Where Were You Five Years Ago Today?

[VeeJay]

I was in Dallas (Lewisville, actually) working on a special project for my company. We were north of the airport and below a take off pattern for DFW. Walking outside our building was eerie - the rest of the week there were no planes in the sky when normally, it was constant.

I didn't get to see my family for ten days after that.

[Mjcpr]

I was sitting right here in my office trying to keep up with the events of the day via a very overloaded innerweb.

[jk the sooner fan]

i was in my office (cid office) at fort sam houston......i had about an hour to watch the news and then all of the sudden........security ramped up at the gates (from alpha to delta) and i got busy for about 72 straight hours

[Osce0la]

I was in high school falling asleep (heh)...I heard the TV turn on and thought we were watching a movie or something, then I saw the second plane hit the WTC...No work was done at school that day for anybody. Every classroom in the building had these events on theit TV.

[crawfish]

I was driving my kids to school when I heard the news on the radio. Got home and turned the TV on in time to see the second crash. My wife and I sat in stunned silence for the next few hours.

[Sooner in Tampa]

Dover AFB, Delaware. We had left Florida on the 10th headed for Egypt...our C5 broke down and we were getting ready to continue our flight.

When the plane hit the Pentagon...we were in formation. It was just sooooo surreal. We were stuck there for 5 more days...nothing to do but watch all of the coverage. Numbness set in after a couple of hours and after a couple of days it was just sensory overload.

We end getting put on a bus in Delaware on Friday afternoon and we did not get to Florida until Saturday afternoon. One of the hardest/wierdest/inspirational trips I have ever been on.

[OklahomaTuba]

Just got up. Was getting ready to go to work as I worked later in the day then.

I worked at Cingular then, and the office here in Tulsa is the main office for the northeast region of the US, including New York.

We had people calling in asking us if we could track down people who were missing by there cell phones. One lady called in who was hysterical trying to find her husband. I don't know what ever happened to him.

The World Trade Center contained one of the main trunks for the cell system, so most of the cell service was down in Manhatten. We actually had people call up bitching about it and wanting a refund. I personally toungelashed a few people myself for being so stupid.

[BoogercountySooner]

At work in breakroom the news comes over the radio. Management plugs in televisions and let us watch the news during breaks the rest of the day.

[sooner n houston]

I was at work. I remember thinking, after the first plane hit, what a terrible tragedy it was to lose so many lives. When the second plane hit, the reality set in that we were under attack! Civilians were being killed on American soil. I was totaly in shock for the rest of the day as events continued to unfold. NEVER FORGET!!!

[yermom]

i was asleep when the first plane hit, my alarm (radio) went off and i knew something had happened from their voices, it sounded like the OKC bombing, something was just the same

i turned on the TV before the 2nd plane hit and then called some people to tell them to turn on the TV

the plane hit the Pentagon as i was driving in, i didn't know what to expect next

we had the TV on all day, saw the towers fall and everything

[Okla-homey]

I was in then 101st Airborne Division headquarters in a meeting with the division operations officer (G-3).

It came on TV in the background (cuz all military ops guys keep the news on 24/7), I watched a couple minutes and headed back to my squadron to put the boys to sharpening their swords. By early Jan, we were in Afghanistan cuz that's how the US rolls baybee.

[OUstudent4life]

I was sitting in my first year med school class. I heard one person's cell phone go off, and shook my head. Then like 15 more phones rang, all within a minute or two.

Left class at the break, a guy said something about planes and the WTC, and I went back to my mod and started watching.

The higher-ups tried to stop the students from watching TV, but after the second or third person that came by to tell us to turn it off got yelled at, they stopped coming.

[OKLA21FAN]

sitting in my office just north of downtown dallas listen to 'the ticket' on the radio.

i 'learned' more info of what happened that day from a college football message board than anything (we didnt have a TeVee at the office)

a few days later I was on the phone with a customer when I saw the first plane take off from Love field. It was strange to make the comment, 'wow, there is a plane taking off.' For something that was such a normal event just a few days before.

