Odd how there's been no real comment about today's date.

I landed in Toronto on Sept 1st 2001, did some recce, flew back to the UK on Sept 9th via New York.

Was watching UK breakfast TV on Sept 11th and saw the shots of the planes crashing into the towers - wondered what sicko movie it was a trailer for and why they were showing it on every channel - realised shortly afterward it was reality.

Got stuck in the UK until October - no flights back to Canada were available until then.

Any other other Sept 11th stories?

I was on my way to a meeting in lower Manhattan which was to be followed by going on a tear with some Gruniad posters starting appropriately at the KGB bar. I was to attend the meeting with a colleague who lives in DC. Neither of us got there. My colleague saw the plume of smoke from the crash in DC. I spent the latter half of the day watching and posting on the "A plane has crashed into the WTC" thread on GU. That was a talkboard at its best; people were posting from all over the world with the latest news as reported there and some, notably VigaNYC, were within blocks of the carnage. Far more informative than the MSM.

The meeting was rescheduled for October and, while there, I went to the site. At the time there were still people searching for the missing and moving descriptions of them posted on the fence by friends and relatives to aid identification. Some guy with an Arab name which I have shamefully forgotten was said to have a scar on his thigh and a cough. I thought then that the cough was the least of his worries. I also noted that it being the World Trade Centre the victims were, by their names, from all over. Not much of an attack on America. There were flowers everywhere and the smell and dust of pounded concrete lingered. Strangely there were few people about, the place had an end-of-the-world feel to it.

In October, we got the sale and we did go to the KGB and a variety of other bars after that. One of the crowd, mentioned above, lived three blocks from the site, a film director by trade, he spent that day filming and showed us some stills of the chaos. That happens a lot in NYC, on another visit some guy in a bar produced original footage of Michael Jackson setting his head on fire for Coca Cola.

I was glad that the meet was rescheduled as otherwise I would never have met the poster by the name of RussMeyerGirl. That was a well chosen name. At the same time, had it not been rescheduled I would have met and probably stayed with the poster called JerseyGirl who later became one of that board's most notorious real life stalkers. I hope she's not related to the JerseyGirl on this board.

What time is UK Breakfast TV on in the UK? First plane crashed into tower @ 8:40am EST which is 1:40pm GMT.

Might well have been lunchtime, even now in Calgary breakfast at the weekends doesn't always happen until well after noon ... I'd just woken after a long transatlantic flight ... it was the first thing I saw on TV while I was making pancakes.

Breakfast TV is anytime when I wake up and turn the boob tube on.

And yes ... we did make buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup in the UK long before we all came to Canada ... you can find all the ingredients at Sainsbury's.

I had no idea it had happend until 12 noon pacific time when I got up to get ready to go to work.

I decided to watch the news before leaving and saw what happend, got the next 3 days off as I was working for an airline at the time and well, we were not flying those days.

The first day back to work the airport was so creepy, never in my life was an airport so quiet.

I remember the crews for several weeks afterwards, would keep their crash axe out and at the ready in the case something happend, it was a very odd time those few weeks.

Went to Disneyland on the 13th I think, only a few days after, and the place was empty, asked a employee at the entrance when we left since there were no lines and you could ride a ride as much as you wanted and not have to get off, and not even 1,000 people that day. Odd time there as well.

Yet nobody mentioned July 7th from what i saw, this year.

Yes definately 1.40. I worked in banking at the time- when the first plane hit no one really realised the severity where I was. When the second plane hit we were all glued to the TV until the towers had both fallen in.

I watched 102 minutes that changed the world on BBC2 last week which really brings the severity of the whole thing back to life.

Makes one realise how brave the people of London were during World War 2 with unpredictable bombs falling all over the place.

That's because they were all watching the funeral of Michael Jackson. It amazed me how that overshadowed July 7th.

Its disgusting, in my opinion.

Still, does this mean that the Brits are hardened to terrorism within their own country?

Thanks to the Irish Republican Army I think Britain learned to live with terrorism along long time ago.

We were out to lunch, celebrating the 18th birthday of a young lad in our office. Got back and someone said they heard a news report that a plane had just been flown into a NYC towerblock. We had a look at the TV in the office and watched it all unfold. Everyone was horrified but nothing could have prepared us for watching the South Tower collapse live on TV.

My work colleague's son and his wife were on vacation in NYC. Their flight home was 8am that day. It was not until the following day she found out they were safe and had been redirected to South Carolina. The couple had visited the skyline observatory in one of the towers the previous morning!

I cried on and off for a few weeks. Like many people I was hooked on watching the news reports, hoping for survivors to be pulled from under the rubble. It was all very traumatic yet I could not turn off.

I visited ground zero 2 years later in July 2003 and was shocked at the shear size of the area and also at how deep the hole was. I visited again a couple of months ago. There is still many years of work ahead. See here. 8 years later there are buildings close by that are still being torn down, because it is not cost-effective to repair.

Last night I watched a movie about how the people of Gander Newfoundland (pop 9651) took in people off 37 flights (6600 people) and provided them with food, shelter and support for 4 days. 40,000 international travellers were redirected to 15 different Canadian airports during that period.

The events of 9/11 changed history forever.

Everything does.

Exactly. I'm just about make coffee and throw the old grounds into the garberator, it may not be significant but the ripple effect will still be there.

Yes and aloud America to force it's will on the rest of the world regardless. It was bought on by America foreign policy towards Israel and continue support of Israels state terrorism on the Palestinians which still continues even today.

What really sad for me Is. How many war crimes were committed by Bush and Blair by using that as an excuse. Which saddens the memory of the victims of 9/11. If they knew how many people were going to be killed in their names and humans right abuses I'd think they would be rolling in there graves.

Was called at home told to be on standby to provide security at YVR - I had no idea what was going on - turned on the tv and stared at it for the rest of the day - never did get called into work.

Very sad day - the world has not been the same since.

Peace ....