In memory - 9/11

As I was packing my boxes in my office yesterday, it suddenly dawned upon me that it was the 6th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I remember the attacks like it was yesterday. I was having dinner and plonked myself down in front of the TV to watch the latest news on CNN. Before you know, the sign Breaking News came on and we see thick smoke bellowing our from the first WTC tower . Nobody suspected that was a terrorist attack at that point and thought that it was merely an unfortunate accident. A couple of minutes later, I and I guess everyone else watched in disbelief as another plane crashed into the 2nd Tower. With thick smoke and fire bellowing through to the uppers floors, hapless people trapped in those upper floors got out onto the ledge of the windows to escape the fumes enveloping those floors. We were then shown fire engines and paramedics rushing to the scene and some 20 minutes later the first Tower collapsed followed by the 2nd Tower - I lost my appetite then. Even the CNN correspondent reporting from the top of the another building located a couple of blocks from the WTC was speechless - I mean what else is there to say. I bet every viewer of this horrific event was in a state of shock. Our firm which is a global entity lost 4 employees in the attacks. They were in the 2 planes which crashed into the Towers. One of them was travelling with his 3 year old daughter.

These unprecedented attacks came exactly 60 years after Pearl Harbour and I was on my way to London on a much needed vacation the very next morning!!

I remember KLIA being slightly chaotic the next morning - they checked all our hand carry bags, one by one for any sharp objects be it a pen or even a small little scissors. The plane to Singapore was delayed by over an hour and was also subjected to rigorous technical checks. By the time we reached Changi to get onto the SIA plane headed for London, we have lost almost four hours of travelling time. Plane food as you all know is not that great but what made it worse was eating it with plastic utensils! Stainless steel cutlery was outlawed the day after the attacks.

The scene at Heathrow was equally chaotic. London was on high alert and the streets were lined with bobbies. At every tourist spot in London, be it the Palace or the Tower of London, our bags were checked thoroughly and we were subjected to other security measures before we were let in. The worse part of my holiday there was having to read the dreaded papers every day - they were rather depressing. Stories of victims after victims were poured out of the every newspaper in London.

In the aftermath of these tragedies, came the war on terrorism and that's another story....

So where were you during and immediately after the 9/11 attacks?