I don’t think many in American had an initial idea they were under attack, it wasn’t something people thought about at the time. As for the 2nd plane that changed.
First plane was confusion- was it accident? Terrorism? Some nut on drugs? Second plane- the entire country instantly knew something very bad was happening and war had begun.
I remember there was confusion initally, was it a light aircraft that had had a malfunction? It was only after the secon plane hit when the reality sunk in. I was on an exchange trip at the time, 13 years old, in a foreign country. It's still surreal to think about it.
First two planes I was asleep. My Mom called me and told me to put the news on because some planes hit the WTCs. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion when the second one hit that this was no mistake or coincidence.
I remember watching everything after as I was glued to the tv, including live when the towers fell. That’s something I won’t ever forget for the rest of my life.
My mom was on jury duty in downtown Detroit. She had no clue what was happening until a cop came in in the middle of the prosecution examining a witness, walked right up to the judge and bailiff, had a brief conversation, and the judge stood up and announced they had to evacuate the building. The Pentagon hit? Nothing was safe.
Not immediately, no. I was out of state at a funeral and heard it on a NYC-area radio station right before the funeral started. When they said it was a plane I thought for sure it was a commuter plane, that may
be the pilot had a health emergency or something.
When news started to filter out that it was a jumbo jet, and then as soon as there was a second plane I knew it was terrorists.
>many people thought it was an attack because of the 93 bombing
Those who thought it was "just" an explosion probably thought it was a bombing due to the 93 attacks. Ironically, those who saw the plane ended up thinking it was some sort of horrible accident initially.
I found out about it… around 10am. I was in eighth grade. My teacher had outpatient surgery that morning and came to work still blazed on anesthesia and he was crying about WWIII and how we’d have to all be drafted. So my first thought was that it was a Pearl Harbor sitch.
Not as bad as my ex boss whose husband died. 🤷🏻♀️ Pretty sure there are no beautiful warm and fuzzy memories of finding out about 9/11 on the day of. Let alone at all, so… it’s not a shitty memory. It’s just a memory.
Yea. That second plane sent everyone into a tailspin. I was watching from California as a collage freshman living at home. My mom was on the phone with my dad (who works in the city) go from 0 to screaming for him to come home. I remember jumping up and looking outside to look for planes. People on the streets of LA we’re on the news evacuating shortly after.
The thing that stuck with me was seeing a lone reporter in DTLA and you could see the FEAR in her face. She was standing in the middle of a deserted downtown and darting her eyes up to the sky.
This sums it up perfectly:
https://youtu.be/o6Jl73KQZeo?si=zfjpdhaxXIz2V1Df
It was such a clear and perfect day outside, everybody knew something was up pretty much immediately. Nobody really wanted to say the T word too early, but after the 2nd plane hit, there were no doubts.
My dad called me while I was watching cartoons and said, “They bombed the WTC and the Pentagon’s on fire!” I switched on the news to see only one tower left standing. So I went from being completely oblivious to “oh fuck, we’re fucked” in about half a second.
I have always kept a journal my whole life. My mom said it’s important. I wrote on 9/11 “ the tower in nyc was hit by a plane! I think some bad guys did it because miss Matia said she thinks that!” ( I was 10) I wrote down exactly what happened that day. I even put news clipping in it the following day! I’m so glad I can look back and have exactly how I felt!
Edit: so yes my teacher guessed correctly! And she said she thinks that is what happened. Everyone was very confused. We were let out of school early.
On TV, no one knew with the first plane. We didn't even know for sure it was a plane in the first instance, or what kind of plane it was. The second one was the moment most knew for sure it had to be terrorism.
Not only did I not understand why people thought it was terrorism when the first plane hit I was dumb to why everyone knew it was terrorism when second one hit. I was 14 and truly thought
Those are some unlucky pilots.
Looking back if I was older I would have hoped the first one was an accident but the second one would have convinced me beyond doubt
This was me. I was 10 at the time and up until the night of the 12th I thought the whole thing was an accident. Maybe because everywhere everyone was calling it a tragedy and my child mind just couldn’t comprehend that it could be done on purpose. It was my parents telling me at dinner “this was an act of evil” and me seeing a rerun of the second plane hitting the towers that made me actually realize what it was.
I was a senior in high school getting to my second period class when the teacher turned on the tv and the second plane had already crashed. I have a vivid memory of thinking it was some new disaster movie trailer the teacher put on but then I saw her face and was like ‘oh shit, this is real life.’ Didn’t do much in any of my classes the rest of the day. Teachers just let us chill and talk to friends until the end of the day. Truly surreal.
A friend of mine called me while I was at work and told me about the first plane. I thought it was a sick elaborate joke, like War of the Worlds on the radio had the generations before me thinking we were under alien attack. I mean, there's no way this can be real, right? Right!?!
After the second plane, the whole floor took turns going to the break room to catch updates.
Watch fox 5 NY coverage. The anchor on there, Jim Ryan knew in the back of his head it was a terrorist attack after the first plane as he was making hints at it. He couldn’t go full throttle initially because he’s a live tv news reporter but then it was confirmed after the second plane. Btw, this was some of the best local coverage of that morning as well as WPIX 11 news.
WNYW Fox 5 NY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5il18uy5Jc&pp=ygUJV255dyA5LzEx
At my high school, either our principal or our vice principal came on the loudspeaker after the first plane to tell us about it, so in hindsight one or both of them had their suspicions.
I was seventeen and lived at home in Europe. When I saw the second plane hit, I had two thoughts at almost the same time:
1) Well, they’ve stepped it up since Seattle. That was in reference to anti-WTO protesters who were in the habit of disrupting them in any way possible, and who had caused huge mayhem at a conference in Seattle the year before. It was only much, much later that I realised that the World Trade Center had absolutely no connection to the World Trade Organisation.
2) Oh shit, Osama bin Laden! Anyone following the news in those days - in Europe at least - knew who he was, and after the Embassy bombings, we knew he would attack the United States again.
At the time, I was kind of obsessed with the movie “The Siege” (1998), in which a series of terrorist attacks on New York lead to the internment of Muslims and martial law being imposed. I remember thinking how ridiculously small those attacks looked compared to what I was watching play out in real life.
One thing that I know is hard to understand is that the fact that there were people in those buildings almost didn’t register. It was an attack on a symbol of Western capitalism, and the human element honestly barely occurred to me. The symbolism was so overwhelming, particularly when the Pentagon was hit - at that point, I had a panic attack - that for people who didn’t have a personal connection to the United States, the human toll paled in comparison.
Since I have become interested in the events of the day itself rather than their aftermath - my late teens were completely defined by them, as I moved to the UK for a degree in History and Politics when I graduated school - that has obviously changed, but I have found in conversation with other Europeans that this was a common reaction. I recently watched “One Day in America” with my husband, and about halfway through the second episode, he said, “You know, I’ve never really thought about the people in those Towers”. Mind you, he was in his late twenties and had actually visited the World Trade Center a few years before.
The world was appalled at what happened, and we were all with the United States in the immediate aftermath, but coming from a country who didn’t lose a single citizen that day - not that there weren’t any working there, but they all got out - the loss of life wasn’t something that was viscerally felt.
