story1142.xml
Title
story1142.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-08-19
911DA Story: Story
The time is about 8:00 a.m. I'm driving to school, listening to the radio, when a DJ comes on during a break in the music and announces that an aircraft had just hit the World Trade Centre. Suprised, not yet shocked, I dismissed it and thought to myself, "I wonder how bad it is."
8:30 a.m. I'm in class, discussing what I'd heard on the radio, when my instructor walks in and informs us that a second plane hit the World Trade Centre. Everyone in class, shocked, let out a collective, "What?" and promptly ran downstairs to watch the events unfolding on CNN.
For the next three and a half hours of our day in school, everyone in school crammed into the small waiting area adjacent to the front desk and watched, in utter amazement to some and horror to others, the unbelievable video footage. I was in absolute shock. I couldn't believe that something like this was happening; it truly seemed surreal, like something out of a movie.
I will never forget the videotape of people walking northward through the city, attempting to escape the inferno of ground zero. It reminded me of the movie Independence Day. The most horrifying footage was yet to come.
As reports came in of a third aircraft hitting the Pentagon, a fourth crashing in Pennsylvania, and unidentified aircraft still in flight over the New York area, the thirty or so people in our group of onlookers gasped as the first tower fell. A friend of mine yells out, "Oh my God. It's gone. GONE!"
Seemingly as quickly as the first tower fell, the second one crumbled into devestation, and two buildings I never in my wildest imagination could ever forsee being destroyed were gone. Just like that. As the military scrambled their fighters to ward off any additional attacks from the sky, I thought to myself, God have mercy on the dumb son of a bitch who did this.
8:30 a.m. I'm in class, discussing what I'd heard on the radio, when my instructor walks in and informs us that a second plane hit the World Trade Centre. Everyone in class, shocked, let out a collective, "What?" and promptly ran downstairs to watch the events unfolding on CNN.
For the next three and a half hours of our day in school, everyone in school crammed into the small waiting area adjacent to the front desk and watched, in utter amazement to some and horror to others, the unbelievable video footage. I was in absolute shock. I couldn't believe that something like this was happening; it truly seemed surreal, like something out of a movie.
I will never forget the videotape of people walking northward through the city, attempting to escape the inferno of ground zero. It reminded me of the movie Independence Day. The most horrifying footage was yet to come.
As reports came in of a third aircraft hitting the Pentagon, a fourth crashing in Pennsylvania, and unidentified aircraft still in flight over the New York area, the thirty or so people in our group of onlookers gasped as the first tower fell. A friend of mine yells out, "Oh my God. It's gone. GONE!"
Seemingly as quickly as the first tower fell, the second one crumbled into devestation, and two buildings I never in my wildest imagination could ever forsee being destroyed were gone. Just like that. As the military scrambled their fighters to ward off any additional attacks from the sky, I thought to myself, God have mercy on the dumb son of a bitch who did this.
Collection
Citation
“story1142.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 21, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/8494.