The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

DeFede shares three critical facts about Newfoundland. First, the correct pronunciation of the town name rhymes with “understand” (10). Second, its distinct style and language are a legacy of the “working-class English and Irish” settlers who “came for the fish” (10). Third, Newfoundland has its own time zone, running an 90 minutes before Eastern Standard Time. Newfoundlanders are proud of their heritage and fiercely independent; they did not become part of Canada until 1949 and continue to identify more with their region than the nation.

Despite the region’s 16% unemployment rate and depressed economy, which some locals blame on the central government for exploiting their natural resources and “cheat[ing] them out of financial well-being” (12), Newfoundlanders are exceptionally hospitable. The region’s harsh weather has ingrained a mentality of interdependence and a “willingness to help others” (12). When two US navy ships ran aground in the winter of 1942, Newfoundlanders risked their lives to pull 186 soldiers to safety.

On September 11, US airspace was closed for the first time in its 98-year history. Of the many flights from abroad that were headed to but had not yet reached US airspace, 250 (collectively carrying almost 44,000 passengers) were diverted to 15 airports in Canada. DeFede notes that his book could be about any one of many Canadian towns and cities that extended hospitality to these stranded passengers, but he chose Gander, Newfoundland. By dropping everything to look after more than 6,500 stranded travelers who descended on a town with a population of fewer than 10,000 people, the people of Gander showed the best of humanity.

Roxanne and Clark Loper were heading home to Texas with their daughter Alexandria, whom they had traveled to Kazakhstan to adopt. Frankfurt mayor Petra Roth was traveling to New York to visit mayor Rudolph Giuliani. On the same flight, Hugo Boss chairman Werner Baldessarini was going to New York for Fashion Week. In Dublin, New York State trooper George Vitale (who was coordinating a Dublin visit for Governor George Pataki that was canceled due to violence in Northern Ireland) boarded a flight home. Irish-born Hannah O’Rourke was returning to New York after a family visit, as were Maria O’Driscoll and her husband, Lenny.

In Gander, mayor Claude Elliott was picking up his morning coffee at Tim Horton’s. Oz Fudge, one of the town’s two constables, was doing his morning rounds when he got a call from Bonnie Harris, who told him to turn on the radio. Hearing the news, he immediately headed for town hall.

Halfway through a flight from Frankfurt to New York, Lufthansa Captain Reinhard Knoth was listening to the BBC when the news broke that a plane hit the World Trade Center (WTC). When the second crash was reported, he and his fellow pilots knew immediately that it could not have been an accident. Knoth wondered whether one of his passengers might be a threat and looked at his flimsy cockpit door, noticing it was unlocked.

The town of Gander grew around its airport, built in the 1930s as a military base for the US, England, and Canada. During World War II, it was a crucial refueling point. After the war, it was “the biggest gas station in the world” (27), where planes heading across the Atlantic stopped to refuel. In the 1960s and 70s, Eastern Europeans and Cubans who chose to defect did so while planes were refueling. The advent of larger planes, with greater fuel capacities, in the 1970s ended Gander’s role as an airline hub, though it remained a stopping point for private, corporate, and military jets. In 1985, Canada’s worst airline disaster occurred there: An Arrow Air charter flight crashed, killing all on board, included 248 personnel from the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division, who were returning to the US from a peacekeeping mission.

The closure of US airspace surprised Gander air traffic controller Harold O’Reilly, lead supervisor of operations. With 300 airplanes in Gander’s airspace needing to be rerouted, O’Reilly’s only concern was safety. His controllers calmly and authoritatively instructed pilots where to land, telling them only that “a crisis” in New York prevented their continuing to the US.

Gander’s town manager alerted Mayor Elliot that “as many as fifty planes” (29) could soon be landing there. Though instructed to keep passengers in the planes until US airspace reopened, Elliot knew this would be unlikely. With the US in “a state of chaos” (29), Gander would likely need to feed the passengers, if not host them overnight. At the airport, vice president Geoff Tucker met with local Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the commander of Gander’s Canadian military base, and government officials.

On Lufthansa Flight 400, Knoth instructed his purser to barricade the staircase that led to the cockpit and first-class section with a food-and-beverage cart. Given his options for landing, he chose Gander. The first flight to arrive there was from Manchester en route to Orlando.

Passengers had different levels of knowledge about the New York events when they landed. Some pilots chose to tell passengers about the attacks; others withheld the information to prevent alarm. On Lufthansa Flight 438, Roxanne Loper realized the flight had changed course and was alarmed when the pilot tersely announced they would be landing in Gander in 30 minutes. She and her husband, Clark, had made a long and difficult journey to adopt Alexandria, their second daughter from Kazakhstan. On the same flight, Beth and Billy Wakefield had likewise adopted a daughter, Diana, in Kazakhstan, Diana. Both couples believed the hardest part of their journey was behind them but now feared what was ahead.