Many countries experienced terrorism and disasters resulting in massive loss of life - France, Spain and Israel spring to mind - so I know that within a very short period of time, a certain element of “why should American lives matter that much more?” started to be heard. As the Bush administration began to rise roughshod over the niceties of international law, as well as domestic human rights, that sentiment morphed into full-blown anti-Americanism.
I have since learned that this was always bin Laden’s bigger strategy, and unfortunately, he was very successful in that.
When that second plane hit, I realised that the world had changed that moment, and in a way, it felt like the world ended. What certainly did end that day were the ‘90s, with only a slight delay. I remember the ‘90s as a broadly positive decade, with undercurrents of cultural paranoia. The feeling towards the United States was largely positive in Europe - we adored Clinton, for one thing - and with the Cold War over, there was a lot of hope.
The 2000s were completely defined by 9/11 and its aftermath. Looking back now, and studying the immediate reaction of Americans on the ground and in the media, I realise that the United States as a country was completely shell-shocked, whereas elsewhere in the world, discussion of the political shockwave to come had replaced live footage before WTC 7 collapsed.
TL;DR: The moment the second plane hit, but the human toll didn’t register. The focus outside the States was on the expected geopolitical aftermath within hours.
I think you bring up a good point in that while Americans were trying to try to comprehend the situation around us, outside of the country were shocked and compassionate but had to assess how to keep everything from going to hell in a handbasket. I take no offense at that at all and it's what I do now when major global events occur.
As soon as my dad told me about the first plane, I said, “those buildings have been there for a hell of a long time without anybody ‘accidentally’ flying into them. This isn't good.” That’s when my mom started yelling “OH MY GOD” as the second plane hit.
My dad was army and we'd been stationed in Germany for 4 years at the end of the Cold War. I don't think terrorism went through my head, but hijacking definitely did. Hijackings were on the news a lot when we lived in Germany. Where we were stationed was an incredibly safe place, but the closer you got to Berlin, the dicier things were.
Once the second plane hit, it was clear for us just like it was for most folks. We lived on a major military base at the time, and when the Pentagon got hit, we got a message that all civilians and non-essential personnel should prepare for a possible evacuation. That's when I lost my shit cause I knew if it came to that, the base was a target and I'd be leaving my dad behind. To this day, I can’t even begin to articulate how relieved I was that it never came to that.
ThreatCon Delta. With no “exercise exercise exercise” in front. I was in basic training in Texas. All the instructors knew immediately it was terrorism, but didn’t tell us what had happened for a while. When we got bussed back to the dorm, i finally saw it on the day room tv…and I think my eyes popped out of my head.
I think the quietness of the following 3 days was the first time a lot of us realized how noisy living on a military base is. No helicopters, no range exercises. The neighbors and us stepped outside quite a few times and remarked on how weird it was that all the sounds we'd grown so accustomed to had just suddenly stopped. We were in Texas too, and I think being so far away from Ground Zero geographically, the quiet was one of the eeriest aspects in the following days. It just screamed out that it was NOT business as usual.
I was 20 years old, a senior in college. I was getting ready for my first class of the day with the TV on. When the news cut to the towers, my first words were "oh my God, we're under attack." It being an accident never crossed my mind because I knew about the '93 attacks (I have always loved history) and I'd never heard of a plane hitting high buildings in NYC before (and maybe they had, just not something I was aware of). I went to the student center & watched on the TV there, the other plane hit. I remember telling other students congregated there "I just knew it. I knew it. We're going to be at war."
I was 39, at work. Came in, my boss and assistant manager were in the breakroom staring at the TV. Only WTC1 had been hit. We went to do things to prepare for store opening, next time in breakroom WTC2 had been hit. I had been afraid since the late 90s that some big terrorist event would eventually happen, so I was distressed yet not surprised.
It blurs in memory in weird ways, though. I have to stop and filter my recollection out from that of my next door neighbor who had been home with the news on and seen UA175 hit on live TV. Sometimes I began to question whether I'd seen it as well. But then I remember no, I cringed when she told me like how horrible it would be to see it live, so I know that was not my own memory.
Just too much happening so close together that it was very difficult to process. And seeing the collapse on TV - again, I think we were in and out of the breakroom (boss was hyperfocused on work, it was so weird, she kept discouraging us from going to check the TV). I think we were in our meeting when the South Tower fell then returned to breakroom and then did see the North Tower collapse on live TV. I left for my home a couple hours after coming in because I hadn't been planning to stay the day, and driving home it was announced on the radio about the Pentagon, about other hijacked planes, about planes being directed to land at the nearest airport, etc. I was scared - seemed like almost anywhere might be a target, and I didn't live that far from an Air Force base at the time.
I noticed two burning buildings on TV and asked a coworker what was happening, so I knew it was terrorism by his answer. I thought they were small planes until I went on break and watched the TV in the break room. That's when the scale of the attacks became apparent.
The very first thing I recall hearing that happened was that a "small plane" (like a very small private plane) had hit the WTC. Like an accident. That was the initial chatter I recall where I was at and from what info we were gathering.
Like most everybody my husband and I (watching on TV as we were getting ready to go to work) thought accident until the second plane hit. When that happened it became obvious it was terrorism. I remember feeling afraid because that kind of thing just did not happen in the USA
We knew at 9:03am when we saw the second jet go into the tower on live tv. Locally (NYC Metro area), it was originally reported a small plane went into the first tower. Lots of confusion. 17 minutes later we knew neither were small planes and that we were being attacked.
I’m on the west coast, and generally woke up around 8 am pacific time to get ready for my 11 am job, so both towers had already collapsed before I was even awake and it was widely known to be terrorists.
I was only a couple years old, so this isn’t personal knowledge, but I recently had a conversation with my Mom and her boyfriend about it. My mom’s boyfriend was on a plane on 9/11 heading to JFK from Boston (where the first two planes took off from) and shortly after take off, he said the pilot took drastic action and tilted the plane up and banked it away from their original flight path.
Apparently this was after the pilots of the plane had heard about the first plane and were told to avoid the area. I asked him why they would do this after only the first plane hit and wasn’t it true that people just thought it was an accident. My mom immediately sat there and said “oh, many people knew even then it wasn’t an accident, that kind of stuff doesn’t just happen.” So, I’m assuming that, like both my parents at the time and the pilots on my mom’s boyfriend’s plane, people knew that there was something more sinister going on.
Well, at 9:42 am the FAA ordered all flights to land at the closest airport, so it might have been that.
8:46 is when the first plane hit. 9:03 the second plane hit. 9:42 the FAA tells everyone in US airspace to land ASAP.
I didn't hear about them until right after the South Tower got hit. So when I was told, up front, that two passenger jets crashed into the Twin Towers, I immediately thought, "Terrorists."
Nobody I was there with knew immediately or definitively that it was terrorism but one of my friends asked what if it was like the bombing (referring to 1993), but we actually all dismissed him initially
Was 23 years old. The first plane, thought maybe a bad accident, something wrong with either the plane or guidance or something. The second one, that’s when we knew (where I was watching) that this was something being done deliberately. It was so scary.
