it was a crystal blue morning....

[smokey the elder]

I remember being in front of my building at work talking with someone and seeing a plane fly by. We're not too far from the White Plains airport, but it was going south.

I went inside and someone said an airplane had hit the WTC. Thinking of the plane that had hit the Empire State Building a long time ago in the fog, I said, "In this weather?" Then a few minutes later the second plane hit. My SO worked late so was in bed; I called and left a message on the answering machine that he said later was so garbled...he said all he could make out was "terrorist attack", "WTC" and "We're probably at war with someone right now".

I think the plane that flew over was the one that hit the North Tower; the flight path shown later was consistent with that. I always wonder if it would have been worth the effort to call someone, but I wasn't aware at the time that that was an unusual flight path.

[RICHARD]

I think the plane that flew over was the one that hit the North Tower; the flight path shown later was consistent with that. I always wonder if it would have been worth the effort to call someone, but I wasn't aware at the time that that was an unusual flight path.

Wow, that is really crazy.

Because I am an airplane freak, any irregular plane noise makes me run out of the house and look. Years ago I was in my house and I heard a large jet passing very low over the airport that is two blocks away.

Turns out that he had mistaken the small AP for Burbank/Bob Hope AP -which is about 4-5 miles away and almost oriented in the same way.

The plane that hit the ESB was a military bomber, I remember reading about it in a book...

I can't help but think about where the idea of crashing planes into building came from. Dale Brown and Tom Clancy both wrote books with plots involving nut cases doing the same.

I cringe when I think about how many other literary 'twists' people will think about and use in a terrorist attack.

[cassiesmom]

I'd started a new job the previous week. I was getting ready to go for training at the home of a telecommuter co-worker. First day at her house and I was nervous because I'd never met her and the managers told me that her Great Dane was a big softie, not to worry. I just remember Katie Couric on the Today Show saying it was very unclear what a commercial airliner was doing so close to the NYC skyscrapers (that was after the first one hit, and if I remember correctly, they thought it was some sort of pilot error). One of the part-time pastors at my church was on the Boston to L.A. plane, so there was a prayer service at church the very next evening.

The fire station by my work has rows and rows of small American flags on their front lawn.