[goodonya]

I posted this on another board but this is how it went for me and my family.

Here is how I remember. Jimmy, his wife & kids lived across the street from us for 11-years. They were of Indian descent and had 3-great kids, 2-girls & a boy. My wife and his wife walked the kids to the bus stop every morning for years. Mrs. Jimmy and my wife were surrogates for each others kids via car pools, homework sessions (making copies of homework papers that one of the kids left at school), etc.

In Feb. of 2001 Jimmy got a job offer in NYC that was just too good to pass on. He and Mrs. Jimmy spent many weekends shopping for a house in Jersey until they found just the right one. He began staying in NYC only coming home once a month or so because of the hours. Mrs. Jimmy wanted to have the kids finish out the school year before moving.

At the time I was traveling to Newark quite a bit to do business. Jimmy was home in mid-August and we were talking in the street about the kids and the new job. I agreed to come see him at his new gig when I was there at the end of the month.

I call him from the hire car and let him know I'm on my way. His office is awesome on the 112th floor overlooking the river. We talk about his future commute through the tunnel and he is very glad that he won't have to deal with I-10.

It's about 7:15 and I'm inside the loop heading downtown on I-10 in the 15 mph parking lot and a friend calls me to tell me that he heard a "small plane" hit a trade center building in NY. I turn on the radio and sure enough within a short period of time the building collapses. This is inconceivable as I recall the B-25 that ran into the Empire State Building and did not knock it down. I start calling friends in mid town Manhattan to get the poop and all lines are jammed. Finally I realize that for whatever reason I don't know which tower has fallen. Soon, the local radio reminds me that my luck and Jimmy's has run out. His tower fell first taking him with it. I call my wife and ask her to track down Mrs. Jimmy and see if she has good news. She doesn't because there is not any.

Fast forward - Mrs. Jimmy got a large settlement from the fund and has been very conservative. They just moved to another subdivision a few miles away to try to finally begin anew.

This tragedy only had one touch point to me and my family and it was devastating. I cannot imagine how the multiple families that had loved ones in the buildings, planes, pentagon or the streets below could deal with this. This can never, never happen again on US soil.

[GrapevineSooner]

I was asleep since I didn't have to be into work until 11:30 that day. Shortly after 8, my boss called me while I was half asleep and said 'turn on the TV, terrorists have hijacked planes and crashed them into the WTC and Pentagon.' Thinking this might have been a dream/nightmare, I turned on the TV, saw smoke billowing out of both towers and said 'Holy ****!'

At that moment, I harkened back to April 19th, probably because to this day, I can still hear the bomb go off and hearing one of my friends at Oklahoma City Community College ask innocently 'was that a bomb?'

All shock, anger, and sadness from that infamous day started to come back to me.

[Pricetag]

I was sitting in a cube on the 19th floor of the One Warren Tower. I had a habit of keeping KMOD on at a low level all day as some background noise. I seldom noticed what songs were on, and paid even less attention to the jabber of the dee jays, but for some reason that morning, it came through loud and clear when Phil and Brent announced that the towers had been hit.

By the time the announcement was made, both towers were already hit, and despite the stark reality of the situation, my mind searched desperately for a scenario in which it was some kind of accident.

[OUDoc]

Presbyterian Hospital, doing my inpatient month. I was a third year resident, chief of the inpatient service, so I basically ordered everyone else around. Watched a lot of TV coverage that morning.
Weirdest thing was, I went to call my wife to tell her, ended up calling my parents' house on accident. I woke my dad, who worked evenings at the time. At this point I thought it was an accidental crash, it was prior to the second plane. I initially felt bad for waking him. Ends up I'm glad I woke my dad, but I swore I called my wife. Need to have a talk with dad. :mad:

;)

[colleyvillesooner]

I was passed out from the night before (friends b-day is Sept 11) in my bed at college. Huge hangover occurs when my friend, who slept on the couch, knocks on my door and said our friend called and a bomb went off at the WTC. I am still in a daze and mumble something along the lines of "Good for them" and as he shuts the door he says it's on the TV and Radio. I come out of my daze while laying there and think, "it's on TV??" I turn the TV on in my room, and see the second plane has already hit.

