story10740.xml

story10740.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2004-08-09

I had been working at the BBC for only a month. I was working as a Planning Assistant when the first plane hit. As we had televisions on our desks, we were already watching the TV when we switched over to BBC News 24. One of the towers had been hit, by what we thought, was a light aircraft. That's just before we saw a second plane coming in and it hit the other tower. We were all sat there in shock. A few minutes later it was announced that they were passenger planes. What we had witnessed was horrific - no one seemed to know what was going on. A few of us went to get a coffee and as we came back it was announced that the Pentagon had been attacked too. It felt as if the whole world had gone mad. As I was working at the BBC, we were immediately put on high security alert, as was most of London that day.

I will never forget those scenes I watched on the TV - no one should ever have had to watch so many people lose their lives in such a horrific way.