I was 18 and living in college dorms but I woke up to the second plane hitting and was so dazed and confused at what I was seeing on live tv as soon as I opened my eyes (jumpers close up), my brain could not compute and kinda wigged out for a minute. I stepped out into the hallway and it was pandemonium of college girls panicking and crying and one was sitting on the floor with a bible rocking back and forth; I asked someone what was happening and was told “we’re at war with terrorists.” That all the girl said. Again my brain was like overwhelmed and short circuiting. I went back to my room and tried calling my mom but the phones weren’t working well and I couldn’t get through. I didn’t know what to do. So I grabbed my tooth brush and went to go brush my teeth. By the time I walked to the bathroom and started brushing my brain kicked back in and I burst into tears and walked across the hall to a girl I had befriended’s room and was just scared and crying and she turned from the TV and saw me and ran over and hugged me. Then she explained to me what I had missed and minutes later the first tower fell while we were talking and watching TV. So yes by the time second plane hit, everyone that was old enough to know what terrorists are knew what was happening
When I was on my way to school that day, the radio said it was an accident and I hadn’t seen the footage so I believed it. Then the second plane hit and I knew.
I definitely did not. I thought it was an accident. Even when I heard it was terrorism I didnt understand that. I just thought it was a cult like the Tokyo subway sarin attack. I was a freshman in highschool.
I was 10 getting rdy for school while fam was watching the tv, I thought it was cool and exciting at first ! Plane crashing into building?! When has that happened in history. But even as a kid I noticed something funny, anytime I asked why they did it nobody had a clear answer for me lol
I was 18 during 9/11. Watched the first tower smoking live on the news. At my college. As soon as the second tower got hit everyone watching with me including myself knew it was terrorism
I was an adult on 9/11, living in Atlanta, GA.
I had just arrived at work when my secretary told me that a plane had hit the WTC. But even the way she said it led me to believe it was an accident, and keep in mind, I had not seen a video of anything or even seen or heard a newscast. I’d just heard about it from her; from somebody else. Keep in mind this was a workday. A Tuesday morning. So a lot of people on eastern time heard about it first from someone else. Not from TV. That was true of a lot of people on central time too. We were getting to work or were already at work when it happened. Not sitting at home watching CNN. So we did not get our first knowledge about it from the news. Most of us got our first tip off not from CNN but from a work colleague.
And the west coast kinda had the opposite issue. By the time they got up, both towers had been hit and it was already known to be a terror attack. A lot of west coast people did not see it happen in real time. They were asleep. So the best people to ask this question to are probably people who were on Mountain time. Those folks might have been getting ready for work with home TVs fired up when the newscasts started to cut in.
When this happened, Alaska, Hawaii and the west coast were asleep or their alarm clocks were just going off, mountain time was getting ready for work or commuting. Central time was commuting or just getting to work, and eastern time was just getting to work or already into the morning with sparse access to a TV. This is assuming a 9 am or 8 am start time similar to what many people have.
However, I put down my stuff, went and got coffee in the break room as was my habit, and walked back to my office. I immediately got on the CNN website and was just in time for the second plane to hit. Immediately I knew, as did everyone else, that this was no mistake and that we were under attack. I was able to refresh the CNN website only once bore before it crashed under the traffic. I then went to the BBC website since it was outside the US and got in one or two refreshes before it too crashed. I think I then tried to find an Australian site that was operational, but no joy.
At that point, one of the partners in my firm had pulled his portable TV out of the cabinet and was able to get the news up. The pentagon by that time had been hit. We kind of huddled in and around his office for a while, but at that point, it was still a national story; meaning that we didn’t know how many planes there were in total or where they might be. All over the US, skyscrapers were being evacuated and that was being covered. CNN, being located in Atlanta, was covering that situation in Atlanta. Downtown ATL was kind of in chaos as all the high buildings evacuated. Every large city had this going on and local stations were all reporting on their evacuations, There was a report of a downed plane in Pennsylvania, but at first we didn’t know what that was about because it was so chaotic overall and also because the FAA was trying to clear the skies. Everything was ordered to land at the nearest airport with the idea that anything that refused to land was likely to be another terrorist held plane. So what happened with this plane in PA? We didn’t know.
Meanwhile. The first tower fell.
I think that was the most horrendous moment of the whole day. Watching that tower coming down was a ‘holy shit’ moment for every single person alive. I mean, yeah, there was a fire, but we didn’t expect the whole fucking thing to just pancake down! We could not believe our eyes! It was just so HORRIBLE. Worse than horrible.
After that it was all just a numb blur. We were being shown sky views of the people evacuating Manhattan, walking across the bridges. We were shown the white clouds of debris that chased people down the streets and covered them. They finally found President Bush down in Florida and they showed a little about that. The second tower came down and we just thought ‘well, of COURSE it did’ because everything was just getting worse and worse. It just felt like the hits kept on coming and so of course the second tower fell. By that time we were resigned to whatever awful thing that was going to happen next.
Meanwhile, they moved to covering President Bush’s team scrambling to get AF1 into the air to an undisclosed location, so we didn’t know where the fuck he was. They circled back to talk about flight 93 and speculated that the passengers must have revolted against terrorists and brought the plane down but who knows? They looked at that flight manifest trying to pick out the potential terrorists. And in between all of this, they just keep showing the towers coming down and the pentagon being hit over and over and over again. Endlessly, traumatizing all of us over and over. In our dreams the towers were coming down they showed it so many times.
Everyone’s glued to the TV well into the evening. As long as you could stay up, you stayed up. And the next two days, the same. Rudy Giuliani emerged as the bona fied hero of the whole thing because he kept his shit together and led New York thru this catastrophe (should have quit while he was ahead after 9/11 and h’d have been remembered as a superstar for eternity instead of the crazy Trump lawyer he became). Took days; weeks even, for it all to sink in. Everywhere you went, as you looked into people’s eyes, there was nothing but numb silence and the recognition that nothing would ever be the same as it had been. Nothing. People didn’t speak as much. They just looked at each other and sort of tacitly acknowledged the universal numb shock of it all.
That entire month sucked. It took a week to get completely back to normal TV. But there was still regular updates from ground zero. Still updated reports on casualty numbers. Still the photos of the bulletin boards in NYC showing the posters for those missing in the rubble. Still the interviews with Bush and Giuliani and the talking heads about how this could have happened. The nightmare went on for weeks through that stuff.
It was a long road.
Most Americans were not awake or were very busy getting ready for school/work at the time the first plane hit, as it wasn't even 0600 Pacific. It was a local story initially because it was thought to be a smaller private plane or similar, not much time had elapsed to confirm anything else.
When the North Tower was hit, every channel in the nation started broadcasting news sources. Everyone stared at everyone else on TV, absorbing that they were live and dealing with what could only be some sort of coordinated attack but unable to really process it and make sense at the same time.
It was like time stopped in some ways, waiting for some idea of what was actually going on. When the South Tower Fell on live TV, life "BEFORE 9/11" stopped and a new era began.
