Everyone remembers where they were on 11 September, 2001.
I was working in central London as a junior journalist covering the commercial real estate sector - it would be a while before I branched into aviation journalism.
I can remember seeing on the news ticker on the BBC website something about a light aircraft hitting the World Trade Center in New York. This piqued my interest as the previous year I'd stood on top of the World Trade Center during my first ever visit to NYC.
So I kept an eye on the news and, as the true scale of the tragedy began to unfold, I can remember saying to my former colleagues: "I think we should put the TV on."
And there we all stood for much of the afternoon, transfixed on the television, watching those towers collapse and the repeated footage of two aircraft slamming into the buildings.
No matter how many times you watch that footage, it never fails to shock.
A year later I moved to Washington DC where, in 2004, I joined Flightglobal and became an aviation journalist. One of my "beats" at the time became aviation security, which in the aftermath of 9/11 was a very busy and interesting beat to cut my teeth on.
I attended lots of security hearings on Capitol Hill, and reported on the ever-changing landscape of aviation security. Here's a link to a feature I wrote for Flight International on airport security back in 2005.
Fast-forward to September 2011, a decade after the terrorist attacks, and I'm still with Flightglobal but now based in London.
I revisited my old aviation security beat for Flight International's 10-year anniversary of 9/11 special and penned this feature on the changes that have taken place in airport security since that fateful day.
One thing that struck me as I was doing my research was the level of public outcry in the USA over body scanners, which provide an outline of a passenger's body to highlight any perceived threats.
Personally, I couldn't care less if some airport security worker that I'll never meet sees a grainy image showing a hint of an outline of what I might look like without clothes on. But, apparently others take a less-casual approach to the issue.
Seriously though, what's worse? A momentary loss of dignity, or another aviation atrocity? Come on people.
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