotswolds. We'd been out for a walk in the morning but it was curtailed due to lots of fields being blocked off due to foot and mouth. Came back , put the telly on, it was just after the 1st plane hit . Didn't go out again that day...

 

[dessiato]

I'd been in court as a witness and was at home having lunch before going to work. I turned on the TV and saw this unfolding. It was especially difficult to watch because a friend of ours was supposed to be there. It was four days before we found he had not gone that day, changing his mind at the last minute. I didn't get to work that day.

 

[dylanredefined]

Company sergeant major "Don't worry lads wont effect us we never go anywhere"

He fucking hates being reminded of that

 

[skyscraper101]

IIRC I’d just finished watching Neighbours on bbc1 with my best mate we were both 20 years old and I was days away from heading to Uni, And we were watching on this really crap old tube telly that bent in on the sides to warp the picture (we was poor).

Anyway, newsflash cuts in and we watched with horror what was happening. Saw the second tower collapse live, I’ll never forget the aerial shot of lower Manhattan swamped in smoke and fumes thinking WW3 was imminent.

Mate phoned his Dad who was in the MOD the moment he saw the news, and interrupted his meeting and before he could utter anything his Dad (still unaware at this point) was like “not now Peter I’m in quite an important meeting” and he was like “er, no Dad I think you may want to check the news”

It’s weird to see pre 9/11 airports in the US in films and TV. The whole walking up to the gate to see someone off. No TSA. The whole plot device for Home Alone 2 would be a nonsense now for e.g.

(That said it was even weird seeing it back then because the UK had long been prepped for terrorism and never to my knowledge allowed randoms up to the gate but you could at least take liquids in hand luggage)

Anyway, yeah. Batshit times that have never fully gone away.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I landed at New York Newark on September 10th 2001. A lovely clear day with amazing views of Manhattan (twin towers and all) just across the water as we came in on final approach. Connecting flight down to Washington DC just after.

The following morning I was sleeping off the jetlag. Woken by an American friend on the phone:
"dude, put on the tv..."
"what channel?"
"All of them..."

Blimey, were you actually in DC on the day then? I’d always assumed you were down in Charlottesville...

 

[Mrs Miggins]

I landed at New York Newark on September 10th 2001. A lovely clear day with amazing views of Manhattan (twin towers and all) just across the water as we came in on final approach. Connecting flight down to Washington DC just after.

The following morning I was sleeping off the jetlag. Woken by an American friend on the phone:
"dude, put on the tv..."
"what channel?"
"All of them..."

We arrived on Sept 8th 2001. We were standing underneath the Towers on Sept 10th thinking "let's leave that til later in the week". Little did we know....

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Regarding the falling people; didn't see any on the day, although the news did make mention of them. A couple of years later there was a documentary, I think called Falling Man, where they tried to ascertain the identity of the poor sod who's the most famous picture of a jumper. They had footage taken by the fire brigade in the lobby of one of the towers and every ten seconds or so you hear a thwomp, as another body hit the roof of the lobby. What a fucking horrendous choice, burn alive or jump to certain death

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Blimey, were you actually in DC on the day then? I’d always assumed you were down in Charlottesville...

Stopping at the in laws. Reston, probably about 10 miles from Dulles airport and 10 miles the other way to DC itself.

 

[weltweit]

.. They had footage taken by the fire brigade in the lobby of one of the towers and every ten seconds or so you hear a thwomp, as another body hit the roof of the lobby. What a fucking horrendous choice, burn alive or jump to certain death

There was some insensitive footage that seemed to associate the jumpers with some level of cowardice - which I thought was very wrong. And at least initially the news programs were loath to show them. If you had been driven out of your floor by the flames I think it quite likely you might end up on the outside of the building until you either fell or jumped. I was glad when they made the program about it later.

 

[equationgirl]

The Falling Man | Esquire | SEPTEMBER 2003

Do you remember this photograph? In the United States, people have taken pains to banish it from the record of September 11, 2001. The story behind it, though, and the search for the man pictured in it, are our most intimate connection to the horror of that day.

classic.esquire.com

Might have pinched this from another thread.