I rushed out to the living room, said friend has passed back out, and turn on the TV. He asks what I am doing, am I just point to the TV and say "look."

We sat there, him on the couch, and me in a recliner, for longer than I can remember, all day. Finally left that night to go to a bar to "get away from it for awhile" but it was on every TV there and we just kept watching.

[Ike]

I was walking across campus, heading towards my office in the physics department, preparing to teach my 9:30 am discussion section of physics for life science majors. A grounds keeper passed me by and asked "did you hear about the world trade center?" "no" I replied. "Some yahoo flew a plane into one of the towers"....those were his exact words. At approximately that exact time, the second plane hit I imagine. When he told me about it, I sort of expected that a pilot had fallen asleep at the wheel, or that some malfunction had caused the flight to go horribly wrong. It wasn't until I heard of the second one hitting some 10 minutes later did it become crystal clear what was going on. Needless to say, teaching physics wasn't very easy that day. I considered giving my students the day off, but I decided against that for one reason. I figured that the students that needed a day off would take it anyway, and that the ones that decided to show up anyway expected to learn some damn physics in spite of what was going on. So I decided to scrap going over new stuff until most everyone was back in class and instead let the students dictate what they wanted me to clarify or review for them instead.

It was a very wierd day...

[Tailwind]

Had just woke up, sitting on the edge of my bed staring at the tv I left on all night. As events unfolded i just sat there, tears streaming down my face, unable to take my eyes off the screen.

[royalfan5]

I was in my biology lab session till 10:30ish. I had no idea what was happening until I went to the campus center to get my mail, and looked at the tv that was in the corner. I got a rought idea what happened, walked back to my dorm room, and watched the various news channels until it was time to go to my Political Issues class, where oddly enough we didn't talk about the events of the day in class. I watched the news with varying people the rest of the day, and told people they were idiots for panicing about gas prices and supply.

[picasso]

got up, added a bit to a painting I was working on and then called my buddy to see where our Tuesday golf group was playing. He asked me if I had the tv on? I said no. Then he told me someone flew a plane into the World Trade Center.

I turned the tellie on and watched. I was having breakfast when I saw plane #2 hit (in real time).

[Osce0la]

I remember when they came on the air and said that for the first time ever, American military planes were flying in defense over US soil...This whole day was very emotional.

[pb4ou]

I was driving to work in Kingsville, TX. I was listening to 760 the Ticket out of SA. One of the radio guys was joking around about some reference to towering inferno, then they all realized that this was serious. I was, at the time, the Bailiff for the County Court of Law. I happen to be in my office when I saw the towers fall. I just stood in shock. I popped in and out of court all day, just checking in to see if anything else happened.

Nobody around the courthouse wanted to do any work, everyone was so stunned.

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

I was studying for a class and listening to my new Staind CD. My sister called me and said that Mom told me to go get gas so I could get home. Of course I was like I got a class, I can't come home. My sister was silent and she was like have you heard. So she explained and my sister likes to kid so I am like Stephanie, seriously what type of idiot hits a big building, quit yanking my chain, i got a test. Then she is like go watch the news, get gas and get home. So I went downstairs and I will never forget how full the dorms common room was. When I look back on it, it kind of seemed surreal. You have your little frat boys, guys with tats and piercings, emo kids, cowboys, preppy girls, and such a diverse group and no one looked uncomfortable being around each other, we were all comforting to each other. I still have trouble listening to that Staind CD. But I never half way listen to songs from that CD because I don't ever want to forget.

[Chuck Bao]

I had just returned home from work and turned on CNN as is my habit. I watched from the first reports of the first plane crash into the tower until the next morning and time to go to work again.

[Widescreen]

Paris, France.

