BAZflyer: 9/11

For more than one reason there is an event in living history that will forever be imprinted in Bazflyer minds.

Our world is conveniently divided into ‘Time Zones’ designed so that as different parts of Earth enter and exit daylight conventional subdivisions of standard time can be observed for legal, commercial and social purposes. The conventional wisdom of this is when it is morning some where on our planet at the same moment in a diametrically opposite place evening rituals are occurring. And so it was in NewZealand on a September day in 2001.

It was the middle of the night. Bazflyers were asleep. The ringing of a telephone jolted them awake. The birth of grandchild number-one had been earlier in the day so the first reaction was any call at this hour of the night was unlikely to be good news. The telephone was answered....a known voice on the other end calling from London, economically and quietly said; “Go, turn on your television”, then hung up.

In New Zealand the time zone was 1:00 am in the morning of 12th September. In New York the time was 9:00 am on the 11th September. Just 14 minutes since a hijacked airliner, Flight 11, had deliberately and unbelievably been flown into the North Tower of New York’s World Trade Centre. The television screen in the living room was barely alive when somewhat incredulously live broadcast images captured a second airliner, Flight 175, flying into the South Tower.

South of New York a third hijacked airliner, Flight 77, was flown into the Pentagon building. Meanwhile, as a result of on board actions by brave passengers and crew, the forth airliner involved, Flight 93, crashed in farmland to the west of New York City before it could make the hijacker’s intended target.

In the space of a little more than an hour both World Trade Center Towers, at that time the tallest buildings in the world, had been reduced to a pile of smoking rubble. Altogether this deliberate and wilful act of terrorism took 2,977 lives, more have since died of related causes and many thousands of people were injured.

The ensuing live scenes and images of that day mesmerised not just the Bazflyers, but millions of people round the world. However, although intuitively recognised in the midst of all that mayhem, many of our freedoms once taken for granted irrevocably evaporated along with the World Trade Centre Twin Towers.

All that is now 18 years in the past but for many of the Bazflyer generation the once unfettered freedom of travel, or even entry into public buildings without security checks, is a nearly forgotten memory. Along with that the grandson with his birthday on September 11th, has grown into a fine adult while the caller from London has sadly passed away.

A visit to New York’s 9/11 memorial was indeed a particularly poignant Bazflyer occasion and appropriately served to reinforce an article of faith....”Life goes on regardless of the time zone we occupy.....”

Ground zero

An image captured on the day 18 years ago