(12/29/01, 10 a.m. ET) -- *NSYNC singer Chris Kirkpatrick recalled for LAUNCH what the group's reaction was upon hearing news of the tragedy on the morning of Tuesday, September 11.

"We were stunned. We'd been on the road probably for about eight or nine months and the last thing we did was on the weekend, we had this show we did down in the islands, and we flew back on the Monday night, so we all got home Monday night and woke up Tuesday morning," he said. "And I know a lot of people got stuck and their plans were pushed back and changed from when they were supposed to fly out, and we were really blessed that we got home the night before everything happened."

Kirkpatrick added that *NSYNC, like much of the nation, spent the next several hours contacting friends and loved ones: "Just like everybody, we were on the cell phone and pagers trying to get a hold of everybody we knew in New York, making sure everybody was OK, and then (we were) letting everybody else know that our hearts and our prayers went out to everybody that was affected in the tragedies."

-- launch.com