We had gotten into Paris early that afternoon (which would have been about 6am OK time) and took a nap. When we got up, we turned on the TV and saw pictures of the smoking trade center and a map of Pennsylvania but neither my wife nor I speak French so we couldn't tell what was going on. We switched over to CNN and saw what was going on. We were going to go to the Champs Elyses (sp?) that evening but decided to hang around the general area of the hotel because we didn't know what the scope of the attack was. The country that was most sympathetic was Italy. When we got to Florence they had a moment of silence and rang a bell that our Italian guide said almost never rings except for the most solemn reasons. When we got to Rome, the mayor had found out all the tour groups that were there from America and send us all a letter of condelence and solidarity. Also they had placards all over the place denouncing terrorism. We've always thought that was really cool.

[hurricane'bone]

I woke up late for my Music Theory class. I hurriedly put on my clothes and went running down the stairs in my dorm. There was a TV room and people were watching, I stopped for a second and saw the WTC, not knowing what was happening I ran across campus to get to class. Needless to say when I got there my professor was searching for a radio. The music department secretary came by and said they had a TV on. I left and went to the student center. I saw the second plane and the towers fall. This was in Springfield, MO & if you've ever been in Springfield you know there is only one tall building, well from where I was sitting I could see the building. I couldn't imagine what would have happened if I saw a plane hit it.

[Mixer!]

I was finishing up my route, listening to Rick & Brad that morning doing their usual schtick. Went by my folks' house to check on Mom, and she said a plane had hit the WTC, and to go home and fill up every spare gas canister I could find because some of the convenience stores were selling gas for $2/gal. Got back in my truck, and Rick & Brad had suddenly gone all serious. Got back home, flipped on the TV, and found out about the south tower & the pentagon getting hit. Watched TV well into the night, and considered that this must have been what December 7th was like for my parents & grandparents. I also felt that things were never going to be the same.

[C&CDean]

My 9-11 experience was pretty much supa-weird.

First, I have to go back to the OKC bombing.

I was on an airplane, non-stop from LAX to Newark that April day. I noticed that there literally wasn't a cloud in the sky from west coast to east coast. I land in Newark, am getting my luggage, and all of a sudden a bunch of irate people start piling in. I asked a guy what was up. He said "there must be some weather or something in Dallas, cause they cancelled all the flights out of here." I didn't really think much of it, got my bags, and started to drive down the NJ turnpike.

As I get on the turnpike, I look across the river at the WTC. My very first thought was "last year a friend and I had taken the elevator to the Top-of-the-world restaurant (or whatever it was called) the day after they reopened it from the first terrorist bomb in the basement. What a beautiful sight." Then, I turn on the radio. All I hear is "bombing, some Oklahoma City federal building, hundreds dead......" I'm thinking dang this is weird. Just as I'm thinking about the bombing in the WTC basement, the OKC deal happens.

Fast-forward to 9-11. My brother and a couple friends were on our annual elk hunt in Colorado. No cell phone reception. No radios. No TV. I didn't have the RV then either, we were in tents. Anyhow, 9-11 comes and goes. So does 9-12, and 9-13. The morning of 9-14, my brother and I are laying on our backs in this beautiful meadow at about 11,000 feet.

He's a pilot, and he says "you know what's weird?" I go "what?" He goes "I haven't seen a single jet contrail in the sky for a couple days now. This is a major east-west flyway, and the sky is clear." Sure enough, the sky was that crystaline dark blue, without a cloud or an airplane vapor trail. At that exact moment, we hear this rumble, then this ear-splitting roar as 3 or 4 F-15s went over our meadow at barely sub-mach speed, maybe 1,500 feet above us. Scared the living **** out of us, and he goes "dang, what the hell are F-15s doing up here?"

That afternoon I shot a big bull elk. Took us all night to get off the mountain with him. Took him to the town of Walden, CO the next morning. I semi-noticed flags at half-mast, and some signs on the side of the road about "heroes." We go to this little hotel that offers $5 showers, give the lady $5, and she gives us a key to a room. I go inside the room, and as my brother gets in the shower, I sit on the foot of the bed and turn on this little cheesy B&W television set. The first thing I see is this airplane flying into the side of the tower.

