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'Like 2 cigarettes burning': KT's Ted Kemp recalls first glimpse of 9/11 attack in NYC
From a 'very loud boom' at an underground station to a sobbing woman repeating, "I saw him hit the ground", he shares his memories for the first time
- PUBLISHED: Fri 11 Sept 2026, 8:04 PM
On the fateful morning of September 11, 2001, Khaleej Times Chief Content Officer Ted Kemp was a young journalist worried about meeting his deadline. It was a normal day, a "beautiful" one with a clear, cloudless sky, till a terror attack changed life forever.
Kemp was deboarding a New York Subway train, his head full of thoughts about his assignment, when he heard a boom: one that would change the course of history, and impact millions of lives. In the harrowing hours that followed, he recalls a day of moments "that just did not make sense". He didn't know it at the time, but the "very, very loud boom" was the second plane hitting the World Trade Centre. Kemp, who initially thought the sound was a construction crane falling over, was puzzled by the events of the day which signalled to him that something bigger was going on.
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As he stood bewildered in the station, he encountered a woman sobbing on the floor, repeating "I saw him hit the ground. I saw him hit the ground." As strangers gathered, someone said "a plane hit the World Trade Centre, and it wasn't a little plane." When he managed to get a glimpse of the towers, "they looked like two cigarettes burning".
It's a reminder of how different life was 25 years ago that his phone didn't have a camera function. Watch the video below as he speaks — for the first time — about the events of that historic day: how he still thinks about his life today as "before September 11, and after September 11"; how he encountered kindness, chaos and community all at once — and how the journalist in him found a way to photograph events unlike any the city had ever seen before.
Poojaraj Maniyeri is a Digital Journalist who loves turning everyday conversations into news stories. She is also a typical bookworm, and brings a novel with her everywhere she goes.