The small city of Gander was, at one time, and
important international jumping off point for transatlantic aircraft before the
age of the long distance jet. Most of
the airplanes making the crossing to northern Europe would stop in Gander for fueling before heading across the Atlantic
Ocean. Today, the airport is mostly for
local and regional flights serviced by local airlines. We toured the airport to see and hear about
its previous glory days and also to learn about the important role the airport,
the city and the surrounding communities played during the tragic days after
the attacks on 11 September, 2001. As soon as it was clear that there was
attacks against important targets in the United States by hijacked civilian airliners,
the FAA grounded all aircraft in US air space.
One of the results of this was all transatlantic flights bound for the
USA could not enter the country. For
many of them, this meant having to land at the Gander Airport. In the end over
six thousand passengers and crew were stranded in this city with a population
of less than ten thousand.
Picture of the airport with the stranded planes.
There is a small aviation museum near the airport
that covers the aviation history of the area.
The citizens of the city and surrounding communities
hurried to help all those stranded. This
effort came to be called Operation Yellow Ribbon. There is an excellent book written about this
experience from the view point of those that helped in the operation. It is truly an inspiring story. The book is
called: " The day the world came to town" by Jim Defede.
One of the towns that played a role in caring for
these stranded passengers was Appleton.
Nearly every home in the village hosted some of the passengers for the
duration of the event. They became
famous for their hospitality and meals in the community center. We were able to enjoy a meal prepared by the
same folks who cared for the passengers and hear first hand from the town mayor
about the conditions at the time and the friendships formed. He was also the mayor in 2001. Just a few years ago, the town was very
pleased to receive a steel beam from the twin towers in appreciation for the their
efforts. They have created a memorial in
the town park to the 9-11 attack.
A major air accident occurred 16 years before
the 9-11 event and is still remembered in Gander. On 11 December, 1985 a chartered Arrow Air
plane crashed on takeoff after stopping
for a refueling on its trip from Egypt to Fort Campbell, KY. It crashed less than a mile from the end of
the runway, all 248 passengers from the 101st Airborne Division, U S Army and
the entire air crew were killed. We
visited the crash site called the Silent Witness Memorial. If you look back
towards the airport you can still see where the plane crashed through the trees and
landed on the hard rock at the edge of a cliff with parts of the plane going
over the edge. It is truly a somber
place.
5 comments:
Interesting story. Looks like nice weather too. We hope to get there someday ourselves.
John
Oh my goodness. What a loving and caring community to help all those that were stranded. We forget about all those that were trying to get back into the USA.
What a tragic story about the Arrow Air plane. The memorial is beautiful.
I really enjoyed reading this post. I remember hearing of this town back in 2001, but you brought it to life for me.
Yup, these small NL towns have sure played important roles in history. I happen to know that at least one marriage resulted from the unexpected visit in 2001. We were on the other side of Canada at the time. We were in Cold Lake,AB and were taking our first steps towards living in Canada.
What a great story.
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