Manning a stand at the London International Defence Exhibition. The US guys on our stand and the US companies were getting sitreps on their mobiles. Amazing how quickly things went from 'its just a light aircraft accident' to a realisation of the real situation. Over the following days there was naturally great consternation on the US stands - the guys couldnt fly home and had no idea when the airspace would reopen. The Lockheed stand was particularly affected as they had lost a group of their collegues on the aircraft that flew into the Pentagon.
One of my most abiding memories was after the Al-Qaeda connection had been made. Our Egyptian agent, an excellent and honourable man, took me aside and was close to tears as he said things will never be the same again, the West will never forgive the Arab world.