I remember where I was

The 25th anniversary of 9/11 is almost upon us. It’s hard to believe that a quarter century has passed since this brazen and deadly terrorist attack on American soil. The intervening years have failed to diminish the impact of the mind-numbing statistics that haunt this infamous date.

On that day, 19 terrorists planned and subsequently hijacked four airliners. They then flew one into each of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York City. The third plane crashed into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in a rural Pennsylvania field during a passenger revolt.

A total of 2996 lost their lives that day, including the 19 murder-suicide hijackers. Countless more died prematurely in the years that followed from exposure to the toxic dust that engulfed lower Manhattan after the Twin Towers fell. The New York skyline was forever changed in an instant, along with aviation security. The death and destruction which occurred that day, in the heart of the world’s financial capital, was simply beyond comprehension.

Much like the generation before me who recall where they were when Kennedy was assassinated, my generation can recall where we were when news broke that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre. I was in Hong Kong at the time.  I’d flown in from Tokyo a few days earlier, on 8 September, after spending three weeks on secondment training and supporting the executive team in Japan. Tokyo has become the company’s most problematic APAC office, so I'd been seconded to help reform it.

On September 11, APAC’s Regional Director flew in from Sydney late in the afternoon and joined me for a debrief over dinner. We returned to our hotel around 8:30pm. At the time, we were staying at Bishop Lei International House, an unassuming three-star establishment in Mid-Levels on Hong Kong Island. Its rooms were tiny, barely fitting a bed and side table, and its amenities were limited. For example, the only English-language channel on television was CNN. As a result, I'd often watch it after dinner, which I did that day.

At 8:49pm, minutes after turning on the TV, CNN cut live to scenes of smoke pouring from the World Trade Centre's North Tower. American Airlines Flight 11 had struck the building just three minutes earlier, at 8:46 am local time. Along with millions of others, I watched live as a second plane struck the South Tower soon after. I still remember seeing United Airlines Flight 175's fuzzy silhouette coming into view as a news anchor speculated on what was happening. I thought to myself, the camera angle made the plane look unusually close to the unfolding tragedy. 

As the hours passed, I watched live as the Pentagon was struck, flights were grounded across the USA, and each tower fell. I kept watching until 7 World Trade Centre collapsed at 5:20am Hong Kong Time. I eventually grabbed a few hours of sleep. Marty Lederhandler's award-winning image above poignantly captured the surreal nature of the terrorist attacks. Cloudless blue skies. A serene Empire State Building. It really was just another sunny day in the Big Apple.

I recall vividly just how hypnotic the news coverage was. The scenes being broadcast live simply beggared belief. There was also a palpable fear that high-profile buildings were being targeted globally. At the time, my company’s Hong Kong office was based in the Bank of China building. Its distinctive diagonal facade made it one of the city’s most iconic towers. If terrorists were targeting high-profile buildings worldwide, then this was an obvious target. Should I stay away from the office?

At one point, emotionally overwhelmed, I tried calling my parents to tell them I loved them. However, they were driving through Portugal on a tour bus, without international roaming access. They remained unaware of the news unfolding in the USA until they reached their hotel later that evening. Real-time online messaging was still years away. When the planes crashed into the World Trade Centre, it was a full six years before the first iPhone. There was no WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. 

As you can imagine, very little work got done in the office the following day. Instead, we sat around recalling the events from the previous night, reflecting on the profound shock and utter disbelief we all felt. Newspapers delivered to the office became a stark reminder of everything we’d witnessed. Hong Kong’s tabloid newspapers printed graphic images on their front page. This included photos of people clinging to pillars near the ugly gash American Airlines Flight 11 had carved through the North Tower, and of people falling to their deaths. It was interesting insight into cultural differences. 

Over the years I’ve become used to Chinese media publishing graphic images Australian media outlets would consider gratuitous in nature. That said, much to my surprise, the Australian Financial Review's front page on 12 September led with "The Falling Man", a confronting image of a desperate victim who'd chosen to jump rather than be burned alive. A few days ago I found copies of the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's premier broadsheet newspaper, that I kept after the event, along with copies of the Sydney Morning Herald. It's chilling to read these hardcopy editions 25 years later.  The shock and horror of the day flows through every story, page after page. 

It's also worth noting how intimately involved Australia found itself on 11 September. On that fateful day, John Howard, Australia's Prime Minister, was in Washington DC, visiting the White House and preparing to speak to the joint houses of Congress the following day. His speech was planned as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the ANZUS treaty. Instead, as he hosted a press conference in the Willard InterContinental Hotel, terrorists crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon. 

When the conference concluded, aides opened curtains they'd closed to control indoor lighting for the television cameras. They were stunned by the view that greeted them. In the distance, the Pentagon was burning. The image above was taken by an Australian journalist, David McMeekin. The Secret Service responded immediately to mounting security fears; Mr Howard and his team were swiftly moved to a secure safe house in the basement of the nearby Australian Embassy. As a result, Australians were given a personal insight into the terrorist attacks as their own leader reported on events unfolding around him.

On 13 September I caught an evening flight back to Sydney. As fate would have it, I was flying Ansett Australia. While my Boeing 747 flew south, Australia’s second-largest airline collapsed into liquidation. All flights were cancelled shortly after 10:00 pm, and its aircraft were grounded. My plane, already in the air, was one of the last to land the following morning. If memory serves me well, the last plane, an overnight flight from Perth, landed shortly after us. I recall sitting in the aircraft’s front cabin, which was almost completely empty. It was clear then that 9/11 was already taking its toll on the aviation industry as people deferred or cancelled their travel plans.

A year later, I was in New York on business. I recall visiting Ground Zero and seeing the hole in the ground filled with debris where the towers once stood. Skyscrapers in the surrounding neighbourhood still bore that day's scars. This included broken windows, damaged facades and boarded-up street-floor tenancies. It was hard to comprehend that the South Tower, and its 108-floor outdoor observation deck I’d once enjoyed, was gone. That's a retrospective post for another time. A decade later, I took Mum and Dad to visit the 9/11 memorial, just months before Dad passed away.

I read recently that Madeline Amy Sweeney, a flight attendant on Flight 11, was born just two months after me. She was murdered at the age of 35. As I reflect on my life and last year’s 60th birthday celebration, her death resonates deeply. I have so many wonderful memories from the last 25 years, while Amy was cruelly denied the same experience. This really brings home the tragic human toll of that fateful day. Likewise, my memories of Hong Kong will be forever linked with those of 9/11.

One final note. I've illustrated parts of this post with photos I took during my second visit to the Big Apple in 1998. A friend, Ian, and I decided on the spur of the moment to take advantage of a discount fare and spend a week in Manhattan. I'll share more about this trip in another post. While in New York, we visited the South Tower Observation Deck. As you can see, the view from 420 metres above street level was truly spectacular.

UPDATE: 11 September 2026

New York City commemorated the 25th anniversary of 9/11 with a spectacular drone show on 9 September. A total of 2,977 synchronised drones rose over New York Harbour to recreate the outline of the twin towers in a moving tribute to those killed that day. The number of drones matched exactly the number of lives lost, less those of the 19 terrorists involved. A beautifully haunting display.