From a member the crew of Delta Flight 15
We were about 5 hours out of Frankfurt flying over the
North Atlantic and I was in my crew rest seat taking
my scheduled rest break. All of a sudden the
curtains parted violently and I was told to go to the
cockpit, right now, to see the captain. As soon as I
got there I noticed that the crew had one of those
"All Business" looks on their faces. The captain
handed me a printed message. I quickly read the
message and realized the importance of it.
The message was from Atlanta, addressed to our flight,
and simply said, "All airways over the Continental US
are closed. Land ASAP at the nearest airport, advise
your destination."
Now, when a dispatcher tells you to land immediately
without suggesting which airport, one can assume that
the dispatcher has reluctantly given up control of the
flight to the captain. We knew it was a serious
situation and we needed to find terra firma
immediately. It was quickly decided that the
nearest airport was 400 miles away, behind our right
shoulder, in Gander, on the Canadian Island of
Newfoundland.
A quick request was made to the Canadian traffic
controller and a right turn, directly to Gander, was
approved immediately. We found out later why there was
no hesitation by the Canadian controller approving our
request.
We, the in-flight crew, were told to get the airplane
ready for an immediate landing. While this was going
on another message arrived from Atlanta telling us
about some terrorist activity in the New York area.
We briefed the in-flight crew about going to Gander
and we went about our business 'closing down' the
airplane for a landing. A few minutes later I
went back to the cockpit to find out that some
airplanes had been hijacked and were being flown into
buildings all over the US. We decided to make an
announcement and LIE to the passengers for the time
being. We told them that an instrument problem had
arisen on the airplane and that we needed to land
at Gander, to have it checked. We promised to give
more information after landing in Gander. There were
many unhappy passengers but that is par for the
course.
We landed in Gander about 40 minutes after the start
of this episode. There were already about 20 other
airplanes on the ground from all over the world.
After we parked on the ramp the captain made the
following announcement.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you must be wondering if all
these airplanes around us have the same instrument
problem as we have. But the reality is that we are
here for a good reason." Then he went on to explain
the little bit we knew about the situation in the US.
There were loud gasps and stares of disbelief. Local
time at Gander was 12:30 pm. (11:00 AM EST)
Gander control told us to stay put. No one was allowed
to get off the aircraft. No one on the ground was
allowed to come near the aircrafts.
Only a car from the airport police would come around
once in a while, look us over and go on to the next
airplane. In the next hour or so all the airways over
the North Atlantic were vacated and Gander alone ended
up with 53 airplanes from all over the world, out of
which 27 were flying US flags. We were told that each
and every plane was to be offloaded, one at a time,
with the foreign carriers given the priority. We were
No.14 in the US category. We were further told that
we would be given a tentative time to deplane at 6 pm.
Meanwhile bits of news started to come in over the
aircraft radio and for the first time we learned that
airplanes were flown into the World Trade Center in
New York and into the Pentagon in DC.
People were trying to use their cell phones but were
unable to connect due to a different cell system in
Canada. Some did get through but were only able to get
to the Canadian operator who would tell them that the
lines to the US were either blocked or jammed and to
try again. Some time late in the evening the news
filtered to us that the World Trade Center buildings
had collapsed and that a fourth hijacking had resulted
in a crash.
Now the passengers were totally bewildered and
emotionally exhausted but stayed calm as we kept
reminding them to look around to see that we were not
the only ones in this predicament. There were 52 other
planes with people on them in the same situation. We
also told them that the Canadian Government was in
charge and we were at their mercy. True to their word,
at 6 PM, Gander airport told us that our turn to
deplane would come at 11 AM, the next morning. That
took the last wind out of the passengers and they
simply resigned and accepted this news without much
noise and really started to get into a mode of
spending the night on the airplane. Gander had
promised us any and all medical attention if needed;
medicine, water, and lavatory servicing. And they were
true to their word. Fortunately we had no medical
situation during the night. We did have a young lady
who was 33 weeks into her pregnancy. We took REALLY
good care of her. The night passed without any
further complications on our airplane despite the
uncomfortable sleeping arrangements.
