I doubt there will ever be something so unique (maybe wrong word to use?) in the sense that it was the biggest atrocity in my lifetime, and it was all caught on camera, at least from after the first planes impact.
Most terrorist atrocities are captured after the fact. This one was played out live on TV, and the impact and the shock of seeing it live will never diminish for me. It really won't. Even now, 10 years later, it's as shocking now as it was back then. I still sit glued to anything connected with it because it still seems unreal.
I watched a programme on Sky the other night, not sure of it was NG, History or Discovery, called 10 Years Later. It was the story of the two french documentary makers who were there to make a film about New York City fire crews, one house in particular, and who were the people who captured the first plane hit when they were filming the fire crew in the street. It was so moving. Very powerful film. All taken on the day, all as it happened.
The things that stood out for me was the firefighters faces. They just seemed in complete shock. The film captured the moment when the crews in one tower heard the other collapsing and just ran for their lives. The moment when the second collapsed, and then the moments where, one by one, all the firefighters from that one fire house gradually came back to the fire house covered in dust and debris. I'll admit, I was crying watching it because it showed the raw emotion of the crew as they came back, saying 'I thought you were dead' to their colleagues, and hugging and in tears themselves.
The moment when the two french guys, brothers, just stood there, then one hugged the other and they both burst into tears at what had just happened, was very moving.
If anyone manages to catch it at some point, it's a brilliant 2 hour document of that day, and sums up the shock, panic and emotions of it all.
Very sad at the end when they show the faces of all 343 firemen that died that day, with Danny Boy sang over the top.
RIP.
