I've been watching some of the documentaries marking the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Like most people I was familiar with the news clips showing bodies falling from the Twin Towers, the collapse of the buildings and the great clouds of dust and debris that rained down on the people below, but repeated viewings have probably desensitised us to the horror of many of those scenes.
However one or two documentaries featured film I had never previously seen, the most shocking of which was the second jet hitting the South Tower.
In one programme the roar of the engines could be heard before the plane came into view above the cameraman's head.
It was flying low so when the plane appears you really experience the speed at which it's travelling, and when it hits the building a second or two later it completely disappears, as if the tower has gobbled it up.
The 'only' evidence that something has hit the building is a huge gash in the facade and an enormous pall of smoke.
Meanwhile the roar of the engines is replaced by the shouts and screams of passers-by.
Perhaps that shot has been shown before but I've never seen it. Likewise a similar shot from a different angle in another documentary.
Some of the personal stories were also new to me. One documentary featured interviews with relatives of people who died that day.
One of the dead was a firefighter who was hit by the body of someone who had jumped from one of the towers – a double tragedy.
His wife was surprisingly phlegmatic. Regardless of that fluke incident, she said, he would have died anyway that day because he was just about to enter the South Tower which later collapsed killing all but one of his colleagues.
Anyway it's common for people to ask 'Where were you?' on 9/11 so I'll add my tuppence halfpenny.
I was at Forest's old office in Palace Street, London, with three colleagues. The UK is five hours ahead of New York so we had just finished our lunch break.
Someone – I can't remember who – read online that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers.
Like many people we assumed it was a small light aircraft so we didn't give the story much thought until the news came through, 15 minutes later, that the second tower had been hit by another plane.
For some unfathomable reason we didn't have a proper working TV in our ground floor office. The only television we had was kept in the storeroom along with our old files.
It was a tiny black and white set with a cheap indoor aerial and we didn't use it because it barely worked.
Knowing that something significant was happening we somehow managed to get a picture so we could watch the unfolding drama.
I don't remember much work getting done. Instead we were glued to the fuzzy images.
Sixteen years later, in August 2017, I got a chance to pay my respects to those who died when we visited New York following a transatlantic cruise.
Our room on the 52nd floor of our hotel overlooked Ground Zero and the new Freedom Tower (aka One World Trade Center).
The 911 Memorial – which features the names of everyone who died – is a beautiful and rather affecting tribute to those who lost their lives and I'm very glad I had the chance to see it.
Above: view from the 52nd floor of our hotel overlooking Ground Zero and the 911 Memorial in 2017. Below: the Freedom Tower (centre)
