I searched and couldn't find anything, what happened in Europe on Sept. 11? I know they probably didn't ground every plane in the air like the U.S. did, but were there diversions? Were there any hijack scares like a few of them in the states?

Not anything near as bad as the US.

Our airspace wasn't closed, but a lot of people didn't fly for obvious reasons. 9/11 (or for Europe, 11/9) is the reason Concorde was retired, because they couldn't afford to fly it after people wouldn't fly, especially to the US.

Quoting Ajd1992 (Reply 1): 9/11 (or for Europe, 11/9) is the reason Concorde was retired,

Only partially correct. It is the reason AF withdrew Concorde from service. The reasons for BA's withdrawal of Concorde was it was no longer viable to operate when Aerospatiale stated they would no longer support supply of spares.

I was in Turkey at the time to fly back to NYC, on Sept 14th on DL. DL cancelled all flights for two weeks to IST. So, basically I was stuck in IST for two weeks. I live very close to WTC and when I got back there were still National Guard and Red Cross handing out bottled water to people in my neighborhood.
On the other hand TK resumed flying to JFK only after 3 days.

Quoting C5LOAD (Thread starter): I searched and couldn't find anything, what happened in Europe on Sept. 11? I know they probably didn't ground every plane in the air like the U.S. did, but were there diversions?

I think the only diversions were the aircraft returning to their starting point after the USA closed its airspace. Then there were those aircraft on trans-Atlantic flights to the USA that had insufficient remaining fuel to return to Europe and were diverted to airports like YYT in the east of Canada.

Some family friends were on a BA flight bound for JFK on 9/11. Their aircraft diverted to YYT. Subsequently it flew them back to LHR. If memory serves me right they completed their LHR-JFK journey on the following Saturday.

There were certainly no general diversions or airport or air space closures in Europe on 9/11.

The most noteworthy diversion on 9/11 was arguably a KE 744 flying - if memory serves me right - from ICN to ANC. In a transmitted message the pilot inadvertently (because of a language problem) used the code word designated to indicate that his aircraft had been hi-jacked. As a result the aircraft was intercepted by fighter jets and forced to divert to YXY (Whitehorse) where, as a precaution, the Canadian government had evacuated all public buildings including schools.

Quoting VV701 (Reply 4): The most noteworthy diversion on 9/11 was arguably a KE 744 flying - if memory serves me right - from ICN to ANC. In a transmitted message the pilot inadvertently (because of a language problem) used the code word designated to indicate that his aircraft had been hi-jacked. As a result the aircraft was intercepted by fighter jets and forced to divert to YXY (Whitehorse) where, as a precaution, the Canadian government had evacuated all public buildings including schools.

2 KE 744 flights were diverted, one cargo and one passenger flight. Utter pandemonium in the city when they closed the schools as they didn't place the students on the buses, but had the parents pick them up. With the airport smack in the middle of town, it sure seemed like a bit of overreaction on the part of the officials because as the planes were landing the streets were choked with traffic. After they determined there was no hi-jacking, everyone was taken to local hotels and were well looked after for a couple of days. When the flights left they kicked up a lot of dust and broke a few lights.

Antonov broke the world record on the heaviest lift ever on 9/11 2001, it didnot make the news.

On an ironic note, Concorde actually flew an important test flight on 11 September 2001. A BA Concorde, fresh from the safety upgrades following the CDG crash, did a trial flight from LHR to halfway towards JFK and back. The plane had a full crew and service complement and the passengers were BA staff members who won an internal company lottery. The flight actually made the news at 1300HR (I remember watching it then) and was seen as the first major step towards returning the jet to service. The plane did the journey safely. The tragic events in New York took place while the flight was airborne but since the plane was not destined for the USA it was not affected in any way. Who would have known that those events would spell the eventual end for Concorde in service.

TrinToCan.

I was flying home from Venice two days after and it was chaos due to increased security. At the boarding gate all hand luggage was opened and searched, we had a three hour delay. When I got to LGW they were making everyone check in everything. No hand luggage was allowed just your travel documents and essential medical supplies.

I was working in the industry then, and as far as I remember, UK airspace was also closed for a while (few hours?) that day? Hence why some of the US bound aircraft that had departed around 12-2pm went to Shannon/DUB etc instead of returning 'home'.

There were evacuations of office buildings in central London and I seem to remember that LCY was closed for a few days. Once UK airspace reopened, there were severe delays due to handbaggage restrictions and also screening of container baggage.

Can anyone correct my addled memories? Or is this a figment of my imagination?

I seem to remember that there were reports of similar attacks being planned for London
on the same day - but the terrorists abandoned their plans when they came across
the additional security checks added after the news from the USA had arrived.

Maybe these were just uninstantiated rumours - I don't recall if anyone was charged.

cheers,
Martyn

Quoting Oneworld77 (Reply 9): I was working in the industry then, and as far as I remember, UK airspace was also closed for a while (few hours?) that day? Hence why some of the US bound aircraft that had departed around 12-2pm went to Shannon/DUB etc instead of returning 'home'. There were evacuations of office buildings in central London and I seem to remember that LCY was closed for a few days. Once UK airspace reopened, there were severe delays due to handbaggage restrictions and also screening of container baggage. Can anyone correct my addled memories? Or is this a figment of my imagination?

I think you are correct, I flew EDI-LTN that afternoon, not long after the 2nd tower had been hit (the TVs in the departure lounge had the live feed from NY showing continually, a nice touch as you were about to board a plane). I recall that later that evening (UK time), airline flights in the UK were grounded for a while.

Quoting VV701 (Reply 4): Then there were those aircraft on trans-Atlantic flights to the USA that had insufficient remaining fuel to return to Europe and were diverted to airports like YYT in the east of Canada.

Not just to eastern Canada airports. Several flights from Europe to the U.S. west coast diverted to YEG/YYC/YVR. And YVR (and several other airports) got many diversions of transpacific flights.

I remember watching the Swissair GVA-JFK MD-11 depart GVA that day from my office window. It returned about 7 hours later after turning around half way to JFK.