About 10:30 on the morning of the 12th we were told to
get ready to leave the aircraft. A convoy of school
buses showed up at the side of the airplane, the
stairway was hooked up and the passengers were taken
to the terminal for "processing" We, the crew, were
taken to the same terminal but were told to go to a
different section, where we were processed through
Immigration and customs and then had to register with
the Red Cross. After that we were isolated from our
passengers and were taken in a caravan of vans to a
very small hotel in the town of Gander. We had no idea
where our passengers were going.
The town of Gander has a population of 10,400 people.
Red Cross told us that they were going to process
about 10,500 passengers from all the airplanes
that were forced into Gander. We were told to just
relax at the hotel and wait for a call to go back to
the airport, but not to expect that call for a
while. We found out the total scope of the terror back
home only after getting to our hotel and turning on
the TV, 24 hours after it all started.
Meanwhile we enjoyed ourselves going around town
discovering things and enjoying the hospitality. The
people were so friendly and they just knew that we
were the "Plane people". We all had a great time until
we got that call, 2 days later, on the 14th at 7AM. We
made it to the airport by 8:30AM and left for Atlanta
at 12:30 PM arriving in Atlanta at about 4:30PM.
(Gander is 1 hour and 30 minutes ahead of EST, yes!, 1
hour and 30 minutes.)
But that's not what I wanted to tell you. What the
passengers told us was so uplifting and incredible and
the timing couldn't have been better. We found out
that Gander and the surrounding small communities,
within a 75 Kilometer radius, had closed all the high
schools, meeting halls, lodges, and any other large
gathering places. They converted all these facilities
to a mass lodging area. Some had cots set up, some had
mats with sleeping bags and pillows set up. ALL the
high school students HAD to volunteer taking care of
the "GUESTS".
Our 218 passengers ended up in a town called
Lewisporte, about 45 Kilometers from Gander. There
they were put in a high school. If any women wanted to
be in a women only facility, that was arranged.
Families were kept together. All the elderly
passengers were given no choice and were taken to
private homes. Remember that young pregnant lady, she
was put up in a private home right across the street
from a 24 hour Urgent Care type facility. There were
doctors on call and they had both male and female
nurses available and stayed with the crowd for the
duration.
Phone calls and emails to US and Europe were available
for every oneonce a day. During the days, the
passengers were given a choice of "Excursion" trips.
Some people went on boat cruises of the lakes and
harbors. Some went to see the local forests. Local
bakeries stayed open to make fresh bread for the
guests. Food was prepared by all the residents and
brought to the school for those who elected to stay
put. Others were driven to the eatery of their
choice and fed. They were given tokens to go to the
local Laundromat to wash their clothes, since their
luggage was still on the aircraft. In other words
every single need was met for those unfortunate
travelers.
Passengers were crying while telling us these stories.
After all that, they were delivered to the airport
right on time and without a single one missing or
late. All because the local Red Cross had all the
information about the goings on back at Gander and
knew which group needed to leave for the airport at
what time. Absolutely incredible.
When passengers came on board, it was like they had
been on a cruise. Everybody knew everybody else by
their name. They were swapping stories of their stay,
impressing each other with who had the better time. It
was mind boggling. Our flight back to Atlanta looked
like a party flight. We simply stayed out of their
way. The passengers had totally bonded and they were
calling each other by their first names, exchanging
phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses.
And then a strange thing happened. One of our business
class passengers approached me and asked if he could
speak over the PA to his fellow passengers. We never,
never, allow that. But something told me to get out of
his way. I said "of course". The gentleman picked up
the PA and reminded everyone about what they had just
gone through in the last few days. He reminded them of
the hospitality they had received at the hands of
total strangers. He further stated that he would like
to do something in return for the good folks of the
town of Lewisporte. He said he was going to set up a
Trust Fund under the name of DELTA 15 (our flight
number). The purpose of the trust fund is to provide
a scholarship for high school student(s) of Lewisporte
to help them go to college. He asked for donations of
any amount from his fellow travelers. When the paper
with donations got back to us with the amounts, names,
phone numbers and addresses, it totaled to $14.5K or
about $20K Canadian. The gentleman who started all
this turned out to be an MD from Virginia. He promised
to match the donations and to start the administrative
work on the scholarship. He also said that he would
forward this proposal to Delta Corporate and ask
them to donate as well.
Why, all of this? Just because some people in far away
places were kind to some strangers, who happened to
literally drop in among them? WHY NOT?
Sent by my friend Madhuri Roy. Source: Loretta Peters
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