My dad was in the states at the time on a business trip to Orlando, Florida. He had flown into Newark, New Jersey and was staying with some friends he had in New Jersey to then fly down to Florida the next day.
I hadn't heard anything of it while at school. I'd put the tv on to watch the children's program "Aquila" on BBC1 to find the news report on there. At first, i didn't actually believe it was real and thought it was part of another program until I turned over to BBC2, saw that "Aquila" was being broadcast on BBC2 instead. I then went up to my sister in her bedroom and she had the radio on with the news and then I realised that it had really happened.
My dad's meeting was cancelled as all the flights were grounded for three days afterwards and it was a little while before we'd actually heard from him. (New Jersey is only the state next to new York and he'd flown in that day; so not knowing initially which flights had crashed, we were a bit worried but he called us and we knew he was okay. He said he'd put the tv on after news of the first flight and so watched the second plane hit and the collapse of both towers live on tv. It really affected him, I think as when he eventually got home, he seemed really withdrawn and at one time said he was planning to move out and live somwhere else for a few weeks but that never happened and he got better quite quickly.
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