I switch the channel - thinking "this is a ****ty movie with ****ty special effects." The next channel has a bunch of real news guys (I don't remember who, but guys like Dan Rather) talking about "no more WTC, no more Pentagon, thousands dead, America under attack, we're at war, etc...."

I simply go WTF?? I starting thinking that I saw a plane hit the WTC, but it wasn't gone. About that time they switch to video showing the towers falling, people running, and the pentagon burning. They show the field in Pennsylvania. I yell at my brother to come out there and watch this ****. He's like "yeah, OK, whatever." I go "seriously man, you need to watch this ****." For the next 3 or 4 hours we just sat there on the foot of the bed going "daaaaamn, no f-ing way, and now I'm ****ed." We both call home and they say indeed it's for real, indeed a bunch of rag-headed bastards did indeed cut a bunch of people up, hijack the planes, and did indeed fly them into the WTC, Pentagon, and a field in PA.

I cannot look at the bull elk mount hanging on the wall with the little brass placque that says:

Taken by: Dean ----
9-14-2001
Indian Creek, Colorado
Muzzleloader

without thinking of that day.

And in many ways, I'm more ****ed today than I was then. Why? Cause those evil **********s are still out there toying with us. Within our own country we have evil **********s like Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan who do more to further the cause of these evil murderers than they can begin to imagine.

God bless America.

[VeeJay]

What he said.

[ultimatesooner1]

I was working 10-630 in nw okc and lived in Norman. I woke up early that day and turned on the television from some reason which I never did. Switched to fox news and the 1st tower was burning and I was like WTF?

About that time the 2nd plane hit and I was really like WTF. Had to listen to the towers collapse on the radio while driving to okc. Got to work and it was on every tv, we closed @ like 1 that day and I went home and watched the news well into the night

[usmc-sooner]

I was with Marine Corps Security Forces Btn, Norfolk, VA. We started prepping the base for all the added security. I was told a bunch of different things. I was told to spend as much time with my family as I could. I was told we may get sent to D.C., etc....
A couple of days later we're standing guard at the NATO building.

[fadada1]

was teaching my second class at UFlorida as part of my masters. first class was always the quiet group... second class the rowdy group. they were unusually quiet that morning, so i asked what was up. first class started before the events. somebody said, "they bombed the WTC." i said, "what, again?" he said, "i think this one is a bit different." on the way back to my office, stopped by to get a soda, and the first tower went down. ran back to my office... no one had a clue at that point. needless to say, people found a TV very quickly.

very strange day indeed. must've been a similar feeling to the pearl harbor attack.

[SOONERKAT]

Driving into work at the Williams Tower here in Houston. I am about a three blocks from the building and my VP calls my cell to inform me that the office is shut down for the day as the building has been evecuated.

I had been fine all morning long, even though I had seen all of the coverage before I left for work. It was not until my boss told me that I might be in danger if I came to work that day that it hit me, hard. All I could think of was my little girl. I had to pull over into an Old Navy parking lot and have a moment. The next few days were a wreck as I work in finance and is was pure panic. That, and my firm was one of the largest tennants in Tower II. All but 13 made it out. Horrible week.

[Vaevictis]

I was at work. The security guard -- a former NYC police officer -- came into our NOC and said, "You gotta come see this! Someone flew a plane into the World Trade Center!"

A friend of mine and I walked over to his computer. It was open to CNN.com, and we saw it. We went back to work.

A little while later, the security guard came back in and yelled, "Someone flew ANOTHER plane into the other WTC building!"

My friend and I went over to his computer, see the new page on CNN.com.

I looked at the guard, and then my friend, and said, "Someone is going to pay for that." My friend said, "Yeah."

Then we went back to work. We fielded a lot of calls that day, asking if our service was okay, if we were going to have any downtime.

Later, my wife called and insisted that I come home. My work was near an airport, with some kind of drug company that had a gigantic tank of alchohol of some kind. She was terrified that someone would crash a plane into the alchohol, and blow the whole place up.

