Where were you on September 11th 2001?

[brownbear]

In the Maldives. It was evening. I was getting a massage in the airport hotel. The TV was on in the bar and the massage rooms. In the beginning we thought it was a small plane...

The next morning I saw dancing in the street. Got to work and we were sending planes empty and hauling out tourists to the main island. It took 2-3 days before planes from Europe starting returning there. Then is was almost normal. Still a slower year. But not awful.

[Freddy_Francis]

I was in High School at the time. Funny thing is me and my dad would watch the 6:30am news before we would commute together. We didnt watch the news that morning he wasn't feeling well and slept in so we left the house around 7:30. when we picked up my friend he said he briefly saw something on the news of a building being hit. To be honest I heard World Trade Center not even relaizing that the "twin towers" I was familiar with were in fact the WTC. Went to school and saw the tv. All classes were basically side tracked that day. I spent most of it watching the tv's in the hall. Still creeps me out reading the paper released that day.

[iflyforpie]

I was outside chopping wood when my girlfriend (now my wife) phoned me to tell me to turn on the TV.

My PPL was signed off on Sept 9 and I only got two flights in before they shut down the skies.

However the evening shift at Kelowna Flightcraft still went ahead.

[itismedd]

I just took my little boy to the hospital for day surgery. The night before I was in Toronto helping to replace an R1 door on a 737-200. I arrived back in Halifax 12:00 Am Sept 11th. Couldnt believe what I was seeing.

[auroraborealis]

I was in highschool in Gander. Went home for lunch and had a call from a kid that lived down the street from me telling me that the "tallest planes in the world have been hit". I didn't believe him at first, he was known for lying and exaggerating. Turned on the TV, and saw what was happening.

Went back to school after lunch and the principal came on the PA telling us to clean out our lockers, and rearrange the classrooms. Once that was done, we headed home.

Then the planes started arriving... Tons of them. I was in air cadets, and was very interested in aviation, so I spent a couple of hours outside just looking at all the planes.

The next couple of days were filled with digging through our closets and cupboards at home to bring down whatever we could, and volunteering at the local schools and community centers.

I can't quite describe how I feel about those couple of days. The attacks were a horrible thing, but I was able to see my town and the communities around it come together like never before... I'm incredibly proud to be from Gander.

[ClevelandSteamer]

I was sleeping, I had called in sick from work cause I was out late the night before and couldn't be bothered. (I was a Teamster at the time).

My sister gets a phone call from my aunt that there has been a terrible incident involving airplanes. My mom and dad were in an airplane going to Amsterdam. She scared the shit out of us until they finally told us where and what was going on. Still pretty spooky......Parents were already in the ground at Schipole...or however you spell it.

[Matthew]

I was somewhere near Orillia @ 3500 feet in a 172 on floats.

I tuned in the ADF to 680 news Toronto out of boredom at about 10:00 am and nearly dropped a brick.

.....Landed shortly there after

Matt.

[Human Factor]

Spinning wrenches at Borek in Calgary... got laid off shortly thereafter. Received a call-back 4 weeks later but I was already destined for BC, job offer in hand.

[valvelifter]

I was sleeping in bed, when my wife called me and told me to turn on CNN.

What was even scarier was that I was in Newark the day before, and I changed my flight to return home on the 10th as I was originally supposed to fly back the 11th. On takeoff, we circled Manhatten at least 3 times in a holding pattern, and I remember a pair of Chinese tourists with cameras around their neck taking pictures of the towers in amazement. I too was pretty amazed at the height of the towers. I felt lucky b/c I was given an unexpected tour of the city.

A day later when I watched them crumble, it was a scary feeling remembering that I stared at them only the day before.

[atpilot]

I was doing a charter to the U.S. ATC contacted me and instructed us to "expedite our descent" into Toledo. We ended up there for 3 days.

[silentivan]

Still in High School at the time. Woke up at 6:30, turned on the morning news to see footage of a plane hitting a building. I thought it was one of the Die Hard movies or something. Spent the rest of the day wondering if the was the beginning of WWIII.

[Four1oh]

The next morning I saw dancing in the street.

saw it in person or on TV?

[Dr.Piper]

Changing an attitude gyro in a Cherokee Warrior. Remember it like yesterday.

Another good thread would be " Where were you when the power went out on August 14,2003?"

I turned the blower fan on in the shop and suddenly everything turned off. I thought I blew a circuit breaker.

[DC6driver]

I was center seat in the cockpit with WJ when they still used to let red pass holders on for free at 0630 Pacific YXX to YYC to YWG listening to all the chatter. Got grounded in YYC

[teacher]

Sleeping, got woken up by my dad to "come down quick and look at he TV!!" Spent the day glued to it. Was going to a job interview the next day. Got the job but the other pilot they were suppossed to hire did not. Got stuck there just under 3 years until they went bankrupt as the industry crumbled around them.

[lilfssister]

Though I answered this question 8 or 10 pages back, for some reason, it really HIT me today how it affected my life in the long run. Wow! I was sitting at the same computer desk as I was that morning, this morning, when the memorial stuff started on TV. What my life was like, and what I thought my life was going to be like on September 10th, 2001 and what it is on September 11th, 2008...so different. Not bad, just totally different.

[Moose47]

I was a U.S.A.F. Public Affairs Officer with a unit assigned to NORAD at 22 Wing North Bay.
Can't tell you enough how professional CANR and the fighter community handled a very difficult situation. Lot of long faces in my squadron that day )-:

[...]

2009 Bump

Here's a clip from comedian David Cross on his thoughts about Osama and 9/11...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6UOcmbHrDY

[slowcoaster]

I was working in a crappy warehouse job. I'd started at 6AM that morning. When the office staff started coming in around 8:30-9, I kept hearing rumblings about "plane crash" "towers" "terrorists" etc. At first I assumed that it was a minor story that they were blowing out of proportion, until I got home a couple hours later and turned on the TV. I spent the next day glued to the TV/computer.

[Sasquash]

(hz2p ... Couldn't understand afterwards why most Canadians thought the Americans in the towers deserved to die. Still don't.)

Sorry to see you feel that way, bud, but I, along with millions of Canadians and friends from around the world, feel nothing but utmost respect and sadness for the victims of 9-11 along with the sacrifice of all emergency response staff to this catastrophe. Tomorrow, once again, I will lift my glass for a toast to their memories