25 years after 9/11, Gander’s message of kindness still resonates

Out of the tragedy of the 9/11 attacks in America 25 years ago, a ray of hope emerged on the Canadian side of the border.

The town of Gander, N.L., and surrounding areas took on nearly 7,000 stranded travellers whose planes were diverted after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

The crisis forged a lifelong bond between some passengers and the locals. Today, that connection is so strong that many of the people, known affectionately as the “come from aways,” have returned to Gander to mark the 25th anniversary.

A special service is planned for Friday and will include Governor General Louise Arbour and U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra.

“Sometimes it feels like yesterday, because there’s so many memories,” said Derm Flynn, the former mayor of Appleton, N.L.

The small community, located near Gander, scrambled to house the stranded passengers who found their flights abruptly diverted in 2001.

“They were desperately needing help, and needing friendship, and needing comfort,” he said.

Space was scarce, and Flynn recalls people sleeping in the council chambers at the town hall, in schools, churches and private homes.

He and his wife, Dianne, opened the doors to their home, as so many others did, and took in six people.

“I didn’t know he had invited three people to the house, and he didn’t know that I had invited three people to the house,” she recalled.

‘We had landed in a very unique place’

For those stranded passengers and crew, however, the experience began long before they ever stepped off their planes.

Beverley Bass, a retired American Airlines captain, was at the helm of American Airlines Flight 777, one of the 38 planes that landed in Gander that day.

She recalls being “very surprised” to hear the diverted flight would be landing in Newfoundland.

“We learned, when we were right over the middle of the North Atlantic, that all of the U.S. airspace was closed. So we knew we would divert somewhere in Canada. But the logical cities for us, with a big airplane like that, would be Toronto or Montreal,” she said.

She notes that while pilots who fly to Europe will know of Gander because its airport is considered an emergency diversion airport, most pilots will retire without ever landing there.

In the air, she says she and fellow crew members weren’t aware initially of how significant the Twin Towers attacks were. When she heard about the airspace closure, she realized the magnitude of the situation.

“I think as pilots, we are trained to remain calm, take care of our passengers and crew, and basically just get the airplane on the ground safely. So I don’t think I ever thought about being scared. And in that moment, I didn’t even think about possibly having (a) nefarious person in the back of the airplane,” she said, adding she wasn’t aware hijackers had been involved in the attacks.

“I don’t know they’ve been flown into buildings …  I don’t any of these details. So all I knew is I was told to land in Gander and I started preparing for that.”

Once the liner landed, she says Canadian officials boarded and told them they wouldn’t be able to disembark until the next morning. In total, Bass, her crew, and the passengers were on the plane for 28 hours.

By the time they walked off the plane at 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 12, they were met with “tables of food” that had been prepared overnight.

“Every stove in Gander must have been on because they prepared enough food for 7,000 passengers and crew. That was my first realization that we had landed in a very unique place. And from there, the stories continue,” she said.

Bass eventually found her way to the Comfort Inn in town, which was scrambling to find room for all the additional guests flowing into the community.

Karen Mills was the general manager of the inn at the time, and recalls that people were lining up out the door trying to find space, while the inn’s phone lines were ringing off the hook.

“We had these two gentlemen come in from England, and once again I was on the desk and they’re looking for a room, and I was at that point, a broken record. ‘No, I have nothing, no we’re sold out, we’re sold out.’” she said.

She says she told them she was sorry but she had no room. Until she remembered she had a box spring mattress and a cot in the basement, which she could place in the gym.

“I’ll never forget it, as long as I live. They looked at each other, and they looked at me and said, ‘Hm, better than the pool table the night before.’ So I figured, ‘OK, we got a winner,’” she said.

The two men slept in the gym between the treadmill and dumbbells for four days.

She laughs as she tells the tale of how the two men only asked for clean underwear during their stay, which she was happy to help with by driving them to the local Walmart.

A year later, the men — who Mills lovingly calls “the basement boys” — sent a letter and some photographs to her. The photos documented their stay in the basement.

“All these pictures of them on the box spring mattress and the cot with all the dumbbells in their drawers,” she said.

Each year on 9/11, Mills says “the basement boys” send flowers to the inn.

That kind of connection and appreciation for Gander is what brought Bass back this year. It’s the retired airline captain’s seventh trip to Gander.

“We love coming here. It’s almost like coming back home. We have so many friends here. We know so many people,” she said.

“We’re so familiar with the town. We know how to drive around. We don’t even have to use our iPhones for directions. So it’s great. It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been 25 years.”

‘We’re still friends with the U.S.’

For former Appleton Mayor Derm Flynn, the anniversary offers a reminder about the importance of friendship during a divisive time in modern Canada-U.S. relations.

“The story is being told over and over again by people all over the world,” he said.

“As we remember the tragic events of 9/11, people are now definitely ready for more good news … or any kind of good news at all.”

One of the people who stayed in his home in 2001 is returning to commemorate the anniversary — and will once again, stay with his family.

He says what Newfoundlanders did 25 years ago was offer more than just a place to sleep or a sandwich to eat. They offered kindness and support.

“We didn’t want anything other than a pat on the back or a handshake when they (went) out the door. But it has brought us back even more than that,” he said, referring to the lasting connections over the years.

“There is still a place in the world where people are still decent to each other, and respect each other.”

Claude Elliott, Gander’s mayor during the crisis, says his community’s sense of generosity hasn’t wavered in the quarter century since 9/11.

“If 38 planes land here tonight, our community would be out to take care of them,” he said.

That kindness is now known around the world thanks to the award-winning Broadway musical Come From Away, which is based on what happened in the small town after the attacks.

It’s a story that has made Gander a destination for visitors who want to experience it for themselves.

“One of the questions that I get asked a lot (is,) ‘How much is it real?’ A lot of people in the world don’t think that there’s good, kind, generous people in our world anymore,” said Elliott.

“That kindness and generosity is still here.”

The recent rhetoric about Canada from the U.S. and the ensuing trade war have left Elliott feeling hurt, he says.

“It hurts us because we’ve always had a good relationship with the United States … I tell people we got to keep politics out of this,” he said.

“We’re going to have to let the powers that be work this out. But to the average person, we got no problems. We’re still friends with the U.S. and I don’t think that will ever change.”