I was annoyed, but I drove home -- in silence, with the stereo off. I sat down in front of the television, watching people jump out of the WTC and hit the ground, all the while eating cereal like it was nothing. I remember asking myself, "Is there something wrong with me that I'm able to eat this cereal while watching this, and have no reaction at all?" Then one of the towers fell. And then the other.

We got an email from a friend in NYC that said, subject line only, "I'm ok." A little later, he called us on the cell phone. He was walking out of Manhattan, and he kept saying, "I'm covered in the World Trade Center. It's all over me."

It was surreal.

[picasso]

Dean whoa. it's almost a blessing you didn't experience what happened that day.
My buddies and I went ahead and played golf. I remember one of them got a call from his wife and said there was a fight at a small oil company in my town that sells premium gas. people thought there would be no gas for some reason.

anyway, I can remember watching the tv so (about the attacks) much back then it almost got depressing.

[afs]

I had just walked into the OU IT offices in the Engineering Labratory to spend the day answering calls at 325-INFO. I made it to the office in time to see the second plane hit.

[Rogue]

I was at work. Keep in mind I'm a mental health social worker at a VA hospital, then in West Texas. A patient with profound mental illness calls me and says "they're flying planes into the ****ing pentagon now." I offered to come get him and bring him to the hospital, certain that he's off his meds and paranoid as hell.

Then I watched a TV in the lobby with a bunch of WWII veterans, and a secretary friend who was from Brooklyn. She just grabbed me and started bawling. I was in shock and immediately suspicious of my coworkers, mostly doctor-types, who were of middle-eastern descent. Took awhile to get over that.

About a week later, I had a conference in Washington D.C.. They place we stayed was the postal inspector training center, a former convent operated by the government. On night 2, a bunch of dazed kids start showing up. Turns out they were Peace Corps workers from Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. some colleagues and I bought them beers and tried to help them de-stress a little.

[soonerthanu]

Just landed in Dover Deleware after a 12-hr flight.

[Soonrboy]

Like the Alan Jackson song says, I was standing in front of a room of innocent children, my fifth grade class. The librarian came in and whispered what happened. She watched my class while I went just after the 2nd plane had hit.

I had to decide what to tell the kids. All the adults were in an uproar, so they knew something was going on. We sat down on the floor and I explained what I knew had happened and that there would be some things they would see at home on the TV. I promised that we would talk tomorrow about it.

I wasn't a good teacher that day. Kept giving them busy work to do so I could keep checking the news.

[GrapevineSooner]

I'm not looking forward to the day that my daughter starts to ask questions about 9/11. As much as my Father-in-Law and I were going back and forth in agreement over the Path to 9/11, I'm somewhat surprised she didn't start to ask those questions tonight.

[Frozen Sooner]

I was in bed, peacefully asleep. Phone rings at 5:30am, it's Mom calling to let me know that she's OK. I'm like "That's nice, Mom. Any particular reason you're letting me know this?"

She tells me that her and her husband were flying home from the East Coast today.

Again "OK, that's nice Mom, I'm glad you're OK, but any particular reason you're calling me at 5:30 in the morning?"

"Oh, you haven't turned on the TV yet, have you?"

Anyhow, that's how I found out.

There was quite the scare that day and I got into a fight with my immediate superior at work. There was a report that an airliner was broadcasting the hijack code and heading for downtown Anchorage (which was true, by the way) and not responding to hailing codes. I called my whole staff and told them to stay away from downtown until they heard from me again rather than opening the office. My immediate supervisor was ****ed I did that without approval. My response was I'd do it every time to keep my staff safe.

As it turns out, the airliner had turned on the hijack signal by accident and wasn't responding to hailing because the pilot didn't speak English or something like that.

[LilSooner]

I was in bed, peacefully asleep. Phone rings at 5:30am, it's Mom calling to let me know that she's OK. I'm like "That's nice, Mom. Any particular reason you're letting me know this?"

She tells me that her and her husband were flying home from the East Coast today.

Again "OK, that's nice Mom, I'm glad you're OK, but any particular reason you're calling me at 5:30 in the morning?"

"Oh, you haven't turned on the TV yet, have you?"

