Editorial: Horror shook the world

9/11 changed the way we travel. Photo / Peter Jackson.

I honestly, truly thought it was a movie scene - a special effects image of a plane crashing into a skyscraper.

But it was real. Shockingly, unbelievably real.

Just like in the movies, my mouth fell open like a B-grade actor's.

My toast was halfway to my mouth. When it finally got there, I remember chewing slowly, digesting my breakfast simultaneously with the horror unfolding on the TV screen.

Fourteen years ago today, on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, 2977 people died. Terrorists had hijacked four commercial planes. Two were flown into the Twin Towers in New York.

Advocate reporter Kristin Edge visited New York last month and reminded us in her excellent 48 Hours feature last Saturday that 400 emergency service workers were killed responding to the carnage of the attacks.

The shockwaves rippled around the world.

Nail scissors, deodorants ... items that were previously not considered dangerous suddenly became potential hijack weapons or components in recipes for devastation.

Airline passengers silly enough to joke about "nothing in there, just my bomb" found themselves detained.

Fourteen years later and we are frequently reminded of the impact of 9/11.

It changed the way the world ventured out into, well, the world. Now there is a wariness, a caution, that didn't exist before 9/11.

Hopefully, unlike in the movies, we never have to endure a sequel.