I watched a documentary a few years on the WTC collapse, and the man's family were distraught at the thought of him effectively committing suicide as they are devout Catholics iirc.

 

[equationgirl]

I was at work, in a university department. We were watching it most of the afternoon because none of us could quite believe what had happened. I was quite shaken by it, but my boyfriend at the time was quite unmoved by it, and that shocked me a bit. How could any decent human being not be moved in some way by the event?

I think it contributed to me leaving my job around a year later to pursue a PhD.

 

[likesfish]

Tbf most countries would react badly if you killed 3500 of their citizens out of the blue.
America just went bigger and badder

 

[SheilaNaGig]

On a sort of related note, it's kind of messed up how it was never in the conversation how there was that White Nationalist guy who had tried to blow up the WTC a couple of years before. He was not operating on the same level as the 9/11 attacks, but from memory he set off a pretty huge bomb outside the twin towers

In my memory it was definitely part of the ongoing discussion. Not front and centre, but it was part of the narrative for sure.

 

[Pickman's model]

On a sort of related note, it's kind of messed up how it was never in the conversation how there was that White Nationalist guy who had tried to blow up the WTC a couple of years before. He was not operating on the same level as the 9/11 attacks, but from memory he set off a pretty huge bomb outside the twin towers

do link to something about this attempt, because all i can find are the 1993 and 2001 attacks.

 

[xenon]

I was at home, had 5 Live on the radio but was only half listening as playing guitar. Heard Simon Mayo report the first plane hitting, terrible accident seems to have occurred... Must admit, I paused what I was doing but didn't stop. Then the second plane hit and I did. Listened for a while in amazed horror. Then had to get out just to be around people. I went to the pub. Passing some other bar, with a wanker practically cheering, my blood boiled at that. Sat in this fairly quiet city centre pub, listening to the coverage of the other planes going down. That time for a while, where it seemed one was unaccounted for. Surreal, (yes overused I know) time and ushered in what feels like a rolling creeping dystopia. Maybe that's just getting older too.

The following weeks, fraught media coverage, speculation on the US response. October 7th, I came out of the cinema with a mate, we'd just seen AI and went for a beer. TV in pub showing the first missiles hitting Afghanistan.

 

[Spandex]

On a sort of related note, it's kind of messed up how it was never in the conversation how there was that White Nationalist guy who had tried to blow up the WTC a couple of years before. He was not operating on the same level as the 9/11 attacks, but from memory he set off a pretty huge bomb outside the twin towers

Are you thinking of 'White Nationalist guy' Ramzi Yousef, who planned the 1993 WTC bombing after spending time in Al Qaeda trading camp in Afghanistan, with funding from his uncle Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attack? Or are you confusing him with Timothy McVeigh, who did the 1995 Oklahoma city bombing?

their intelligence service were up to for decades, and their foreign policy objectives, it had to happen some time or another

Something like it was inevitable, not just because the US had been cunting people off around the world for decades but more specifically because after Gulf War 1 Al Qaeda had been targeting the US with the 1993 WTC bombing and the 1998 Kenyan embassy bombing. They were going to keep trying until they had a success. And the 9/11 attack was a great success for them, obviously in terms of the attack itself, but also in kicking off the 'war on terror' and emboldening militant Islamists around the world, firing up a war which is continuing today.

I was at work in the civil service on 11/09/01. Around 3pm, long after anyone had given up any pretense of doing anything other than hit refresh on the internet to find out the latest (the news sites were really slow loading, so I was following what was going on here as much as anywhere else), one of the the political advisors wandered by and declared 'they're going to invade Afghanistan'. Not that he had any inside knowledge, it was just his guess what would happen next.

 

[Idris2002]

do link to something about this attempt, because all i can find are the 1993 and 2001 attacks.

I think our freaky friend may be confusing the 1993 WTC attack with the Oklahoma City bombing.

 

[Idris2002]

Then there was the cargo plane that crashed in a residential suburb near one of the NY airports a couple of weeks later. The young lad in my house was shaking his head at that one, saying "if this turns out to be Islamist related, the Muslims in America are going to be massacred".