9/11@15

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,495
A better quality version


[Oops, my bad. It's not the same, just very similar and made 10 years later. Winter versus summer. I like the 2002 winter one better.]
 
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GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
And it has evolved to this...
The old comedians theory that tragedy plus time equals comedy. I think this one will take a bit (a lot) more time...
Note: the owner has closed the chain until further notice.

 
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GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Avd this three-month-old nissan rouge commercial looks like a storm cloud at the beginning but evolve into a 9/11 like dust cloud in the end - the commercial was barely aired in the previous three months and has been on NBC almost every prime time commercial break this week before 9/11.

 

Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
12,998
A look back.

I remember watching this live. At the second plane I started packing the truck to leave the city with my family because I thought this was the beginning of something much bigger.
 
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wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,495
Me too.

I remember the confusion after the first plane hit. One of my coworkers mentioned that a plane had hit a building in New York. We collected in the conference room to watch the TV there. We were all thinking it was maybe some nut in a private plane. Soon we realized it was much more serious.

Then the second plane hit. In that instant, we all knew.

The level of shock and realization is hard to express. Numbness is the closest I can come. Helplessness. When the first tower fell, it was beyond comprehension. And yet we knew then that, where it had once seemed impossible, the second tower would likely follow the first.

My children were 9 and 12. Driving home that evening I tried to have a discussion with them to impress upon them the significance without scaring them. They asked why it was "such a big deal" in the news. How do you answer this to a child?

I told them about their grandmother living through Pearl Harbor as a young teenager. They knew how grandma had recounted many times how that moment changed the lives of young Americans and was etched into their memories until the day they died. I told them that this was like that; that this event on 9/11 would shape their worlds for years to come and they'd never forget it. I had no idea how true that would turn out to be.

Late that night, I couldn't take anymore of the news and went for a walk around the neighborhood. No planes in the sky, no highway noise, no cars on the roads. Absolute and utter silence. It was surreal. In every house, the glow of the TV was the only light on.
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,212
Although I never approve of a tragedy being used for commercial purposes. I have to admit that that one wasn't so bad. How can any corporation publicly express its support without looking like an opportunistic jackass? It's a very delicate balance.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Although I never approve of a tragedy being used for commercial purposes. I have to admit that that one wasn't so bad. How can any corporation publicly express its support without looking like an opportunistic jackass? It's a very delicate balance.
By making a great big donation to the victims and first responders and let those people make a public "thank you".
 

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,155
I missed seeing both planes hit. I was in the air over Atlanta when this all went down. I had flown out of Boston that morning, from one gate over from where one of the planes departed. It took me over 12 hours to get a cell phone connection to call home. My family was frantic. It then took me three-four days to get home via car to Charlote NC, and train to Boston.
 

OBW0549

Joined Mar 2, 2015
3,566
I expect I'll always remember that day, crystal-clear in my mind, in detail, the same way I'll always remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when we got the news of JFK's assassination.
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
When I saw the second plane hit, I was just waking up and I thought it was a bad re-make of, "Towering Inferno". Nobody would make a movie of two towering infernos, it's just so improbable that the audience couldn't suspend disbelief until the movie was over.

Then I found out I was wrong.:(
 

JoeJester

Joined Apr 26, 2005
4,390
I saw the second plane hit. I knew it was no accident. I remember talking to a chief that worked for me as a PO2, and flight 93 came up. I told him that I knew in my heart it was brought down by the passengers. We found out later, that was the case.

The only other time I lost that much sleep was Jan 17th 1991, my eyes were glued to CNN.
 

boatsman

Joined Jan 17, 2008
187
I was at work that day and someone came in the department and called us all to come and see what was happening in New York. It was horrifying to see the towers in flames and collapsing. Unfortunately this Islamic terrorism is still active all over the Middle East and it is only when it happens in the US or Europe that people take any notice.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
I saw the second plane hit. I knew it was no accident. I remember talking to a chief that worked for me as a PO2, and flight 93 came up. I told him that I knew in my heart it was brought down by the passengers. We found out later, that was the case.

The only other time I lost that much sleep was Jan 17th 1991, my eyes were glued to CNN.
It is amazing to me that a cell phone with 2001 technology on an airplane over central Pennsylvania was able to get a connection and hand off from ground tower to ground tower as the plane moved.
 

JoeJester

Joined Apr 26, 2005
4,390
Who is to say where the tower was that made the connection. I've see the optical side of a lighting detector that detected reflections of the sun on upper atmospheric ice from halfway around the world.

Satellite TV is limited in power but there are two that cover the US.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Who is to say where the tower was that made the connection. I've see the optical side of a lighting detector that detected reflections of the sun on upper atmospheric ice from halfway around the world.

Satellite TV is limited in power but there are two that cover the US.
Yup, I was flying 6 to 8 segments per week in those days and my phone wouldn't always get turned off during a flight - and many people had the same habit. Interestingly, there was an occasional ring as we should come in for a landing but but never an incoming call when more than a few miles from an airport. The luck to get a connection and maintain a connection more than a half-minute is amazing - especially since there was a huge dead zone when driving between Penn State and Pittsburgh or Penn State to Cleveland in those days (still exists to some degree).
 

JoeJester

Joined Apr 26, 2005
4,390
I'm wondering if they improved their odds by holding the phones closer to the windows.

However they did it, they did what was needed to be done. The AF pilot who went up looking for flight 93 in an unarmed aircraft had to come to grip the reality of taking down a civilian aircraft by ramming it. In fact he and his wingman had decided to clip the wings of flight 93 and try to eject. The passengers had already decided to bring that plane down.

Maybe in 2020, some of the records will be declassified to shed more light on this. I regard the passengers of flight 93 in the highest respect.
 
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