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Bigtime · 09-10-2021, 02:05 PM

This "flash-bulb" memory stuff is really fascinating.

I was working on my flight instructor rating at the time. I woke up for my day after the first plane hit, my mother was upstairs and told me a plane hit the WTC. I just figured it was a bad weather day in NYC and some poor schmuck in a Cessna hit it (remembering that the Empire State Building was hit by a B-25 back in the day in foggy weather).

I turned on the TV and started watching CNN, right away from the amount of smoke and damage I quickly removed my Cessna theory. Then from the live feed from the helicopter I suddenly see a 767 silhouette come into the frame and hit the second tower. Well that was it, goosebumps all over. Friends started calling me asking if knew what the heck was going on.

I had a flight later that morning, so after being glued to the TV until the towers came down I figured I might as well go the flight school at the airport (we were based at the international). Was hanging out with everyone else there in complete shock when the fax machine fired up and out came the fax from Nav Canada about the airspace being shut down and them enacting the SCATANA plan shutting everything down.

I hung around the airport with my scanner as the diversions started coming in, a lot of nervous voices from those pilots (especially the UA and American Airlines ones). A few even indicating to ATC that they were not going to put landing lights on, taking any little measure to be safe I guess.

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur, it happened to be a friends birthday and we spent the evening at Kilkenny up in Brentwood having some beers while the wall of tv's replayed everything over and over.

09-10-2021, 02:05 PM	#44
Bigtime Franchise Player Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Calgary Exp:	This "flash-bulb" memory stuff is really fascinating. I was working on my flight instructor rating at the time. I woke up for my day after the first plane hit, my mother was upstairs and told me a plane hit the WTC. I just figured it was a bad weather day in NYC and some poor schmuck in a Cessna hit it (remembering that the Empire State Building was hit by a B-25 back in the day in foggy weather). I turned on the TV and started watching CNN, right away from the amount of smoke and damage I quickly removed my Cessna theory. Then from the live feed from the helicopter I suddenly see a 767 silhouette come into the frame and hit the second tower. Well that was it, goosebumps all over. Friends started calling me asking if knew what the heck was going on. I had a flight later that morning, so after being glued to the TV until the towers came down I figured I might as well go the flight school at the airport (we were based at the international). Was hanging out with everyone else there in complete shock when the fax machine fired up and out came the fax from Nav Canada about the airspace being shut down and them enacting the SCATANA plan shutting everything down. I hung around the airport with my scanner as the diversions started coming in, a lot of nervous voices from those pilots (especially the UA and American Airlines ones). A few even indicating to ATC that they were not going to put landing lights on, taking any little measure to be safe I guess. The rest of the day was a bit of a blur, it happened to be a friends birthday and we spent the evening at Kilkenny up in Brentwood having some beers while the wall of tv's replayed everything over and over.