This was sent to me by e-mail.
Nazim is a Delta airline employee - one of the cockpit
crew. It is so
uplifting! How lucky we are to have the Canadians
for neighbors!!!
******************************************* here is
the story
from Nazim-Amin:)
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 quickly. It was quickly decided that the nearest airport
was 400 miles away, behind our right shoulder, in Gander, on the island
of New Foundland.
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 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 tobe 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 DDS 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 one once 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 tomatch 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? Nazim
Photography, poetry, web site design and background by D.Clarke
I believe I got the waving flag from http://www.iband.com