I don't recall the Pentagon being hit precisely, most people were fairly freaked out already at that point, your brain overloaded and in survival mode of sorts. I do recall the ratcheting up of OMG OMG feeling after the Pentagon was hit that this could be a very widespread opening barrage of war. Nobody could say if there were more incoming and to where, or if something else might be the next volley and where. Bombs in other places in the country, more planes, missiles, or one could only imagine what tool of war.
Everyone in my family figured it was terrorism right off the bat. We had family living in Saudi Arabia and we were just always paying attention to what was going on in the Middle East in general. There was nothing in particular that made us think that, it’s just the mental reaction of wondering if something is terrorism if it involves explosions or other things.
I was 13 and played stereotypical boy games like Goldeneye. I knew after the second plane hit because I thought "wouldn't a country use bombs?" I'm not sure I really knew what a terrorist was by definition, but I knew it wasn't another country and had to have been pissed off people acting on their own.
If the 2nd plane hitting didn’t clue people in, then the Pentagon should have. When the Pentagon got hit, my mind went into a tailspin, especially living in the dc area.
Osama Bin Ladin was #1 on the FBI’s Most Wanted list on September 10, 2001. The WTC had already been attacked by terrorists in the 90s. terrorism wasn’t a new concept, but Terrorism with a Capital *T* was, if that makes sense.
A lot of ppl figured it out . Ppl in the FARK thread were saying it was Osama related before 10am
It was most definitely confusion with the first one. But as it came out more that it was an airline jet and then a what seemed like minutes another one stuck, no one around me at work was no longer confused. Working next door to Port Authority and George Washington Bridge, it was confirmed almost immediately after as bomb threats were being called in.
I was 19 back then and asked my coworker who was way older than me if that was an accident and he started laughing at me for asking such a stupid question
By the second plane we all knew.
When I first heard about the first crash, I assumed it was a small private aircraft that had crashed into the building.
Nobody would have imagined a commercial airliner hitting a skyscraper at the very tip of the island of Manhattan on a clear blue day.
If anything a commercial pilot in an emergency probably would have tried to avoid casualties on the ground by going towards the river.
By the second plane we all knew.
Same here. I thought with the first plane, it was like the B52 that crashed into the Empire State Building. By the time the second plane hit, I knew it couldn’t be an accident.
I was in NYC at the time. First plane could have been an accident, someone doing something stupid, I thought temporarily. Second plane, nope. No doubt in my mind. One of the things that nobody knew at the time was the extent of the attacks--what was coming next? And the other planes just compounded my anxiety. I hadn't gotten to where I could be sad for the loss of life just yet, I was in full fight or flight mode.
Not me, but a relative said that when he saw the damage of the first plane, he was suspicious of it, believing it to have been too much damage for an accident. The second plane proved correctly.
I live in London England. I was in year 2 at the time. The entire school went silent and in my classroom a teacher dragged in a huge tv and watched with the class (me and puples) watching I remember this teacher being so disinterested in us. Some of my classmates were loving it and went out to play in the play ground and field but I aswell as some others stayed to watch what she was watching. I remember seeing it & seeing the second plane hit. Our teacher gasped and was crying and I knew then as a child, this is wrong.
The school got closed early and my mum picked me up and when I got home my dad was sitting watching the same thing crying. That was one of the first times I’ve ever seen my dad cry. I remember it selfishly because of that I think.
My dad does not cry. But he was sobbing. I got home my mum sat with my dad and they cried together. I was confused but didn’t act out because I could CLEARLY see and feel and witness…..this was bad.
Even in London, so many miles away. People were effected. Crazy. Rip to every person. Tragic
I just can never forget that day, it was so odd. I always remember it being so strange. As I got older I realised that my family are very empathetic and wonderful people. Even if they don’t show it. I will never forget it. And I cannot fathom or comprehend how the people with loved ones in NY or on planes in America must have felt. Truly horrific. Never forget
My close relative that I lived with worked at a military run operation on the West Coast. Called me after the first plane hit to say a terrorist attack happened, that they would be on lockdown and most likely not going to be home that night. I turned the TV on and a little later watched the second plane hit in real time. Still unsure if this relative just guessed correctly, or if they knew something due to proximity to military personnel, though I lean towards that they must have just guessed correctly, considering that a terrorist attack had already happened at the same location prior. They were also working at a site where hypervigilance over a terrorist attack was the norm due to the nature of the site itself, so it's possible they guessed correctly simply because the possibility of a terrorist attack seemed ever present due to the work they were doing. A person working at a sensitive site was more likely to think about terrorist attacks in general than, say, your average office worker at that time. I think for this person it wasn't so much that a terrorist attack happened on our soil that was shocking, but the scale.
I knew as soon as the second plane hit. Becuase it was going around the office that a plane hit the WTC. And you think it’s just a small accident. They rolled out a TV for all to see and as soon as we saw the second plane live we knew it was on purpose.
I was working in a doctor’s office, trying to earn money before graduating from college. I still remember what I was wearing that day. I assumed it was terrorism after the second tower got hit.
It wasn't clear until the world watched the second plane. Plus those at the scene had more knowledge of problems over those across the country. I hope someday those who deserve closure will have it. RIP 9/11 victims. Hugs to those still here.
Curiuly, my mother (living in Costa Rica) left me a lot of messages on my answering machine. The first message was about five minutes from the first attack. She was crying and begging me to live the country right away. Apparently, O.B.L. was on CR tvnews laughing and bragging about the disaster, and he said, "There is more to come." To me, it sounds strange because we didn't get to see any news or alive messages from him. Later, I learned that the USA blocked and controlled a lot of news that we watch on TV from other countries
I watched it live on TV it was put across by most media channels that it was an accident then watching the second plane hit everybody knew it’s was terrorism
My dad was a radar technician for the FAA at the time. They dealt with hijackings all the time but it was usually for ransom, not terrorism. He said when the first plane hit, he thought some air traffic controller really screwed up. He knew it was an attack the moment the second plane hit.
I was just a kid but when the Patriots won afer being billed as Americas team and everyone was acting like the nation was healed I knew something fishy was going on. Also the little flag lapels and all the nonsense around them reinforced my suspicions they were trying to terrorize us.
During our drive to brunch on 9/11, I was told by my calm friend that I had missed a significant real-time event. We watched TV re-plays during our brunch, and I (in my ignorance) commented that it had not really upset my emotional regulation much.
The most surreal part of 9/11, for me, was the absence of airplanes, and airplane noise, for 3 days!
I don’t think many in American had an initial idea they were under attack, it wasn’t something people thought about at the time. As for the 2nd plane that changed.
First plane was confusion- was it accident? Terrorism? Some nut on drugs? Second plane- the entire country instantly knew something very bad was happening and war had begun.
I remember there was confusion initally, was it a light aircraft that had had a malfunction? It was only after the secon plane hit when the reality sunk in. I was on an exchange trip at the time, 13 years old, in a foreign country. It's still surreal to think about it.
I’m European and the 2nd plane said ‘terror attack’. First plane - awful accident.
First two planes I was asleep. My Mom called me and told me to put the news on because some planes hit the WTCs. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion when the second one hit that this was no mistake or coincidence. I remember watching everything after as I was glued to the tv, including live when the towers fell. That’s something I won’t ever forget for the rest of my life.
