Here
is an amazing story from a flight attendant on Delta Flight
15, written following 9-11:
On the morning of Tuesday,
September 11, we were about 5 hours out of Frankfurt, flying
over the North Atlantic .
All of a sudden the curtains
parted and I was told to go to the cockpit, immediately, to
see the captain. As soon as I got there I
noticed that the
crew had that "All Business" look on their faces.
The
captain handed me a printed message. It was from Delta's
main office in Atlanta and simply read, "All airways
over the Continental United States are closed to commercial
air traffic. Land ASAP at the
nearest airport. Advise your
destination."
No one said a word about what this
could mean. We knew it was a serious situation and we needed
to find terra firma quickly.
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The
captain determined that the nearest airport was 400 miles
behind us in Gander , New Foundland.
He requested
approval for a route change from the Canadian traffic
controller and approval was granted immediately -- no questions
asked.
We found out later, of course, why there was no
hesitation in approving our request.
While the
flight crew prepared the airplane for landing, another message
arrived from Atlanta telling us about some terrorist activity
in the New York area.
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A
few minutes later word came in about the hijackings.
We
decided to LIE to the passengers while we were still in the air.
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We
told them the plane had a simple instrument problem and that
we needed to land at the nearest airport in Gander , New
Foundland, to have it checked out.
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We
promised to give more information after landing in Gander
.
There was much grumbling among the passengers, but that's
nothing new!
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Forty
minutes later, we landed in Gander . Local time at Gander
was
12:30 PM! .... that's 11:00 AM EST.
There were
already about 20 other airplanes on the ground from all over
the world that had taken this detour on their way to the
U.S.
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.
The
reality is that we are here for another reason." Then he
went on to explain the little bit we knew about the situation
in the U.S.
There were loud gasps and stares of disbelief.
The captain informed passengers that Ground control in Gander
told us to stay put.
The Canadian Government was in
charge of our situation and no one was allowed to get off the
aircraft.
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No
one on the ground was allowed to come near any of the air
crafts. Only airport police would come around periodically,
look us over and go on to the next airplane.
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In the
next hour or so more planes landed and Gander ended up with
53 airplanes from all over the world, 27 of which were U.S.
commercial jets.
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 .
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Some
did get through, but wereonly able to get to the Canadian
operator who would tell them that the lines to the U.S.
were either blocked or jammed.
Sometime 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.
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By
now the passengers were emotionally and physically exhausted,
not to mention frightened, but everyone stayed amazingly
calm. We had only to look out the window at the 52 other
stranded aircraft to realize that we were not the only ones
in this predicament.
We had been told earlier that
they would be allowing people off the planes one plane at a
time. At 6 PM, Gander airport told us that our turn to
deplane would be 11 am the next morning.
Passengers
were not happy, but they simply resigned themselves to this news
without much noise and started to prepare themselves to spend
the night on the airplane.
Gander had promised us
medical attention, if needed, water, and lavatory servicing.
And they were true to their word.
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Fortunately
we had no medical situations to worry about. We did have a
young lady who was 33 weeks into her pregnancy. We took
REALLY good care of her.
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The
night passed without incident despite the uncomfortable
sleeping
arrangements.
About 10:30 on the morning of
the 12th a convoy of school buses showed up. We got off the
plane and were taken to the terminal where we went through
Immigration and Customs and then had to register with the
Red Cross.
After that we (the crew) were separated from
the passengers and were taken in vans to a small hotel. We
had no idea where our
passengers were going.
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We
learned from the Red Cross that the town of Gander
has a population of 10,400 people and they had about 10,500
passengers to take care of from all the airplanes that were
forced into Gander ! We were told to just relax at the hotel
and we would be contacted when the U.S. airports opened again,
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 had lots of time on our
hands and found that the people of Gander were extremely
friendly. They started calling us the
"plane people."
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We
enjoyed their hospitality, explored the town of Gander and ended
up having a pretty good time.
Two days later, we got that
call and were taken back to the Gander airport. Back on the
plane, we were reunited with the passengers and found out
what they had been doing for the past two days. What we found
out was incredible.
Gander and all the surrounding
communities (within MATCH about a 75 Kilometer radius) had
closed all high schools, meeting halls, lodges, and any other
large gathering places.
They
converted all these facilities to mass lodging areas for all the
stranded travelers.
Some had cots set up, some had mats with
sleeping bags and pillows set up.
ALL the high school
students were required to volunteer their time to take care
of the "guests."
Our
218 passengers ended up in a town called Lewisporte, about
45 kilometers from Gander where they were put up in a high
school.
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If
any women wanted to be in a women-only facility, that was
arranged.
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Families
were kept together. All the elderly passengers 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 facility.
There
was a dentist on call and both male and female nurses remained
with the crowd for the duration.
Phone calls and
e-mails to the U.S. and around the world were available to
everyone once a day. During the day, passengers were
offered "Excursion" trips.
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Some
people went on boat cruises of the lakes and harbors. Some
went for hikes in 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 schools.
People were driven to restaurants of their choice and offered
wonderful meals.
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Everyone
was given tokens for local laundry mats to wash their
clothes, since luggage was still on the aircraft. In
other words, every single need was met for those stranded
travelers.
Passengers were crying while telling us these
stories. Finally, when they were told that U.S. airports had
reopened, they were delivered to the airport right on time
and without a single passenger missing or late.
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The
local Red Cross had all the information about the whereabouts
of each and every passenger and knew which plane they needed
to be on and when all the planes were leaving.
They
coordinated verything beautifully.
It was absolutely
incredible.
When passengers came on board, it was like
they had been on a cruise.
Everyone knew each other by name.
They were swapping stories of their stay, impressing each
other with who had the better time. Our flight back to
Atlanta looked like a chartered party flight.
The
crew just stayed out of their way. It was
mind-boggling.
Passengers had totally bonded and were
calling each other by their first names, exchanging phone
numbers, addresses, and email
addresses.
And then a
very unusual thing happened.
One of our passengers
approached me and asked if he could make an announcement over
the PA system.
We
never, ever allow that.
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But this
time was different. I said "of course" and handed him
the mike.
He 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.
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He
continued by saying that he would like to do something in
return for the good folks of Lewisporte.
"He
said he was going to set up a Trust Fund under the name of DELTA
15 (our flight number).
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The
purpose of the trust fund is to provide college
scholarships for the high school students of Lewisporte.
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, the total
was for more than $14,000!
"The gentleman, a MD from
Virginia , 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.
As I write this account, the trust
fund is at more than $1.5 million and has assisted 134
students in college education.
"I just wanted to
share this story because we need good stories right
now. It
gives me a little bit of hope to know that some people in a
faraway place were kind to some strangers who literally
dropped in on them.
It reminds me how much good there
is in the world."
"In spite of all the rotten
things we see going on in today's world this story confirms
that there are still a lot of good people in the world and
when things get bad, they will come forward.
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*This is one of those stories that need to be shared.
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