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The night Sandra Sully watched history change

I'll never forget the night Sandra Sully told me a plane had struck one of the towers of the World Trade Centre.

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I’ll never forget the night Sandra Sully told me a plane had struck one of the towers of the World Trade Centre.

I was sitting up late working at my computer (as I am ten years later) and the first reports sounded like a terrible accident had taken place. Early reports were sketchy, but it sounded like a light plane may have hit the building. Smoke was streaming from the side of the building.

I’d always remembered seeing the towers in movies. Jessica Lange was carried up it by Dino De Laurentiis’ King Kong. Godspell had staged a song and dance number on the roof. The Wiz had a lavish number on the plaza. Homer Simpson had tried to take a pee in them.

I discussed the news with my housemate who was getting ready for bed.  How could such an accident have taken place? Had an aggrieved pilot committed suicide? It was all rather terrible, but it seemed so far away in the craziness that is America. I went back to my work.

I think the next time I checked in a second plane had hit. This time it had been caught on camera and was being replayed. It was no light plane, it was a passenger jet. Fireballs exploded. I dropped everything and so did my housemate. What I watched unfold was a night we’ll never forget.

Sandra Sully stayed on air through an extended TEN Late News talking us through the devastating and inexplicable events. Ever the professional, she kept relaying the facts as they came to hand. I have no idea how she remained so composed through it all. At home I was ringing friends late at night trying to say “Are you seeing this?” I also had a friend living in New York. I had no idea where her office was in relation to the WTC.

I remember seeing the NBC Today Show staying on the air to cover it all. Katie Couric, Matt Lauer… city on fire.

Then a report came in that the Pentagon had been hit. A fortress of American strength. What was happening to the world?

Watching the towers tumble was like something out of a movie. Godzilla without Godzilla. I stayed up for about 4 hours watching it all. I don’t remember if I learned of the crash in Pennsylvania that night….

In the days that followed (when Ansett went under too), everybody just stayed home. Theatre shows, parties, cinemas and community events struggled to attract crowds. Nobody was in the mood for gatherings.

Australian networks had blanket coverage for several days from New York. I remember Ray Martin describing the scene.

Amazingly, I later came across a 2002 New York City calendar I must have bought that month. On the front cover is a picture of the twin towers standing tall. I have kept it sealed in its plastic wrapper ever since, because it’s sadly something that never came to pass.

Ten years later Sandra Sully is still reading me the late night news. Yesterday she also got married in Sydney.

But I will never forget the night we watched history change together.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVTY7i2o70w[/youtube]

54 Responses

  1. I was housesitting at the time, and watching When We Were Kings on ABC that night. About 30-45mins into it there was a breaking news message at the bottom of the screen so I flicked between the channels and settled on Sandra as I normally did anyway. Didn’t end up going to bed that night and was glued to the TV until sunrise (ie actual sunrise, not the TV show hehe).

    To this day I still haven’t seen the end of When We Were Kings.

  2. Sandra for me all the way! Out of any networks news presenters she tops the lot! She is so natural and does a fantastic job. I just wish we could see more of her!!

  4. I was working in Canada at the time, doing nightshifts. Finished at 8.30am. Got home 10 minutes later, went to sleep at… 8.45am when the first plane hit. I missed everything. 🙁

  6. I remember switching on a bit after 9pm having planning to spend an evening with The West Wing – the second plane had just hit a few minutes earlier. Surreal is the only word that describes the next few hours before we all eventually forced ourselves to go to bed.

  7. It was Sandra for me too. I got home late that night as I was in the city. So I watched Lateline then I flicked over to see the end of the Late News with Sandra Sully as Ten was the only network with that option. I also like Sandra. That’s when I heard it. When she said a plane had hit the WTC; I thought terrorists. But then I looked to see if someone else was up and we were trying to reassure each other with the possibility of an accident. Including that a plane had hit the Empire State Building in the forties. And then the second plane hit: so we knew. I never did see the end of the news even though I watched it until midday on different channels. But even I need some sleep. I thought they did their best or tried to at the time. Thank you for that.

  8. I was baby sitting my first grand child…just a few weeks old,,,,his Mum and Dad went out for a late dinner….watching Sandra on the late news when the story of the ‘accident’ broke….while I was sitting there….watched the 2nd plane come around ….I was sort of mesmerised by it…and then it just flew straight into the other tower….I could not move….I think I yelled…could not believe what I was seeing…..
    And Sandra…God bless her…..flying by the seat of her pants….kept it all together and kept us fully informed…..she sure earned her stripes that day.
    On occasions when I have had news on ch.7 rare….they have the city in the background behind the reader….and when I see a plane flying past…is makes me feel ill…have to turn it off….
    David, ….thankyou ….as always a good read….well written story.