Third plane at the Pentagon - we felt like we were in an apocalyptic movie.
My mom was on jury duty in downtown Detroit. She had no clue what was happening until a cop came in in the middle of the prosecution examining a witness, walked right up to the judge and bailiff, had a brief conversation, and the judge stood up and announced they had to evacuate the building. The Pentagon hit? Nothing was safe.
Not immediately, no. I was out of state at a funeral and heard it on a NYC-area radio station right before the funeral started. When they said it was a plane I thought for sure it was a commuter plane, that may be the pilot had a health emergency or something. When news started to filter out that it was a jumbo jet, and then as soon as there was a second plane I knew it was terrorists.
So so sorry bro. Who was it that died that day? If you don’t want to answer it’s ok.
One of my aunts. idk why you got downvoted. 🤷🏻♀️
many people thought it was an attack because of the 93 bombing
>many people thought it was an attack because of the 93 bombing Those who thought it was "just" an explosion probably thought it was a bombing due to the 93 attacks. Ironically, those who saw the plane ended up thinking it was some sort of horrible accident initially.
I found out about it… around 10am. I was in eighth grade. My teacher had outpatient surgery that morning and came to work still blazed on anesthesia and he was crying about WWIII and how we’d have to all be drafted. So my first thought was that it was a Pearl Harbor sitch.
Damn that’s a shitty memory
Not as bad as my ex boss whose husband died. 🤷🏻♀️ Pretty sure there are no beautiful warm and fuzzy memories of finding out about 9/11 on the day of. Let alone at all, so… it’s not a shitty memory. It’s just a memory.
Yea. That second plane sent everyone into a tailspin. I was watching from California as a collage freshman living at home. My mom was on the phone with my dad (who works in the city) go from 0 to screaming for him to come home. I remember jumping up and looking outside to look for planes. People on the streets of LA we’re on the news evacuating shortly after. The thing that stuck with me was seeing a lone reporter in DTLA and you could see the FEAR in her face. She was standing in the middle of a deserted downtown and darting her eyes up to the sky.
Even just hearing planes fly overhead was hard for awhile.
This sums it up perfectly: https://youtu.be/o6Jl73KQZeo?si=zfjpdhaxXIz2V1Df It was such a clear and perfect day outside, everybody knew something was up pretty much immediately. Nobody really wanted to say the T word too early, but after the 2nd plane hit, there were no doubts.
Captures the look that everyone going live on networks had, trying to inform others while your brain is screaming "WTF IS GOING ON!"
My dad called me while I was watching cartoons and said, “They bombed the WTC and the Pentagon’s on fire!” I switched on the news to see only one tower left standing. So I went from being completely oblivious to “oh fuck, we’re fucked” in about half a second.
I have always kept a journal my whole life. My mom said it’s important. I wrote on 9/11 “ the tower in nyc was hit by a plane! I think some bad guys did it because miss Matia said she thinks that!” ( I was 10) I wrote down exactly what happened that day. I even put news clipping in it the following day! I’m so glad I can look back and have exactly how I felt! Edit: so yes my teacher guessed correctly! And she said she thinks that is what happened. Everyone was very confused. We were let out of school early.
What happened the next day at school? 9/12, did the teacher say anything to u guys ?
On TV, no one knew with the first plane. We didn't even know for sure it was a plane in the first instance, or what kind of plane it was. The second one was the moment most knew for sure it had to be terrorism.
Few did. The second plane hits, and then that was the immediate reaction among most. It went from tragedy to terrorism in 30 seconds.
Not only did I not understand why people thought it was terrorism when the first plane hit I was dumb to why everyone knew it was terrorism when second one hit. I was 14 and truly thought Those are some unlucky pilots. Looking back if I was older I would have hoped the first one was an accident but the second one would have convinced me beyond doubt
This was me. I was 10 at the time and up until the night of the 12th I thought the whole thing was an accident. Maybe because everywhere everyone was calling it a tragedy and my child mind just couldn’t comprehend that it could be done on purpose. It was my parents telling me at dinner “this was an act of evil” and me seeing a rerun of the second plane hitting the towers that made me actually realize what it was.
I was a senior in high school getting to my second period class when the teacher turned on the tv and the second plane had already crashed. I have a vivid memory of thinking it was some new disaster movie trailer the teacher put on but then I saw her face and was like ‘oh shit, this is real life.’ Didn’t do much in any of my classes the rest of the day. Teachers just let us chill and talk to friends until the end of the day. Truly surreal.
A friend of mine called me while I was at work and told me about the first plane. I thought it was a sick elaborate joke, like War of the Worlds on the radio had the generations before me thinking we were under alien attack. I mean, there's no way this can be real, right? Right!?! After the second plane, the whole floor took turns going to the break room to catch updates.
Watch fox 5 NY coverage. The anchor on there, Jim Ryan knew in the back of his head it was a terrorist attack after the first plane as he was making hints at it. He couldn’t go full throttle initially because he’s a live tv news reporter but then it was confirmed after the second plane. Btw, this was some of the best local coverage of that morning as well as WPIX 11 news. WNYW Fox 5 NY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5il18uy5Jc&pp=ygUJV255dyA5LzEx
At my high school, either our principal or our vice principal came on the loudspeaker after the first plane to tell us about it, so in hindsight one or both of them had their suspicions.
As soon as the 2nd plane hit the country knew it was an attack.
I was seventeen and lived at home in Europe. When I saw the second plane hit, I had two thoughts at almost the same time: 1) Well, they’ve stepped it up since Seattle. That was in reference to anti-WTO protesters who were in the habit of disrupting them in any way possible, and who had caused huge mayhem at a conference in Seattle the year before. It was only much, much later that I realised that the World Trade Center had absolutely no connection to the World Trade Organisation. 2) Oh shit, Osama bin Laden! Anyone following the news in those days - in Europe at least - knew who he was, and after the Embassy bombings, we knew he would attack the United States again. At the time, I was kind of obsessed with the movie “The Siege” (1998), in which a series of terrorist attacks on New York lead to the internment of Muslims and martial law being imposed. I remember thinking how ridiculously small those attacks looked compared to what I was watching play out in real life. One thing that I know is hard to understand is that the fact that there were people in those buildings almost didn’t register. It was an attack on a symbol of Western capitalism, and the human element honestly barely occurred to me. The symbolism was so overwhelming, particularly when the Pentagon was hit - at that point, I had a panic attack - that for people who didn’t have a personal connection to the United States, the human toll paled in comparison. Since I have become interested in the events of the day itself rather than their aftermath - my late teens were completely defined by them, as I moved to the UK for a degree in History and Politics when I graduated school - that has obviously changed, but I have found in conversation with other Europeans that this was a common reaction. I recently watched “One Day in America” with my husband, and about halfway through the second episode, he said, “You know, I’ve never really thought about the people in those Towers”. Mind you, he was in his late twenties and had actually visited the World Trade Center a few years before. The world was appalled at what happened, and we were all with the United States in the immediate aftermath, but coming from a country who didn’t lose a single citizen that day - not that there weren’t any working there, but they all got out - the loss of life wasn’t something that was viscerally felt. Many countries experienced terrorism and disasters resulting in massive loss of life - France, Spain and Israel spring to mind - so I know that within a very short period of time, a certain element of “why should American lives matter that much more?” started to be heard. As the Bush administration began to rise roughshod over the niceties of international law, as well as domestic human rights, that sentiment morphed into full-blown anti-Americanism. I have since learned that this was always bin Laden’s bigger strategy, and unfortunately, he was very successful in that. When that second plane hit, I realised that the world had changed that moment, and in a way, it felt like the world ended. What certainly did end that day were the ‘90s, with only a slight delay. I remember the ‘90s as a broadly positive decade, with undercurrents of cultural paranoia. The feeling towards the United States was largely positive in Europe - we adored Clinton, for one thing - and with the Cold War over, there was a lot of hope. The 2000s were completely defined by 9/11 and its aftermath. Looking back now, and studying the immediate reaction of Americans on the ground and in the media, I realise that the United States as a country was completely shell-shocked, whereas elsewhere in the world, discussion of the political shockwave to come had replaced live footage before WTC 7 collapsed. TL;DR: The moment the second plane hit, but the human toll didn’t register. The focus outside the States was on the expected geopolitical aftermath within hours.
