I second this. I was a child in Elementary school at the time and had just woken up and walked into the living room with the television on after the first plane attack. The reporter (forgot the network, I’d seen the same footage repeatedly all day that day and never wanted to look again) was still talking about the possibility of it being an accident right up until the second plane attacked. Even in my eyes at the time, one might be an accident but two was an attack.
My only connection to the word "terrorist" until that day was from a James Bond game (I was also young). Its hard to believe now, but the idea of a deliberate attack on civilians was really not on most people's radar at all. I think that's why most people's reaction to the second plane was pure bewilderment. It wouldn't be like that now.
>Its hard to believe now, but the idea of a deliberate attack on civilians was really not on most people's radar at all.
Though people were far less concerned about it than now, it's not fair to say it wasn't on their radar at all. The WTC had already been attacked once, and Timothy McVeigh was executed for the Oklahoma City Bombing only a few months before 9/11.
Even on the day, in that twenty minute window between crashes the general narrative was it might be an attack, just no reason to think it is yet.
I was in 6th grade, when we walked into second period English the teacher had a new channel on the TV. Noone had told us anything was going on so my friend and I were sitting in our desk making jokes thinking it was some movie until the teacher came in and told us it was real, then the second plane hit. Weird day...
