A small town located in
Newfoundland,
Canada became home to what may one day be an
avaition legend. This place became the stopping point for over 38 big jets on
Septermber 11, 2001.
The town of Gander is home to a large airfield that once was a refueling spot for planes on transatlantic flights in the early history of aviation (40's and 50's). Every now and then some big jet makes a landing in this small, sleepy town, but nothing like this.
There were over 38 planes in the area on September 11, 2001 that needed to land as US airspace was shutdown for the first time in its history. It is interesting to see that all of these planes landed within a half hour, seeing they have never serviced that many big planes in one day.
One of the problems facing this town, population of 10,000 was where to house and keep the 6,500 passengers when they were allowed to disembark after custom inspections and other security mesasures had been done. Most of the passengers where kept aboard for up to 30 hours.
Meanwhile, the town was runing around trying to gather food and other needed suplies. The town's hotels could hold only 500 people as it is not a main tourist attraction. In fact, most of the passengers had to stay at homes, schools, and churches.
Once the airspace was opened and flights could resume, Gander slowly returned to it sleeply way of life. However, it and the vistors would never be the same. Many websites have sprung up all over the web relating stories and pictures of what happened in this small little town.
Most of the information for this node was from an ABC News 20/20.