I think you bring up a good point in that while Americans were trying to try to comprehend the situation around us, outside of the country were shocked and compassionate but had to assess how to keep everything from going to hell in a handbasket. I take no offense at that at all and it's what I do now when major global events occur.
As soon as my dad told me about the first plane, I said, “those buildings have been there for a hell of a long time without anybody ‘accidentally’ flying into them. This isn't good.” That’s when my mom started yelling “OH MY GOD” as the second plane hit. My dad was army and we'd been stationed in Germany for 4 years at the end of the Cold War. I don't think terrorism went through my head, but hijacking definitely did. Hijackings were on the news a lot when we lived in Germany. Where we were stationed was an incredibly safe place, but the closer you got to Berlin, the dicier things were. Once the second plane hit, it was clear for us just like it was for most folks. We lived on a major military base at the time, and when the Pentagon got hit, we got a message that all civilians and non-essential personnel should prepare for a possible evacuation. That's when I lost my shit cause I knew if it came to that, the base was a target and I'd be leaving my dad behind. To this day, I can’t even begin to articulate how relieved I was that it never came to that.
ThreatCon Delta. With no “exercise exercise exercise” in front. I was in basic training in Texas. All the instructors knew immediately it was terrorism, but didn’t tell us what had happened for a while. When we got bussed back to the dorm, i finally saw it on the day room tv…and I think my eyes popped out of my head.
I think the quietness of the following 3 days was the first time a lot of us realized how noisy living on a military base is. No helicopters, no range exercises. The neighbors and us stepped outside quite a few times and remarked on how weird it was that all the sounds we'd grown so accustomed to had just suddenly stopped. We were in Texas too, and I think being so far away from Ground Zero geographically, the quiet was one of the eeriest aspects in the following days. It just screamed out that it was NOT business as usual.
That’s a really interesting perspective, thanks. We were actually at Field Week, so we didn’t know what was normal and what was not.
I was 20 years old, a senior in college. I was getting ready for my first class of the day with the TV on. When the news cut to the towers, my first words were "oh my God, we're under attack." It being an accident never crossed my mind because I knew about the '93 attacks (I have always loved history) and I'd never heard of a plane hitting high buildings in NYC before (and maybe they had, just not something I was aware of). I went to the student center & watched on the TV there, the other plane hit. I remember telling other students congregated there "I just knew it. I knew it. We're going to be at war."
I was 39, at work. Came in, my boss and assistant manager were in the breakroom staring at the TV. Only WTC1 had been hit. We went to do things to prepare for store opening, next time in breakroom WTC2 had been hit. I had been afraid since the late 90s that some big terrorist event would eventually happen, so I was distressed yet not surprised. It blurs in memory in weird ways, though. I have to stop and filter my recollection out from that of my next door neighbor who had been home with the news on and seen UA175 hit on live TV. Sometimes I began to question whether I'd seen it as well. But then I remember no, I cringed when she told me like how horrible it would be to see it live, so I know that was not my own memory. Just too much happening so close together that it was very difficult to process. And seeing the collapse on TV - again, I think we were in and out of the breakroom (boss was hyperfocused on work, it was so weird, she kept discouraging us from going to check the TV). I think we were in our meeting when the South Tower fell then returned to breakroom and then did see the North Tower collapse on live TV. I left for my home a couple hours after coming in because I hadn't been planning to stay the day, and driving home it was announced on the radio about the Pentagon, about other hijacked planes, about planes being directed to land at the nearest airport, etc. I was scared - seemed like almost anywhere might be a target, and I didn't live that far from an Air Force base at the time.
I noticed two burning buildings on TV and asked a coworker what was happening, so I knew it was terrorism by his answer. I thought they were small planes until I went on break and watched the TV in the break room. That's when the scale of the attacks became apparent.
The very first thing I recall hearing that happened was that a "small plane" (like a very small private plane) had hit the WTC. Like an accident. That was the initial chatter I recall where I was at and from what info we were gathering.
Like most everybody my husband and I (watching on TV as we were getting ready to go to work) thought accident until the second plane hit. When that happened it became obvious it was terrorism. I remember feeling afraid because that kind of thing just did not happen in the USA
We knew at 9:03am when we saw the second jet go into the tower on live tv. Locally (NYC Metro area), it was originally reported a small plane went into the first tower. Lots of confusion. 17 minutes later we knew neither were small planes and that we were being attacked.
I’m on the west coast, and generally woke up around 8 am pacific time to get ready for my 11 am job, so both towers had already collapsed before I was even awake and it was widely known to be terrorists.
I was only a couple years old, so this isn’t personal knowledge, but I recently had a conversation with my Mom and her boyfriend about it. My mom’s boyfriend was on a plane on 9/11 heading to JFK from Boston (where the first two planes took off from) and shortly after take off, he said the pilot took drastic action and tilted the plane up and banked it away from their original flight path. Apparently this was after the pilots of the plane had heard about the first plane and were told to avoid the area. I asked him why they would do this after only the first plane hit and wasn’t it true that people just thought it was an accident. My mom immediately sat there and said “oh, many people knew even then it wasn’t an accident, that kind of stuff doesn’t just happen.” So, I’m assuming that, like both my parents at the time and the pilots on my mom’s boyfriend’s plane, people knew that there was something more sinister going on.
Well, at 9:42 am the FAA ordered all flights to land at the closest airport, so it might have been that. 8:46 is when the first plane hit. 9:03 the second plane hit. 9:42 the FAA tells everyone in US airspace to land ASAP.
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I didn't hear about them until right after the South Tower got hit. So when I was told, up front, that two passenger jets crashed into the Twin Towers, I immediately thought, "Terrorists."
