Where were you on 9/11?

[Dry]

I was in mission for my company in Munich, Germany. I was concentrate on solving the problem we had, when I saw people grouped around a PC. I first thought they were looking at some strange, funny or nude pics, like it sometimes happen. Being concentrate on my work, I was not listening to what they were saying.
One of the guys then called me an explained. They were in fact on some german news site.
I didn't realise what really happened until the evening, when back in my hotel room, I saw the pictures and heard the numbers on television (I didn't knew the towers were so big).
And I have to confess that my first guess was for some eco-terrorists: after all it was a symbol of world's trade that was attacked.
I flew back home on the friday that week.

[Boris Godunov]

In my Midtown Manhattan office, where I am now. I attached a photo taken from my office window of the second plane hitting the towers back in September last year, but I couldn't find that thread in the archive.

[loinburger]

I was sleeping, didn't wake up until after both towers had been hit (but before they collapsed). Logged onto 'Poly, was wondering what the deal was with all of the disaster threads, finally turned on CNN and just kinda sat there gaping at the screen for awhile.

[JCG]

I was in a certain class on a certain subject, when someone who had a radio began alerting the rest of us to the event, that a plane had crashed into the WTC.

It was rather surprising, but at the moment nobody was crying or screaming or laughing or whatnot, it was just like a sudden shock.

Some time later, when the other crashes occured, people began to mention that WWIII was imminent, that more attacks would be forthcoming and the government response would be nuclear....Initally we thought that Hamas or some other Palestinian movement was responsible.

A couple of guys, none of them arabic nor muslim though, actually expressed that in a way, the U.S. might deserve it due to it's flawed foreign policy, nobody openly said anything to the contrary. We didn't get to see the video footage until a couple of hours later...and it certainly changed the opinion of many of us; it was truly shocking....

[ixnay]

I was woken up by my roommate, and stumbled out into the room to see the sight of one smoking WTC tower standing. Confused and tired, I said, "there's two of those towers, right?" After failing to reach any news sites, I relied on apolyton for updates. I remember sitting there on the computer, next to the tv, when the 2nd tower collapsed. "My god," I thought.

[Solver]

I was returning back from work, and came home exactly the minute the first tower collapsed. I turned on the radio, and heard: "Today, a plane has crashed into a World Trade Center tower in New York, USA. 18 minutes later, a second plane crashed into the second WTC tower, and also, a third plane has crashed into the Pentagon. All three planes were hijacked by the terrorists. And, we have just received a report that one of the towers has collapsed". I ran over to the TV, and watched it without stopping that day...

[hexagonian]

I missed the initial reports because I had gotten to work a few minutes before the first plane hit, and for some reason, I had not turned on the radio yet.

A co-worker came in about a 1/2 hour later walked past me saying 'I gotta get to a radio - did you hear what happened' At that point, I turned on the radio and heard about it. We all were glued to the news on the radio all day - needess to say no work got done. I came to Apolyton and saw the personal reports and the up-to-the-minute reports from people in the NY area.

I worked on a gamemod, just to keep my mind somewhat occupied while hearing of the ever-increasing tragedy - just to try to take it in was hard enough and it seemed like it was somewhat unreal - could this be actually happening????

I went home in a daze - turned on the TV and saw the footage and at that point it really hit home...it was as tragic as anything could possibly be. Just seeing the footage of the planes as they hit the WTC and thinking of the people on that plane and the last few seconds of their lives.

[Asher]

I was home, sleeping. My brother woke me up and I watched the 2nd plane hit and both buildings collapse live on TV. Sureal doesn't even begin to describe it.

I had to go to my first day of classes on my first day of university later in the day, which was also weird. A very weird, sad day...

[Arrian]

At work. Shortly after I got in, people were talking about a plane hitting one of the towers. I figured maybe it was an accident (like the plane that hit the Empire State years ago). We have a TV in a corner conference room, and the news stations were all reporting it, of course, and it was pretty obvious it was no accident.

Shortly thereafter, we were all sent home. I spent the rest of the day glued to the TV.

-Arrian

[atawa]

I was playing civ as usual when a friend called and said a plane had flown into the WTC in NY.

At first I thougth it was a joke but when I turned on the tv it was just before the second one crashed.

[Adalbertus]

I was at work when I logged on my favourite newspaper, and read about a plane crashing into WTC. At first I didn't want to believe, then I thought about an accident. About at the same time others found it out also. The rest of the day most of us were more busy trying to get information than doing their actual work. Being more used to the sort of central European terrorism (where they try to aim to individuals - car bombs are rare outside IRA and ETA) I still had problems to imagine what happened, or who could have an interest in doing such an attack. Then I followed the countries which condoled the USA, it was everyone except Taliban and Saddam (I think he said something remotely like "unfortunately, it wasn't I who did do it"). Anyway, it became quite clear that it came from some Arabic group. I got a high respect for those passengers who stopped the fourth plane.

[FlameFlash]

I was at work... here... just doing my normal at work-style stuff when one of the ladies in the office got a call from her retired mother saying a plane had crashed into one of the towers.

We gathered round her radio after that... though soon I went to the web office and unfortunatly got to see the second one fall live...

/me shudders...

My wife at work, didn't know anything about it... the few rumors she heard at her daycare were either wrong or terribly inacurate... she called me to find out what had happened... my other big shock was that all the news websites were down... and then later seeing that cnn.com one page news article...

[Boris Godunov]

The strangest story I heard was from a coworker about one of her friends. This man was working overseas, and his flight from Europe arrived at JFK airport at like 4 AM on September 11. He lived on 4th Street in Manhattan, and his bedroom had large windows facing south directly at the WTC. He got home around 5 AM, turned off his phone and went to sleep. He woke up at around 4 PM, got out of bed, looked out his window, and the WTC is gone, a huge cloud of dust left in its place. He said he literally stood there for 2 minutes, gaping, thinking he was dreaming. Then he smacked himself across the face a couple of times. Finally, he turned on the TV, and learned what had happened. He had lived in the apartment for almost 10 years, so you can imagine the shock of waking up to seeing those huge buildings suddenly gone.

Perhaps the last man in NY to learn what happened...

[Caesar the Great]

en route to my dad's funeral

[walruskkkch]

I was at work when someone said a plane crashed into the Sears tower. Getting the radio on I found out that it was the WTC and as they were describing what happened the second plane hit. Staying at work was hard, you wanted to get home and watch the TV, but our bosses decided to keep us at work. The Library, as they described it, was a bastion for Freedom against terrorism. I was more nervous that there were still planes up in the air unaccounted for and our building is situated inbetween the two tallest structures in Boston. The rest of the day was spent in shock and wonder why people were still showing up at the library. A few hadn't heard and you tried to do your job but it was damn tough.