My September 11th 2001 Moses Serruya

On September 11, 2001, the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York were struck by two hijacked commercial airliners. Shortly afterwards a third plane hit the Pentagon in Washington and a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania. US air space was immediately closed and military forces were placed on the highest level of alert. Both towers of the World Trade Center collapsed trapping firefighters and office workers in the debris. In a matter of hours more than 3,000 people were killed

Funny isn't it, January 28, 1986, that I was getting in the car to drive home after 5 a side soccer, with my friend Tom, when we heard about space shuttle Challenger, and the death of its seven crew members, in front of the telly, all their families and viewers around the globe.

Same with Lady Diana Spencer, August 31,1997, it was Sunday morning, I shared a flat with Nadine and Jennifer, in Richmond Surrey, and it just left me speechless, moments in time that seem to leave a mark on you. That was nothing to what was to follow.

It was a typical day for me, fighting to make a go of my latest web venture, I usually worked through till the early morning, writing software, in cahoots with my long time friends and business partners Jan in LA and Rhan in NYC. It was about noon when I crawled out of bed and back to work with my coffee and cigarette, web cam up waiting to start off a new day, half way between Eastern and Western USA time.

That's when Rhan sitting at his desk in his apartment on the 15th story of a Grammercy (which is a bit closer to downtown than mid-town) Manhattan apartment building, said, check CNN on TV now, something's hit one of the twin towers downtown. Rhan remembers: What I really remember is being awake in the morning, we had our windows open and our studio apartment faces west, so when the first plane went by we heard it, didn't see it (we weren't looking out the window), it was real loud as it came in low right down the middle of Manhattan. I'm not entirely sure of its path, but it had to have come within 4 blocks of us, probably up about 200 stories or so. By the time I looked out the window it was gone. Anita (his partner) and I remarked to each other how loud it was, and she went to turn on NY1 just to check the weather like she does every morning, and there was the breaking news live coverage of it. As we both stood there watching in disbelief the second plane hit. I said "Oh my God, another plane's coming in!" I remember that day that the Internet was like a digital lifeline to me.

I'd spent the better part of my working life in Wall Street, having migrated over on the software developer slave trade back in the early 1990's, so Manhattan was in effect my second home, and I had often cause to visit clients in various floors of the nearby twin towers. I even took part in a fire drill, and stupidly asked why parachutes weren't provided when we were so far from the ground, and boy did the building sway, to which a worker there replied "It's no problem, you get used to it even when the winds are high".

"I've just heard a plane corner our building!" Rhan frantically typed into MSN messenger to me, "It's sounds like its in the building." I was completely aghast at what was unravelling in front of my eyes watching CNN live coverage, the supermarket-like calm voices of the news commentators, was starting to sound ridiculous, attempting to maintain the early morning upbeat welcome to the day so typical of American (and some British) news channels. continued below.

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My September 11th 2001 continued Moses Serruya

Meanwhile one of the most catastrophic days of modern day history tumbled its inevitable way onto the second shock wave of events, as the second tower is hit. Estimates are flying in as to the possible numbers of people in the building, as we stare in a dreamlike state to the live coverage flowing towards us.

One thing about Investment Banking I do know is that arriving early in the office is a matter of political correctness, so my mind raced through the people I knew who might be there, just arrived for a normal day, to face this. I tried to call Dave and Elaine, two close friends, who shared our summer house in Montauk, Long Island, both of whom worked there but survived I am very relieved to say. Dave said "I arrived out of the subway about 9:30 am as usual and saw the first tower ploughed into by a passenger airliner."

It's 2 years on, and I am still deeply hurt by the events of that day, 9/11, still reverberating around the world now, and I am convinced that anything can happen in life from dreams coming true to tragedies as colossal as that.

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