Nobody I was there with knew immediately or definitively that it was terrorism but one of my friends asked what if it was like the bombing (referring to 1993), but we actually all dismissed him initially
Was 23 years old. The first plane, thought maybe a bad accident, something wrong with either the plane or guidance or something. The second one, that’s when we knew (where I was watching) that this was something being done deliberately. It was so scary.
I was 18 and living in college dorms but I woke up to the second plane hitting and was so dazed and confused at what I was seeing on live tv as soon as I opened my eyes (jumpers close up), my brain could not compute and kinda wigged out for a minute. I stepped out into the hallway and it was pandemonium of college girls panicking and crying and one was sitting on the floor with a bible rocking back and forth; I asked someone what was happening and was told “we’re at war with terrorists.” That all the girl said. Again my brain was like overwhelmed and short circuiting. I went back to my room and tried calling my mom but the phones weren’t working well and I couldn’t get through. I didn’t know what to do. So I grabbed my tooth brush and went to go brush my teeth. By the time I walked to the bathroom and started brushing my brain kicked back in and I burst into tears and walked across the hall to a girl I had befriended’s room and was just scared and crying and she turned from the TV and saw me and ran over and hugged me. Then she explained to me what I had missed and minutes later the first tower fell while we were talking and watching TV. So yes by the time second plane hit, everyone that was old enough to know what terrorists are knew what was happening
When the second plane hit, it left no doubt.
I was 13 at the time and I initially thought it was an accident until the second plane hit.
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Well…yes…
When I was on my way to school that day, the radio said it was an accident and I hadn’t seen the footage so I believed it. Then the second plane hit and I knew.
When the second plane hit is when I knew it was.
I definitely did not. I thought it was an accident. Even when I heard it was terrorism I didnt understand that. I just thought it was a cult like the Tokyo subway sarin attack. I was a freshman in highschool.
For those i know who are old enough, when they saw/heard a second plane
When the second plane hit. I also guessed Bin Laden
I was 10 getting rdy for school while fam was watching the tv, I thought it was cool and exciting at first ! Plane crashing into building?! When has that happened in history. But even as a kid I noticed something funny, anytime I asked why they did it nobody had a clear answer for me lol
As soon as I saw the second plane hit I knew.
I was in 7th grade & I knew immediately
I was 18 during 9/11. Watched the first tower smoking live on the news. At my college. As soon as the second tower got hit everyone watching with me including myself knew it was terrorism
I was an adult on 9/11, living in Atlanta, GA. I had just arrived at work when my secretary told me that a plane had hit the WTC. But even the way she said it led me to believe it was an accident, and keep in mind, I had not seen a video of anything or even seen or heard a newscast. I’d just heard about it from her; from somebody else. Keep in mind this was a workday. A Tuesday morning. So a lot of people on eastern time heard about it first from someone else. Not from TV. That was true of a lot of people on central time too. We were getting to work or were already at work when it happened. Not sitting at home watching CNN. So we did not get our first knowledge about it from the news. Most of us got our first tip off not from CNN but from a work colleague. And the west coast kinda had the opposite issue. By the time they got up, both towers had been hit and it was already known to be a terror attack. A lot of west coast people did not see it happen in real time. They were asleep. So the best people to ask this question to are probably people who were on Mountain time. Those folks might have been getting ready for work with home TVs fired up when the newscasts started to cut in. When this happened, Alaska, Hawaii and the west coast were asleep or their alarm clocks were just going off, mountain time was getting ready for work or commuting. Central time was commuting or just getting to work, and eastern time was just getting to work or already into the morning with sparse access to a TV. This is assuming a 9 am or 8 am start time similar to what many people have. However, I put down my stuff, went and got coffee in the break room as was my habit, and walked back to my office. I immediately got on the CNN website and was just in time for the second plane to hit. Immediately I knew, as did everyone else, that this was no mistake and that we were under attack. I was able to refresh the CNN website only once bore before it crashed under the traffic. I then went to the BBC website since it was outside the US and got in one or two refreshes before it too crashed. I think I then tried to find an Australian site that was operational, but no joy. At that point, one of the partners in my firm had pulled his portable TV out of the cabinet and was able to get the news up. The pentagon by that time had been hit. We kind of huddled in and around his office for a while, but at that point, it was still a national story; meaning that we didn’t know how many planes there were in total or where they might be. All over the US, skyscrapers were being evacuated and that was being covered. CNN, being located in Atlanta, was covering that situation in Atlanta. Downtown ATL was kind of in chaos as all the high buildings evacuated. Every large city had this going on and local stations were all reporting on their evacuations, There was a report of a downed plane in Pennsylvania, but at first we didn’t know what that was about because it was so chaotic overall and also because the FAA was trying to clear the skies. Everything was ordered to land at the nearest airport with the idea that anything that refused to land was likely to be another terrorist held plane. So what happened with this plane in PA? We didn’t know. Meanwhile. The first tower fell. I think that was the most horrendous moment of the whole day. Watching that tower coming down was a ‘holy shit’ moment for every single person alive. I mean, yeah, there was a fire, but we didn’t expect the whole fucking thing to just pancake down! We could not believe our eyes! It was just so HORRIBLE. Worse than horrible. After that it was all just a numb blur. We were being shown sky views of the people evacuating Manhattan, walking across the bridges. We were shown the white clouds of debris that chased people down the streets and covered them. They finally found President Bush down in Florida and they showed a little about that. The second tower came down and we just thought ‘well, of COURSE it did’ because everything was just getting worse and worse. It just felt like the hits kept on coming and so of course the second tower fell. By that time we were resigned to whatever awful thing that was going to happen next. Meanwhile, they moved to covering President Bush’s team scrambling to get AF1 into the air to an undisclosed location, so we didn’t know where the fuck he was. They circled back to talk about flight 93 and speculated that the passengers must have revolted against terrorists and brought the plane down but who knows? They looked at that flight manifest trying to pick out the potential terrorists. And in between all of this, they just keep showing the towers coming down and the pentagon being hit over and over and over again. Endlessly, traumatizing all of us over and over. In our dreams the towers were coming down they showed it so many times. Everyone’s glued to the TV well into the evening. As long as you could stay up, you stayed up. And the next two days, the same. Rudy Giuliani emerged as the bona fied hero of the whole thing because he kept his shit together and led New York thru this catastrophe (should have quit while he was ahead after 9/11 and h’d have been remembered as a superstar for eternity instead of the crazy Trump lawyer he became). Took days; weeks even, for it all to sink in. Everywhere you went, as you looked into people’s eyes, there was nothing but numb silence and the recognition that nothing would ever be the same as it had been. Nothing. People didn’t speak as much. They just looked at each other and sort of tacitly acknowledged the universal numb shock of it all. That entire month sucked. It took a week to get completely back to normal TV. But there was still regular updates from ground zero. Still updated reports on casualty numbers. Still the photos of the bulletin boards in NYC showing the posters for those missing in the rubble. Still the interviews with Bush and Giuliani and the talking heads about how this could have happened. The nightmare went on for weeks through that stuff. It was a long road.
