September 11

[Aviador]

9/11 anniversary: Barack Obama leads tributes 12 years on

At a ceremony near Wall Street in New York, people paused at 1246 GMT to mark the time when the first of two hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center. The twin towers later collapsed.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks that led to a long war in Afghanistan.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... rs-on.html

Do you remember what you were doing 12 years ago today?

Thankfully I wasn't working that day. I was just about to leave the house when I heard a report on Radio 2 that one of the twin towers had been struck by a large passenger plane. I immediately stopped what I was doing and turned the TV on. It was featured on just about every channel. Almost straight away I saw the second tower being stuck by the second aircraft. It was unbelievable, I thought I was watching a picture of the first attack, I don't think anybody realised it was a second aircraft at first. The day was sombre as you would expect.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I'd not long met a beautiful young lady, who is now my wife and on September 11th 2001 we'd met up for the second or third time in Central Birmingham to do a little shopping. The first I heard of the attacks was a couple of texts off friends saying America had been targeted and buildings were on fire, none mentioned aircraft so I'd assumed it was a bomb and thought I'd check it out on the news later. It was just before midday when I found out what had actually happened when we went to a pub for some lunch and saw the pictures on the television. I remember us both standing at the bar for about 20 minutes along with the chap serving us with all our eyes glued to the screen in disbelief. Eventually we sat down and carried on with our afternoon but we both had one eye on the television. That evening we went to see a friend of mine for what was meant to have been a BBQ and drinks in the garden with him and his wife, instead we spent the evening watching various television channels and ended up phoning a pizza. Sombre indeed.

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

The day that changed the aviation world beyond recgonition.

I was nine at that time. NINE. When i saw these images i was shocked that anyone could be so evil but the next day i quickly forgot about it and went on to be a typical nine year old. Looking at the events now at the age of 21 i cannot believe how much evil there is in the world. With a huge passion for aviation likewise the majority of us on here, and the ambition to become a pilot i simply cannot put into words how anyone can use an aeroplane many of us trust as such a evil weapon.

http://renewedpilot.com/2012/09/11/my-t ... #more-1855 An interesting read.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I do remember where I was with this one as I do when I heard about Mountbattens's murder, but I can't for the life of me recall how I heard about Kennedy's assassination even though I was in my late teens then.

With the Twin Towers I'd been out and came home in the early afternoon to find a double glazing workman (he'd come to fix one or two defects that had been thrown up after it had been fitted the previous week) standing incredulously with my wife in front of the telly in the lounge.

She'd been idly watching the box with the sound off and saw the first crash. She assumed it was some sort of film drama but then realised she was watching a news channel. The double glazing man joined her and shortly afterwards the second aircraft hit one of the towers.

I watched with them for an hour or so but became exasperated when the experts began to be wheeled out to give their favourite theories as to what, why and by whom.

I read an interesting account of the early moments of the incident in the autobiography of Sir John Stevens (now Lord Stevens) who was the Metropolitan Police Commissioner at the time, the most senior police officer in the country.

Sir John was en route to the USA on a BA flight with his staff officer when a member of the cabin staff presented the captain's compliments and asked to him to go to the flight deck. Sir John is the son of an airline pilot and an accomplished pilot himself, and at the time held a jet rating - he might still do so for all I know. He therefore thought the invitation was a courtesy.

He was quickly disabused of this idea when he reached the flight deck. The captain gave him a quick summary of what he knew and said that he had already turned the aircraft to head back to London.

This particular BA aircraft was given the highest priority to get back to LHR as quickly as possible - many others were stacking - so that Sir John could assume his responsibilities without delay. At the time no-one knew the ramifications and there was every reason to suspect that the UK might be about suffer such a terrorist outrage.

 

[Aviador]