In 1936, construction of the base began, and the town started to develop. "After we'd been drinking all day, I got down on the runway and took a video said: 'Thank God, we're off that bloody plane. Their son Kevin was a New York City firefighter.Their frantic phone calls to him went unanswered until his voicemail was full.Two weeks after they returned home, their hero son’s body was found in the stairwell rubble of Tower One.Beulah Cooper, dubbed the town’s Florence Nightingale, tried to keep the couple’s spirits up during their stay.
The selflessness of the townspeople gave Gray-Felder chills.”Americans may not remember that the only time members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization invoked NATO’s collective defense provision was following the September 11, 2001, attacks. It will screen in 800 American theaters on 9/11 … "So from my perspective, it appeared that there wasn't a single person in this town that wasn't helping out," adds Teurff. Des Dillon, a longtime Red Cross volunteer and the Chairman of the Gander Airport Association outside his home in Gander.
In peacetime, as aviation boomed and cross-continental travel became more commonplace, Gander became a refueling stop for commercial aircraft.The biggest airlines of the day -- such as Pan Am and BOAC (a forerunner to British Airways) -- ran regular transatlantic services via Gander. The town all but shut down for the “plane people,” inspiring the Tony-award winning Broadway musical “We did not know how we would be affected, if these people were staying, if the people who were coming were good people or not so good people,” says Linda Sweetapple, 54, business manager and partner at Sweetapple Accounting Group. “We bought every bit of nicotine gum that was in town,” Tuff says.To say this town of 10,000 people and its surrounding communities welcomed the passengers and crew from nearly 100 countries with open arms is an understatement. Soon the airport was handling 13,000 aircraft annually and a quarter of a million passengers.In the late 1950s, the town of Gander grew around the airport to accommodate the growing numbers of workers. Instead, there’s a concern for the rest of the world, especially the U.S., as it faces terrorism, rogue nations and violent protests in the streets. After figuring out how to park all the planes, some of which later started sinking into the pavement because of their weight and the warm temperatures, officials spent the next 24 hours unloading luggage and people. "Elliott says that, as mayor, the decision to welcome the displaced people with open arms went without saying. Gander Airport is one of the world's most important -- but it's possible you've never heard of it.Today, Gander Airport's terminal retains its mid-century aesthetic.38 aircraft were redirected and landed unexpectedly at Gander on September 11, 2001.Kevin Tuerff, pictured, saw his experiences in Gander dramatized on stage in the hugely successful show "Come From Away. It made her feel part of a family.” McKeage replied, “We’re all Americans tonight.”I am the executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy, a non-partisan public policy research organization focusing on trade, immigration and relatedI am the executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy, a non-partisan public policy research organization focusing on trade, immigration and related issues based in Arlington, Virginia. Elliott says people want to see the airport, see the beauty of Newfoundland which is evoked via the show's Celtic-influenced songbook -- but most of all, he says, they want to meet the people. "For a lot of people, this was the first and only place they would land in Canada," says Pinsent. Everywhere you can imagine, people just offering you food and drink. Those mid-air were rerouted.Texan native Kevin Tuerff was on board an Air France flight from Paris to New York, with his then-boyfriend, also called Kevin.Their story is one of many dramatized in the Broadway show. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) On some airplanes, the atmosphere was jovial as people decided the only way to cope was to drink and stay upbeat.
Dave and Queen Blundon in front of their home in Gander. Unable to get off their planes for many hours, hungry and uncomfortable and with babies crying, these people, once allowed to disembark, were welcomed with open arms and generous hearts by the citizens of Gander and surrounding towns. They threw a giant birthday party for several terminally ill children who had been flying from London to Disney World, with performances and a huge cake.It was only after they arrived at their accommodation that they were able to watch the devastating footage that had stopped the world in its tracks, almost 30 hours after the nightmare that shook the world.For Long Island couple Hannah and Dennis O’Rourke, the nightmare was as personal as it gets. “When the final lists were released, she counted several friends among those who died [that day],” writes LeDede. But they did. “When Zale and Wood nodded, the cashier announced that they could just take the items,” writes LeDede.
When they rolled their well-packed cart to the front prepared to pay, the cashier asked if they were from one of the planes. “Everybody was a suspect,” says Des Dillon, 75, then the manager of the Canadian Red Cross in Gander.But everyone was a guest, too. Join us on a 12-month journey to see them all "What was unique [about Gander] was the proportion of the people that live there to the number of temporary refugees that they'd taken in," says Teurff. Everyone says hello to everyone. Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature.”The Americans on the plane did not realize that soon they would also see the best of human nature. I am the author of a non-fiction book called Immigration.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.I write about globalization, business, technology and immigration.