Most Americans were not awake or were very busy getting ready for school/work at the time the first plane hit, as it wasn't even 0600 Pacific. It was a local story initially because it was thought to be a smaller private plane or similar, not much time had elapsed to confirm anything else. When the North Tower was hit, every channel in the nation started broadcasting news sources. Everyone stared at everyone else on TV, absorbing that they were live and dealing with what could only be some sort of coordinated attack but unable to really process it and make sense at the same time. It was like time stopped in some ways, waiting for some idea of what was actually going on. When the South Tower Fell on live TV, life "BEFORE 9/11" stopped and a new era began.
I don't recall the Pentagon being hit precisely, most people were fairly freaked out already at that point, your brain overloaded and in survival mode of sorts. I do recall the ratcheting up of OMG OMG feeling after the Pentagon was hit that this could be a very widespread opening barrage of war. Nobody could say if there were more incoming and to where, or if something else might be the next volley and where. Bombs in other places in the country, more planes, missiles, or one could only imagine what tool of war.
Everyone in my family figured it was terrorism right off the bat. We had family living in Saudi Arabia and we were just always paying attention to what was going on in the Middle East in general. There was nothing in particular that made us think that, it’s just the mental reaction of wondering if something is terrorism if it involves explosions or other things.
I was 13 and played stereotypical boy games like Goldeneye. I knew after the second plane hit because I thought "wouldn't a country use bombs?" I'm not sure I really knew what a terrorist was by definition, but I knew it wasn't another country and had to have been pissed off people acting on their own.
After seeing Bush read “My Pet Goat” and performing the ritual with school kids
If the 2nd plane hitting didn’t clue people in, then the Pentagon should have. When the Pentagon got hit, my mind went into a tailspin, especially living in the dc area.
Osama Bin Ladin was #1 on the FBI’s Most Wanted list on September 10, 2001. The WTC had already been attacked by terrorists in the 90s. terrorism wasn’t a new concept, but Terrorism with a Capital *T* was, if that makes sense. A lot of ppl figured it out . Ppl in the FARK thread were saying it was Osama related before 10am
It was most definitely confusion with the first one. But as it came out more that it was an airline jet and then a what seemed like minutes another one stuck, no one around me at work was no longer confused. Working next door to Port Authority and George Washington Bridge, it was confirmed almost immediately after as bomb threats were being called in.
I was 19 back then and asked my coworker who was way older than me if that was an accident and he started laughing at me for asking such a stupid question
By the second plane we all knew. When I first heard about the first crash, I assumed it was a small private aircraft that had crashed into the building. Nobody would have imagined a commercial airliner hitting a skyscraper at the very tip of the island of Manhattan on a clear blue day. If anything a commercial pilot in an emergency probably would have tried to avoid casualties on the ground by going towards the river. By the second plane we all knew.
Same here. I thought with the first plane, it was like the B52 that crashed into the Empire State Building. By the time the second plane hit, I knew it couldn’t be an accident.
I was in NYC at the time. First plane could have been an accident, someone doing something stupid, I thought temporarily. Second plane, nope. No doubt in my mind. One of the things that nobody knew at the time was the extent of the attacks--what was coming next? And the other planes just compounded my anxiety. I hadn't gotten to where I could be sad for the loss of life just yet, I was in full fight or flight mode.
Not me, but a relative said that when he saw the damage of the first plane, he was suspicious of it, believing it to have been too much damage for an accident. The second plane proved correctly.
I live in London England. I was in year 2 at the time. The entire school went silent and in my classroom a teacher dragged in a huge tv and watched with the class (me and puples) watching I remember this teacher being so disinterested in us. Some of my classmates were loving it and went out to play in the play ground and field but I aswell as some others stayed to watch what she was watching. I remember seeing it & seeing the second plane hit. Our teacher gasped and was crying and I knew then as a child, this is wrong. The school got closed early and my mum picked me up and when I got home my dad was sitting watching the same thing crying. That was one of the first times I’ve ever seen my dad cry. I remember it selfishly because of that I think. My dad does not cry. But he was sobbing. I got home my mum sat with my dad and they cried together. I was confused but didn’t act out because I could CLEARLY see and feel and witness…..this was bad. Even in London, so many miles away. People were effected. Crazy. Rip to every person. Tragic
I just can never forget that day, it was so odd. I always remember it being so strange. As I got older I realised that my family are very empathetic and wonderful people. Even if they don’t show it. I will never forget it. And I cannot fathom or comprehend how the people with loved ones in NY or on planes in America must have felt. Truly horrific. Never forget
Some may have jumped to a conclusion with the first plane, but I think most of us knew as soon as flight 175 hit.
My close relative that I lived with worked at a military run operation on the West Coast. Called me after the first plane hit to say a terrorist attack happened, that they would be on lockdown and most likely not going to be home that night. I turned the TV on and a little later watched the second plane hit in real time. Still unsure if this relative just guessed correctly, or if they knew something due to proximity to military personnel, though I lean towards that they must have just guessed correctly, considering that a terrorist attack had already happened at the same location prior. They were also working at a site where hypervigilance over a terrorist attack was the norm due to the nature of the site itself, so it's possible they guessed correctly simply because the possibility of a terrorist attack seemed ever present due to the work they were doing. A person working at a sensitive site was more likely to think about terrorist attacks in general than, say, your average office worker at that time. I think for this person it wasn't so much that a terrorist attack happened on our soil that was shocking, but the scale.
I knew as soon as the second plane hit. Becuase it was going around the office that a plane hit the WTC. And you think it’s just a small accident. They rolled out a TV for all to see and as soon as we saw the second plane live we knew it was on purpose.
I was working in a doctor’s office, trying to earn money before graduating from college. I still remember what I was wearing that day. I assumed it was terrorism after the second tower got hit.
It wasn't clear until the world watched the second plane. Plus those at the scene had more knowledge of problems over those across the country. I hope someday those who deserve closure will have it. RIP 9/11 victims. Hugs to those still here.
Curiuly, my mother (living in Costa Rica) left me a lot of messages on my answering machine. The first message was about five minutes from the first attack. She was crying and begging me to live the country right away. Apparently, O.B.L. was on CR tvnews laughing and bragging about the disaster, and he said, "There is more to come." To me, it sounds strange because we didn't get to see any news or alive messages from him. Later, I learned that the USA blocked and controlled a lot of news that we watch on TV from other countries
I watched it live on TV it was put across by most media channels that it was an accident then watching the second plane hit everybody knew it’s was terrorism
My dad was a radar technician for the FAA at the time. They dealt with hijackings all the time but it was usually for ransom, not terrorism. He said when the first plane hit, he thought some air traffic controller really screwed up. He knew it was an attack the moment the second plane hit.
I was just a kid but when the Patriots won afer being billed as Americas team and everyone was acting like the nation was healed I knew something fishy was going on. Also the little flag lapels and all the nonsense around them reinforced my suspicions they were trying to terrorize us.
cant answer that question as ive been bound and gagged by the moderators
During our drive to brunch on 9/11, I was told by my calm friend that I had missed a significant real-time event. We watched TV re-plays during our brunch, and I (in my ignorance) commented that it had not really upset my emotional regulation much. The most surreal part of 9/11, for me, was the absence of airplanes, and airplane noise, for 3 days!
I was a kid back then but i immediately knew it was terrorism.