[Nibile]

While the Twin Towers were attacked I was exactly at mid flight over the Atlantic, destination San Francisco...

[GraemeA]

Route setting at the Foundry for the Inter Services Lead Championships. I remember thinking Mark and Lard are maybe going a bit far with their chat about a plane crashing into the Twin Towers then realised they weren't joking.

Quite a few of the competitors for the comp didn't turn up the next day.

[GCW]

I was working in A+E and when someone told me a plane had hit the twin towers I thought it was a joke.  Eventually I went to look at the TV in time to see the second plane hit in real time.

[cheque]

I was working in a call centre in a small 6-storey tower block in the centre of Nottingham. News kind of filtered through that it had happened from people's flatmates on their mobiles (seems bizarre to think it but very few of us had them). Discussing it at mid-afternoon fag break, the floor manager said "Thank God they didn't attack this building". He was totally serious. 

I remember the next morning feeling very surreal, with everyone walking around in a bit of a daze. The headline of the Independent was "Doomsday America" and I bought a copy thinking it was the maddest thing I'd ever seen. I sometimes find it when I'm moving house and it hasn't lost its impact!

[Duncan Disorderly]

El Chorro - heard a few snippets from folk and had a chat to a guy in (bad) Spanish... Didn't see any images or get the full lowdown til we went to Granada about 4 days later.....

[luckyjez]

Me and my wife were on holiday in Pembrokeshire and we'd been paddling about in a Canadian canoe of the River Teifi near Cardigan.
When we got back to the car, there was a text from Sam T (of this parish) saying "Holy Shit - have you seen the news?". The rest of the holiday was a slightly surreal daze of watching the television (I remember loads of repeats of E.R.?) and wandering about unable to concentrate.

[magpie]

someone told me a plane had hit the twin towers I thought it was a joke.  Eventually I went to look at the TV in time to see the second plane hit in real time.

Same for me, my brother told me and I just assumed he was confused about what had happened but then I went to look at the TV and saw the second plane hit, it still makes me feel a bit funny thinking about it now, it didn't seem possible or real, it was a bit like watching a film.

[Stubbs]

Was in Leeds, it was the summer after finishing my undergraduate course.  I remember being in the newsagents and the owner saying that a small plane had hit the tower; I got home and turned on the see the footage, it was obvious it wasn't a light aircraft.  One of my housemates was in New York and had been in that area the day before.

Even thinking about it now I find it hard to believe it actually happened, somehow it just seems so unbelievable. (edit what Magpie said).

[Baron]

Watching on the internet behind the counter at Rock and Run in Sheffield with (can't quite remember) Cowboy Hat, Dylan, Dense, maybe Saltbeef, Jules and others.

[gme]

Having one of the best sessions i ever had at a certain Yorkshire point break. Heard on the Mark and Lard show (like GraemeA).

The first plane hit just as we left the car to go in, 3hrs later when we got out the world had changed quite a bit.

[iain]

Working on an IT helpdesk in the scottish parliament. Someone came in saying a plane had hit the towers and we turned on the TV (there was one in every room for supposedly watching the debates).

I remember seeing the second plane, feeling utterly horrified as I realised what was about to happen and wanting to, completely irrationally, tell someone/anyone so they could stop it. Then watching the collapses, utterly surreal even thinking about it now.


Nibs, what was it like landing in the states so soon after it happened? Presumably they didn't let your plane get to San Francisco?

[lagerstarfish]

Inside the keep at Peveril Castle with Joe Picalli

We saw the stuff on TV when we went down to the pub for food. After spending the morning watching Joe colliding with an 800 year old fortress with little resultant damage, it was a surprise to see a similar, but more modern event ending so differently.

We decided that the basement of a 12th century fortress was as good a place as any to be protected from the end of the world.

[andy popp]

I was working at home. Someone rang and told us to turn on the television, which we did in time to watch the second plane hit. The day before I'd climbed what was for me a major project and probably the last 'hard' route I'll do. At the same time my wife was beginning to complain of the symptoms that were to herald in ten years of hell. Somehow the shocking terribleness and strangeness of world events seemed get bound in with events unfolding in my own life.

[dave]

I'd gone from home out to fox house via two busses and a train for a session on burbage south boulders. Decent nick for the time of year as I recall. I heard something about it from people talking on the train at sheff station on the way back.

I must admit that prior to that day I had never heard of the world trade centre.

[cowboyhat]

Watching on the internet behind the counter at Rock and Run in Sheffield with (can't quite remember) Cowboy Hat, Dylan, Dense, maybe Saltbeef, Jules and others.

It wasn't me, day off for whatever reason. I was having breakfast at home and the landlady let herself into the flat and came running up all hysterical about it, seems like she twigged it might be important.

Then I went to the Tor. Foot and Mouth etc... it was very busy there though I can't remember the other cast members. Stone?

Was Burbage South really open?

[SA Chris]

Having one of the best sessions i ever had at a certain Yorkshire point break.

http://bestnewspoint.blogspot.com/2011/08/surfer-witnesses-911-attack.html

Imagine what it was like for this guy.

I too still find it hard to believe it happened, 12 years later it still feels hard to take in.

[Falling Down]

I was working in Aberdeen in the BP offices.  Had the internet on then wandered down to the press/PR centre to see the second plane go in.  It was really weird and unsettling.  Ended up going back to my hotel and watching on the tele then caught a train back to Manc the next day as I wasn't allowed to fly.