On Aer Longus Flight 105, Lenny O’Driscoll tried to cheer up his wife by suggesting a trip to Newfoundland, his birthplace, and their pilot then announced that they were landing there, while Hannah and Dennis O’Rourke worried about their son, Kevin, a New York City firefighter. When the plane landed, Hannah reached her daughter, Patricia, who confirmed that Kevin was working and assured her mother that he would be fine.

On Continental Flight 23, the pilot’s announcement about events in New York shocked George Vitale, who worried about his widowed sister, Patty, an employee of an insurance company located in the WTC. He revealed to the crew that he was a New York State Trooper and offered assistance, “feeling guilty that he wasn’t in New York to help out” (44). On Knoth’s Lufthansa flight, Werner Baldessarini fretted about making it to New York for fashion week, until hearing of the events in the US.

US Army brigadier general Barbara Fast was aboard American Airlines Flight 49 and unable to contact any of her staff, but she had no doubt that Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden was behind the events. She worried about how the US was coordinating its defenses and about the safety of her friends at the Pentagon.

Hundreds of Gander residents arrived at the airport to watch the spectacle of “more than three dozen planes” (48) arriving and waved to the passengers. Geoff Tucker worked on the logistics of servicing the planes (fueling them, emptying toilets, and stocking water and food). Concerned that the passengers would eventually require accommodations, Mayor Elliott mobilized community members and aid organizations. Requests from smokers on some planes compelled Canadian Red Cross and disaster coordinator Dave Dillon to contact pharmacy owner Kevin O’Brien, who delivered nicotine gum and patches.

Five planes did not respond to radio hails, leading to fears that the crew were not in control of the planes, but they were quickly identified and cleared of any threat. By the time the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed that US airspace would remain closed indefinitely, town leaders were already setting up shelters at schools, fraternal organizations, and church facilities. Hotels were reserved to house the estimated 500 flight crew members, who had to meet minimum rest standards to work. The town council declared a state of emergency to facilitate organization.

Disembarking passengers was a complex process. For security reasons, town officials processed one plane at a time, in the order of landing. After exiting the aircraft, passengers went through metal detectors, patting down, bag checks, and then customs and immigration processing. Gander’s one agent worked alone until help arrived. After the clearing process, disaster coordinator Dillon took over. TVs were removed or disabled and phones marked “Out of Order” (53) to avoid traumatizing passengers. Striking school bus drivers “laid down their picket signs” and “volunteered en masse” to transport passengers “around the clock” (53). The Salvation Army worked with local radio and TV stations to collect food, bedding, and clothing donations. Pharmacy owner O’Brien coordinated with other local pharmacies to collect toiletries. Air traffic controllers gathered, “relieved it was over” and not wanting “to be alone” (54).

The pilot of Roxanne Loper’s flight did not explain why US airspace was closed. Rumors circulated among passengers, some true, many false, and all hard to believe. On the same flight, Betty Schmidt wondered whether any of her fellow passengers might have intended to carry out an attack. Seven hours after landing, their plane finally disembarked. The presence of Red Cross volunteers disoriented Roxanne. Not until after school buses transported her to the Gander Lions Club did she see the news.

Vitale learned that his sister, Patty, was alive. She was shopping in the Trade Center’s underground shopping center and immediately evacuated. However, he worried about his high school best friend, New York City firefighter Anthony DeRubbio. In the cockpit, the pilot picked up a New York radio station signal and listened to the US president’s address. Tom McKeon, a firefighter’s son, emotionally wondered if his parents and grandparents heard about the Pearl Harbor attack similarly huddled around a radio. Passengers from the flight stayed in Appleton, population 700.

The name of a passenger on Captain Knoth’s flight matched that of “suspected terrorist.” Knoth stayed behind to search the plane with RCMP officials, who mistook a bespoke Danish vodka container for a potential explosive and called the bomb squad.

Gander’s Baptist church housed a group of 38 refugees from Moldova composed of five families, including children. Volunteers included air traffic controller Clark Piercey, who was a Canadian Baptist Missionary in Zaire a decade earlier.

Lenny O’Driscoll’s flight disembarked at three o’ clock in the morning. At the Royal Canadian Legion hall, volunteers waited all night to serve them hot soup and sandwiches. Home after 35 years, O’Driscoll asked for a drink and was initially denied, since the bar was closed, but he made such an impression that legion president Wally Crummell relented. Hannah O’Rourke reached her daughter-in-law, Maryann, who revealed that Kevin and his unit were missing but asserted that they would not give up hope. Hannah mistakenly told Maryann that they were in Nova Scotia.