Anyhow, that's how I found out.

There was quite the scare that day and I got into a fight with my immediate superior at work. There was a report that an airliner was broadcasting the hijack code and heading for downtown Anchorage (which was true, by the way) and not responding to hailing codes. I called my whole staff and told them to stay away from downtown until they heard from me again rather than opening the office. My immediate supervisor was ****ed I did that without approval. My response was I'd do it every time to keep my staff safe.

As it turns out, the airliner had turned on the hijack signal by accident and wasn't responding to hailing because the pilot didn't speak English or something like that.


Ummm, I'm thinking if you don't speak English that you shouldn't be flying a plane in freaking America. Seriously, I would expect international pilots to have some comprehension of the language of the country that they are about to fly into.

[yermom]

I was in bed, peacefully asleep. Phone rings at 5:30am, it's Mom calling to let me know that she's OK. I'm like "That's nice, Mom. Any particular reason you're letting me know this?"

She tells me that her and her husband were flying home from the East Coast today.

Again "OK, that's nice Mom, I'm glad you're OK, but any particular reason you're calling me at 5:30 in the morning?"

"Oh, you haven't turned on the TV yet, have you?"

Anyhow, that's how I found out.

There was quite the scare that day and I got into a fight with my immediate superior at work. There was a report that an airliner was broadcasting the hijack code and heading for downtown Anchorage (which was true, by the way) and not responding to hailing codes. I called my whole staff and told them to stay away from downtown until they heard from me again rather than opening the office. My immediate supervisor was ****ed I did that without approval. My response was I'd do it every time to keep my staff safe.

As it turns out, the airliner had turned on the hijack signal by accident and wasn't responding to hailing because the pilot didn't speak English or something like that.


holy crap... that could have gone BAD

[OUTromBoNado]

I remember walking around on campus that day. The South Oval was eerily quiet and devoid of people. As you walked past someone, you would look at each other. Every person met eyes as they past. They just had a look like, "Tell me what to do right now." It was like walking in a fog. It was quiet. I don't remember hearing any traffic, or the wind, or birds for that matter. It was just weird....

I remember a couple of people freaking out in the Union because they knew people that worked in/close to the WTC. The ran news 24/7 for about a week in Meacham Auditorium. I ate my lunch in there while watching the news.

[olevetonahill]

Ummm, I'm thinking if you don't speak English that you shouldn't be flying a plane in freaking America. Seriously, I would expect international pilots to have some comprehension of the language of the country that they are about to fly into.
English has become the standard for ALL flights and ATCs :eek:

[Frozen Sooner]

Yeah, I'm not sure that "not speaking English" was the real reason, but there was a reason why the pilot wasn't responding. It may be that the com system got turned off by accident or something.

[handcrafted]

I was driving to work and listening to NPR when they broke in with the news that the first plane had hit. At the time they were treating it like it was an accident. Then the second plane hit and now they are definitely talking terrorist attack. I pulled into the parking lot just as they relayed the collapse of the first tower. I went into the office and the guy across the hall from me had a TV on in his office and about 20 people crowded around it. We watched for about 2 hours solid. Then the doofus idiot of a boss comes in and tells us all to get back to work "we can't afford to waste a whole day" he said.

I resigned that Friday.

[Sooner Born Sooner Bred]

I was between jobs, so I was asleep when the first plane hit. My mom called me to tell me. While we were on the phone, the 2nd plane hit. I called my friend who lived and worked in Manhattan at her office. Her assistant said they were out of harm's way but my friend wasn't at work yet. She said it took her about 4 hours to walk to work that day and it was normally a 20 minute subway ride.

Later, I went to a meeting at the Hilton on NW Expressway, but I and one other person were the only ones who showed.

[Mjcpr]

I remember it well because it was the day after the September 11th attacks.....

[GrapevineSooner]

I was working at a call center that day. One of our clients was a major airline's cargo division. One of their agents said a lady called in during the afternoon complaining about why she couldn't ship her dog on one of their flights.

It's a good thing I wasn't on the receiving end of that call.