I was in the middle of my Flight Instructor rating, had a flight that was supposed to go around mid morning that day.
I was woken up by my mom, telling me a plane hit one of the WTC towers. I assumed it was bad weather in NYC and it was some guy in a small a/c that probably did it.
So I went upstairs where CNN was on, once I saw the amount of debris and smoke coming from the tower I was certain it was no small general aviation plane. Then about 15 minutes later I watched live as the second plane came into the shot from the news-copter. I remember pretty much yelling out loud "Jesus that's a 767!" as it hit the second tower.
At that point goosebumps and a chill all over, even thinking of it right now brings it back.
I kept watching as both towers fell, in absolute shock. Had some friends calling asking me what I made of all of it.
I then decided to get cleaned up and head to the flight school (which was at YYC, not Springbank). Got there just as the fax was coming through implementing the SCATANA plan, which was the closure of all Canadian airspace. I then proceeded to sit on the ramp and watch all the diverting flights land here.
I still have a copy of that SCATANA fax, and some other items from that day. It was also a friends birthday, and we did go out that evening and had a few beers and talked about everything that happened.
I was in grade 12 on my way to school. I met my buddy at Anderson station and he told me there was a terrorist attack in New York. I didn't think much of it, since I heard of terrorist attacks before and being a teenager I just didn't care. But when I got to my math class, I realized just how big a deal it was. The 2nd tower had just collapsed and since we all had cable tv in the classrooms, we just watched it unfold.
The thing I will remember the most though is during my religion class, my teacher started talking about how this event will be a defining moment in human history and that the world will be different from now on. At the time I didn't know what he meant, but boy was he right. I remember people during lunch hour just rambling about how WWIII was on it's way...
Kind of on a side note, my high school was downtown near Lindsay Park (St. Mary's High School). When that Erlton fire that burned down those condos in 2002, we all saw the plume of smoke rising from Lindsay park. Immediately, the entire school thought that there was a terrorist attack and ran over to see what was happening. Obviously it wasn't an attack, but it just goes to show how much on edge we all were due to those events.
i heard about the first plane hitting the tower as i got on the express bus to go to work, like other, i thought it was a small plane and kind of chuckled to myself when the news reporter mentioned that the president had been informed.......i tried to get onto the the internet when i got to work and was unable to, when i was finally able to pull up a picture of the WTC I almost fell out of my chair.......thye clsoed our office and I went home and parked myself in front of the TV for the next week - i found it difficult to tun off.
my office was a sub-compny of Marsh (a company that lost a number of people in the WTC) - and there was a website set up with pictures of those who were missing - the website allowed people to post their thoughts as well, and while I did not know anyone, it was tough reading......
in some ways i thought that event might change the world a bit - but i don't really think anything changed
It was the morning of the first day of classes during my last year at university. I remember starting the day following my usual morning routine: wake up, take a shower, prepare a cup of coffee, and check a few websites to see what's happening around the world. I was sharing an apartment with four other students at the time, and I was the first of us to see the news a few minutes after the first tower was hit. There was so much confusion at the time, and the initial reports were unclear if it was a small GA plane or a large jetliner. Nobody at that point could say if it was a freak accident or a terrorist attack. Then the second plane hit and was caught on camera live by numerous news crews. I emailed my parents immediately and told them to stop whatever they were doing and get to a TV now.
I left for class shortly after, and my fellow students and I were discussing the attacks before the prof arrived. Being a news junkie, I was one of the few people in that class who knew bin Laden's name (from the USS Cole and embassy bombings), and I speculated that he was the most likely suspect. The prof came in a few minutes later, made a few brief remarks, handed out the syllabus for the semester, then told us to go watch the news for the rest of his scheduled class time.
A few friends from class and I headed to the campus pub where they were showing CNN on the televisions. There was a fairly large group of students already there, which would normally be unheard of at 10:00AM on a Tuesday morning. It was here that we first heard about the attack on the Pentagon and that United Airlines was "very concerned" about another plane with which they were unable to establish communication (this was United 93, which later crashed in Pennsylvania after the passengers fought back against the hijackers). While here we saw both towers come down live on television. There were loud gasps when it happened, and some people were crying.
