Memories of 9/11 - 20 years on

Tomorow is 20th anniversary of 9/11

Should we share our own memories of that day?

I would recommend watching (if it's still available) 9/11 One Day in In America, the National Geographic Documentary series. Six parts the first is about 80 mins the rest are roughly 60 but it is gripping. Only people who were there that day speak in the episodes with the exception of one or two.

They tell their stories and they are just beyond belief as well as so much of the footage used

What about the one that was on the BBC recently?

I remember when it happened I was just in from work (worked part-time back then) and was having lunch - when programme I was watching suddenly switched to what was happening, one of those things you are like - is that really happening, and sat in disbelief watching it

I was at Newcastle Airport catching a flight back to London.

I think that at some time in the mid-1990s, a small civil aircraft had crashed into the White House lawn (not a terrorist incident). So when I heard that 'a plane has flown into the World Trade Centre', I imagined a similar incident and was not too shocked.

But they started showing the rolling coverage in the lounge and we were all transfixed by it. I remember thinking that it was an aviation accident ... then the second plane hit and it became clear that America was under attack.

Shortly after that, they called my flight and I think it may have been the last flight to leave before they temporarily grounded everyone as a precaution.

I've never been on a more silent, eerie flight. They never even came around with the drinks trolley. Everyone was just in shock.

I was working as an administrator for a firm of solicitors back then. It was my turn to take the company's banking on that day.

I was walking down the main shopping high street when I saw a crowd gathering outside the TV shop window. I went over to see what they were looking at on the TV's. The second plane had just gone in to the south tower in New York and people had seen it first hand whilst watching the TVs.

People in the crowd were visibly upset and shaken. I remember I waited a few minutes there before continuing on to the bank, and was shaking when I was in the bank.

When I got back to the office afterwards there were lots of people talking about it in reception. I think it was pretty hard for anybody to carry on working until the end of that day.

I was involved in Civil Aviation manufacture, & at work, as information came through. It struck a chord, to think that an aircraft could be used in this way. All our worst fears of a terrorist attack were to become fact, & you just felt that the world had chanced, in such a dramatic sense, with a very frightening & uncertain future. I watched the footage at home later in disbelief, & the live coverage as it all unfolded was so distressing, I remember feeling physically ill.