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On September 11, 2001, Virgin Airlines flight 75 from Manchester to Orlando, Florida, was taking a very special group of passengers across the Atlantic.
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flight → see → Atlantic
Ninety of them were terminally ill children who were fulfilling a lifetime ambition to visit Disney World through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
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who → fulfil → Foundation
When they touched down however, the youngsters would have been shocked to look out of their windows and find not Mickey and Minnie waiting to greet them but a squad of grim-faced police surrounding the plane.
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Mickey → touch → plane
The officers were taking no chances over who might be on board.
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who → take → board
That day – 25 years ago – the Virgin aircraft was the first of 38 packed passenger jets to land at the remote airport of Gander in Newfoundland, Canada, as I did this week.
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I → pack → Newfoundland
Nowadays, just five flights a day (and small planes at that) come into Gander International Airport, bringing passengers who – whatever the weather where they boarded – will invariably have to trudge off across the tarmac towards the 1950s terminal in rain or snow.
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they → come → rain
However, on September 11 the planes didn’t stop coming at the start of a remarkable five days that for many would prove life-changing and which, as a rare glimmer of light amid the darkness of the Al Qaeda terror atrocities, inspired myriad books and even a hit musical that has played around the world.
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that → stop → world
The passenger jets were forced down because, reeling from the 9/11 attacks and fearing more hijackings, George W Bush took the unprecedented step of closing US air space.
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Bush → force → space
‘Get those goddamn planes down,’ US Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta reportedly shouted to underlings from a bunker under the White House shortly after the fourth hijacked plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field.
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plane → get → field
Every civilian plane already flying over the US was told to land immediately while all international flights heading towards America were told to turn back or land in a different country.
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flights → fly → country
Any that entered US airspace were warned they would be shot down.
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they → enter → airspace
On the eastern tip of North America, the island of Newfoundland thrusts far into the Atlantic.
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island → thrust → Atlantic
So Gander, intentionally built close to the so-called ‘Great Circle’ route that most flights follow when flying between Europe and America, was the obvious destination for many planes when the shutdown was announced.
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shutdown → build → planes
Passenger jets were forced down following the 9/11 attacks amid the fear of more hijackings, with many landing at the remote airport of Gander in Newfoundland, Canada
Smoke pours from the twin towers of the World Trade Center after they were hit by two hijacked planes on September 11, 2001, in New York City
Operation Yellow Ribbon, which handled the diversion of civilian airline flights, has been hailed as a modern parable of compassion, community spirit and the kindness of strangers
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which → force → strangers
The story of how a town of 9,600 people rose magnificently and magnanimously to the challenge of suddenly having to care for nearly 7,000 frazzled, confused and often terrified airline passengers from 92 countries – is one of the most uplifting stories to emerge from 9/11.
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town → rise → 9/11
Operation Yellow Ribbon, as it was known, has been hailed as a modern parable of compassion, community spirit and the kindness of strangers.
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it → know → strangers
The musical it inspired, Come From Away (which takes its name from the description Newfoundlanders give to visitors from everywhere else) has been a huge hit – winning four Olivier awards in the West End and a Tony on Broadway.
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Newfoundlanders → inspire → Broadway
It has played across Europe, South Korea and the Philippines.
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It → play → Europe
More than 50,000 people have travelled to Gander to see the production now running in a theatre in the airport building.
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production → travel → building
And as I discovered this week in a place where everyone brandishes their own 9/11 scrapbook, few in this close-knit community have forgotten their five days of glory while the world waited for the US to reopen its airspace and they shared their town.
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they → discover → town
Gander was famous once before when its location earned it the nickname of ‘Crossroads of the World’.
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location → earn → World
The airport – around which the town gradually grew – was built in the late 1930s largely at the instigation of Britain as an essential transatlantic refuelling stop for propeller planes.
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town → grow → planes
After the war, it was used heavily by airlines and – after its stylishly modernistic international lounge (including the celebrated Big Dipper bar) was opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1959 – it became the perfect star-spotting location.
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it → use → 1959
Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles were among those who touched down on its beautiful orange and yellow leather banquettes.
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who → touch → banquettes
(Sinatra was famously told off for queue-jumping at the Big Dipper bar by a local – Newfoundlanders pride themselves on being unimpressed by celebrity).
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Newfoundlanders → tell → celebrity
But the advent of jumbo jets which could carry far more fuel meant air traffic from Gander dwindled, although its possession of two huge but underused runways – at one time the biggest in the world – ensured that it could be very useful in an emergency.
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it → carry → emergency
They’d never planned for an event like 9/11, Claude Elliott, Gander’s mayor at the time, told me.
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Elliott → plan → me
Many locals imagined the planes would only be there for a few hours but he suspected it would be considerably longer.
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it → imagine → hours
The local Red Cross organised accommodation while the Salvation Army distributed food.
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Army → organise → food
With the local radio and TV stations broadcasting a call to ‘lend a hand, do what you can’, schools and non-essential businesses were closed in Gander and the surrounding smaller townships so everyone could volunteer.
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everyone → broadcast → Gander
Newfies, as Newfoundlanders are known, are famous for their generosity and communal spirit – qualities that they attribute to the fact that their hardy fisherman ancestors, who mostly came from Ireland, Devon and Cornwall, had to rely heavily on each other as they struggled to survive in a harsh environment with ferocious winters.
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they → know → winters
(Newfoundland – nicknamed The Rock – only reluctantly voted to leave the British Empire and become part of Canada in 1949).
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Newfoundland → nickname → 1949
In Gander, the planes were parked nose to tail on one of the runways but passengers couldn’t alight until police and the town’s sole immigration officer had assured themselves they weren’t letting a terrorist slip through.
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terrorist → park → themselves
Some passengers had to wait up to 12 hours cooped up on the runway before they were allowed off and – after running a gauntlet of metal detectors and pat-downs – allowed into the airport terminal.
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they → have → terminal
Gander's location earned it the nickname of ‘Crossroads of the World’, being built in the late 1930s largely at the instigation of Britain as a refuelling stop for propeller planes
Gander’s current mayor, Percy Farwell, said tensions between US and Middle Eastern passengers dissipated ‘once everyone realised they were all in it together’
Visitors had to sleep on the hall floor inside the Society of United Fisherman after their flights were redirected to Gander
They had virtually nothing with them as their main luggage was kept locked in the cargo hold.
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luggage → earn → hold
Some even thought they were being abducted.
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they → think → ?
A convoy of school buses, whose drivers had called off a strike as soon as they heard of the influx, were waiting outside to take them to various destinations – schools, churches, social organisations and even a Salvation Army summer camp outside town.
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they → call → town
(Gander’s 550 hotel rooms were reserved for aircraft crews.)
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rooms → reserve → crews
US officials initially requested the passengers from each plane remain together and didn’t want them staying in people’s houses because they were still concerned some might be terrorists.
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some → request → houses
The airlines also wanted to keep them together in case they were given the all-clear to fly.
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they → want → clear
…and 49 more, not listed.
The Aporia