The rest of the day was a blur. I had another class at 3:30, but instead of letting us out early, this prof used the day's events as a teaching point; it was a computer networks course, so he talked about how the Internet was designed to continue functioning even in the event of a nuclear war, but network congestion was killing sites like CNN and most other online news outlets.
After class, I went to a friend's apartment where we continued watching the news (flipping between CNN and CBC Newsworld) until about 1:00AM or so when I finally went home and got some sleep.
Why are you starting a 9/11 thread already? It's not even the right month yet. Geez, some people can't wait to capitalize on a tragedy and get attention for themselves.
Why are you starting a 9/11 thread already? It's not even the right month yet. Geez, some people can't wait to capitalize on a tragedy and get attention for themselves.
That's funny coming from the guy who couldn't wait to capitalize on the fact that he "overpaid" for pop at Superstore.
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I was in grade 8 at the time, I remember waking up watching Global news and it was right after the first plane hit. Once i got to school the other planes had hit the WTC and all day we had tvs on in most of the classes. I got home and was glued to all the news channels to see what was going on .
For me it was my first day of school at Mount Royal. I normally don't turn on the TV in the morning but that day I decided to waste some time. I saw the second plane hit live about two minutes later. At the time I didn't really understand what had happened, as it looked just like a movie scene. I think I was so desensitized from TV, movie and video games that it didn't phase me at all.
I went to school and many students were gathered around TVs. I remember one reporter saying it was the biggest attack on US soil in history. I thought they were exaggerating because they were American.
That night I was working at Boston Pizza and, like all the servers there, I was watching the TV and speculating. It had started to hit me what had gone on, and I wondered if it would create another world war.
As time went on I still didn't really understand why they did it or what the significance was. It was more due to me not taking an interest into it. Last year on the anniversary of the attacks I decided to watch a few youtube clips since I hadn't watched any video of it since the day it happened. I was shocked at how messed up it was. I spent over four hours and couldn't get over how shocking it was to watch a plane fly into a building. I wish I had grasped this the day it happened, but I had no idea what was going on outside my bubble. I definitely regret that.
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Jesus this site these days
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He just seemed like a very nice person. I loved Squiggy.
I still remember that one terrifying angle of the second hit when the camera was focused on two cops standing on the sidewalk and you saw the plane go screaming over the New York cityscape, and it was so big and it looked like you could reach up and grab it and stop it from doing anything.
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I remember getting off the C-train on the way to work and seeing a crowd of people outside A-Channel looking at their TV screens. Until the 2nd plane hit there was still some debate going on about whether it was an accident or a terrorist attack. Most of the day it was hard to get much in the way of updates because the news websites were so overloaded with traffic and we didn't have TV or radio in the office.
It's kind of a tough situation though, it's not as if the first responders are being specifically excluded, it's that the ceremony is limited only to family of the victims. Phrase it like that and the outrage diminishes doesn't it? Obviously the people who responded and survived deserve recognition, but there's a need to draw a line at some point, and I think keeping it limited to the much smaller contingent of family only makes sense.
It's kind of a tough situation though, it's not as if the first responders are being specifically excluded, it's that the ceremony is limited only to family of the victims. Phrase it like that and the outrage diminishes doesn't it? Obviously the people who responded and survived deserve recognition, but there's a need to draw a line at some point, and I think keeping it limited to the much smaller contingent of family only makes sense.
Its a pathetic excuse! "Oh well we dont have enough room for them" Thats complete crap! Its the 10th anniversary they deserve to part of the ceremonies on 9-11 not at a later date.
Its a pathetic excuse! "Oh well we dont have enough room for them" Thats complete crap! Its the 10th anniversary they deserve to part of the ceremonies on 9-11 not at a later date.
And who do you exclude to make room? Families can only bring one child?
I see nothing wrong with limiting a service to dedicate a memorial to 2,753 people killed at that site being limited to the immediate family of those 2,753 people.
And who do you exclude to make room? Families can only bring one child?
I see nothing wrong with limiting a service to dedicate a memorial to 2,753 people killed at that site being limited to the immediate family of those 2,753 people.
Just saying but im sure lots of the first responders that lost friends and co-workers that day would of considered them "family" also.