  9. I actually had no idea what had happened until very late in the day.

    I work installing TV’s at Hotels, TAB’s and etc; that night of Sandra I had got home late after a 16 hour day and pretty much went straight to bed as I was up early the next day, so I went in and installed a heap of TV’s at a country venue (so had a CD playing in the van as it was a 2 hour drive).

    I got the TV’s installed and started bank tuning them in, turned back to look at the ones I first started and couldn’t figure out why the same channel tuned in to every number. After trying retuning again, someone walked up and said: “Terrible what happened hey,” I said huh and he told me, I then realised it wasn’t the same Channel just that every station had the CNN Feed (complete with ticker) on screen.

    Never felt so not in touch with what was going on in the world in my life.

  10. Well written david.
    I was watcing Sandra too, I always watch the Late Night News, and she was so composed and pragmatic in her reporting while the rest of us watcing were numb. well done.

  11. I was the same. I was up watching the news as normal with my Mum (was in high school back then) and we ended up staying up most of the night watching it.

    Sandra did an amazing job.

  12. Very similar for me, too. I was watching something on 7 or 9 and switched over to the ABC to watch some late-evening program. Was surprised to see that Lateline was still on. Switched back over for about 5 minutes and then back to the ABC.

    Lateline was still going (!) but this time I saw footage of smoke from the first crash and stayed to find out more. Thought it was a light plane, too – maybe the pilot had a heart-attack. When the second plane went in I knew it was no accident.

    Stayed up ’til 4am and switched to Ten when they took the CNN feed.

  14. Very moving article, David.
    I had shivers down my spine reading this because I was too young to remember it and it was too long ago to recall how I actually found out about it.
    Just a question, Sandra Sully at the end of the clip was talking about a ‘Middle Eastern media reporting that a Middle Eastern ‘group’ claimed responsibility for the attack’, was this ‘group’ she was talking about Al-Qaeda (as opposed to maybe another lesser known group who wanted responsibility of it)? And if so, the way she worded it, does this mean that Al-Qaeda wasn’t a well known terrorist group before this incident?

  15. At around 10.45pm Sept 11 2001, I was watching the credits roll for “Rove” and for some reason I didn’t want to go to bed. I was struck down with the flu, Sandra Sully introduced the news and I switched the TV off and went off to bed. Next day I woke up, called in sick to work, boss didn’t believe I was sick, she accused me of watching TV all night. I thought she had suddenly gone batty. Half an hour later I turned on Triple M on the radio and wondered why the announcers were sounding ‘low’. And then they mentioned ‘New York disaster”. Ten hours after that first jet slammed into the World Trade Centre I suddenly realised what had occurred. To this day I can’t believe I switched off the TV so soon before Sandra Sully’s breaking news. Thinking of all who lost loved ones ten years ago today.

  17. My recollection of the night was I just finished watching Rove and the news came on, I heard about the 1st plane supposedly hitting the building thinking it was some accident then they showed the 2nd plane going in and I was shocked!

    It was just like I was watching a movie but it was real, then the two buildings collapsed, strangely I still thought it wasnt real, my brain wasn’t connecting that this was actually happening right then. Perhaps if I had been to New York and knew the places where this happened I may have felt different?

    I remember though the constant coverage of it and the more I watched the more it did sink in and the more depressed I came over it, I’m pretty sure we had like 2 weeks of non stop coverage here, I was glad when it was finally over tbh.

  23. I was watching Prime at the time and it suddenly cut to breaking news to report a plane had hit the WTC. Then, a 2nd plane hit and clearly it was no accident. For the next few hours I just couldn’t take my eyes off the screen.

    David, I have wondered recently at what time the networks cut to the live feed from New York. Do you know at what time Ch7/Prime switched from regular programming to coverage of the unfolding situation in the US?

  24. OMG, Sandra is also my memory of the event. I watched the 2nd plane hit live and Sandra had not even seen/been told it had happened. It was a very surreal moment.

  25. I too was watching Sandra. I tuned in about 2 minutes before they took live feed from the US. I remember vividly watching the second plane hit. I too stayed up for hours with Sandra my only comfort. I’ll never forget that.

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