[fried]

I was on an island in the Mekong in Laos, we had no TV on the island and had effectively had no news from the outside world for a few days. An Australian arrived and told me about the attack, I was a bit dubious as it all sounded a bit far fetched, when he started going on about an attack on the pentagon building I knew he was taking the piss....then a couple of days later I arrived in a city (can't remember the name) and heard that it had in fact happened. The reactions from the locals was a bit different to that in the west. I remember sitting in a bar which had maps on the table of the bombs dropped on Laos during the Vietnam war, listening to an American argueing wth a not especially sympathetic Laotian.

[dave]

Was Burbage South really open?

Deffo, i remember I had spoke on the phone to some mates on Froggatt that same day, assume the restrictions must just have been off by then.

[gardinrm]

What's very interesting to me about this thread is the level of detail people remember of that particular day. No doubt we have no idea what we were specifically doing 2 weeks later. It's amazing how things are etched into our memory when something monumental happens. I was off sick at home and saw every bit of it on the tv. Then my brother and his mate came home and we all watched the rest. I remember having a very mature talk (i was pretty young at the time) about what it meant and why it had been done. Sobering is the word that comes to mind.

[Nibile]

Nibs, what was it like landing in the states so soon after it happened? Presumably they didn't let your plane get to San Francisco?

The full story, if you are very bored, is this:
I was sipping my coffe on the plane, relaxed and thinking that within a few hours I'd be in San Francisco. My girlfriend was dozing. At some point, I noticed that the coffe was inclined in the cup, a clear sign that we were turning. When the coffee was horizontal again, I couldn't help but think that something didn't quite fit in.
Then I realized: the sun was on the opposite window than before.
What the fuck. We are going back.
As I sat there between terrified and idiotic, the Captain spoke, quite unexpectedly because the flight attendants looked at one another puzzled. We were going back to Paris, because EVERY airport in USA was closed, due to terroristic problems.
Hmmm, I though, are we sure the Captain isn't speaking with a gun held in front of his eyes? Not funny. People started calling home, and I told my girlfriend and the Spanish couple what was going on. The Spaniards said "Oh" and went back to sleep. Of course they did, they were Basque.
Anyway, I thought about general threats of bombs. How far from reality I was. So I started planning for the following day, when surely we'd be gone back to San Fran: delay the car rental, delay the hotel reservation, and the likes.
We landed. Not before being terrified again, when I saw an enormous white cloud coming from an engine, it seemed. Luckily before panicking - all alone - my small flight knowledge made me realize that we were just dropping the fuel, not to be too heavy for the landing...
Charles De Gaulle airport was hell. Special Forces everywhere, people on the phone crying and yelling. Getting bits of frantic conversations I understood about a plane crash and a building collapsed. The two things didn't have any correlation in my mind. Naive.
We collected our luggage and I noticed an Air France lady with some lists in her hands and a walkie-talkie. I immediately asked her "Excuse me, when will you give us our new tickets?" She patted me on the shoulder and said: "For today, just be happy that you're alive." Hmmm, strange lady.
I queued for a phone and called home. "Lore where are you?" My father said. Then he explained what had happened. Twice. I could not understand. At the moment, media were talking about 20.000 victims. War. An Air France flight seemed to be missing at some point. "Stay away from Paris!" my father told me.
We went to the bar and we saw the TV.
That was my holiday you motherfuckers.
Everyone was going to be flewn back home. We refused. I didn't want to go home. We searched for an hotel. We found one at Orly, where we got at 2 am. I was starving, and we went into a nearby bar, where they didn't have anything except alcohol and karaoke, and neither fitted my mood. In the hotel room, that had a beautiful view over a gigantic roundabout and the end of a piste, I found a good night chocolate on my pillow. My dinner.
On TV, there was "Bicentennial Man", a very joyful film in which everyone dies.
After a strange night, the following morning I got a rental car, and just a few hours later I was pulling slopers in Bas Cuvier, in the strangest session of my life.
I've never felt so close to other climbers in my life. I needed human contact, I wanted to shake hands, to hug.
So finally we spent three weeks touring the North of France, the D-day beaches, and Font. It was freezing and in my suitcase I only had tanks tops and beach shorts.

[mark s]

i was in worksop putting a fence around a farm shop
heard steve wright (i think) talking about a plane crashing and i was picturing the 2 seater type.
didnt see much about it until i got home.

still never less shocking when i see it on tv now.
the conspiracy nutters still do my head in,
dread to think what must have been going through the jumpers heads.been in a compartment fire that was 400/500 deg and another top to bottom in smoke,not nice places

[Wood FT]

I was at school, the teachers were all shuffling around and even that hard bastard mr spilsbury looked shocked. I didnt understand why people were crying at a burning building. Later on we all went and sat on the hay bails in the back field, we all seemed to think it meant war but didn't have a clue what that meant. What a horrid turning point in history.

[Pantontino]

I was stood in the upstairs office of the Llanberis branch of Outside (now the V12 building) looking out of the window towards Cloggy wondering what was happening, what it all meant. The phone kept ringing "have you heard?", everybody in a state of bewilderment.

[dave]

The Spaniards said "Oh" and went back to sleep. Of course they did, they were Basque.

I hope they both left the aircraft via different routes, since as we all know, you should never put all your Basques in one exit.