Ever wondered what happened to them ?

[Lily]

Ever thought, on that tragic day of 9/11, where the hundreds of planes, full with hundreds of passengers and crew, either in US airpsace or about to enter it, went ? Ever thought about what happened to them ?

I must admit, I didn't.
On Thursday just gone, those above words came from a television announcer telling of a film that would explain exactly what happened to such 600 planes diverted to Canada. Thats just in Canada. In some cases, planes that requested they make a diversion to Toronto were told they would be classed as a target.

45,000 people, already in the air, were stranded that day and for many days to come. Thats just counting the passengers and crew in the air. There were thousands more stranded at thousands of airports across the world, when their flights to New york were cancelled. For how long, they had no idea. Basically, America was closed indefinately.

Because, obviously, they couldn't relate every single story of everyone of those planes, the film makers chose to concentrate on Ganda airport in Newfoundland.

Ganda airport, a normally, almost silent place, squeezed in 30 passenger planes on 9/11. The film concentrated on just the stories of passengers of one of those planes but the nightmare of taking in 30 planes with 7,500 passengers and crew was still portrayed well.

The nightmare of security came first. At this stage, they had no idea how many highjacked planes were still in the air, if indeed at all and Ganda had no idea if they had taken in planes with terrorists on board who hadn't made their intentions known yet, obviously because their target was the US and not Canada. But at the time, they had no idea that, if there were terrorists on board, whether they would panic and make their move then.
For this reason, the passengers were kept on the planes, some for over 24hrs.
Muslim passengers and anyone of Arabic descent were regarded as suspects. Sounds awful I know but by this time, news reports had told them that this was the work of al qaeda and the safety of the people of this little place in Newfoundland was paramount.
Whether you agree with who's handy work it was, is not the issue, I'm just relating the film and what they were told at the time.
One such guy on this plane they concentrated on, was a Muslim flying back from London Heathrow to JFK. He was an American citizen and had been for 15yrs and even though I felt sorry for him, I knew this was only a film relating the story and he was simply a young man making his way home from London. I tried to forget that and put myself in the shoes of the officials at Ganda, who still didn't have all the facts about what had happened, except they had been told this was the work of al qaeda and had no idea he was just a normal family man making his way home.
When I did that, I could understand their extreme caution and actions. It was nothing to do with colour or ethnicity alone. The Mayor of this sleepy little place, that was just a dot on the map compared to New York, said that if this had been done in the name of eta and the Basque homeland, all Spaniards would have been treated as suspects.

While this security nightmare was going on and all passengers screened, there was the problem of where they were going to put all these people for an indefinate period, how they were going to feed them, the children on the planes, some travelling alone, the care of the elderly, medications that people would need.
Ganda, at that time, had just 3 hotels, a total of 500 beds in all. That just left 6,500 to cater for and most of them, when they got off the planes, wanting their primary concern to be calling their loved ones to let them know they were ok. There were also many US passengers who had loved ones working in the twin towers or the surrounding area, so their primary worry was wanting to know if their loved ones were safe. So one of the first things the Mayor organised was huge banks of telephones to be set up in a car parks and school playgrounds.
For this reason, all the children in Ganda were kept home from school indefinately as the yards and school halls were kept empty to cater for all these people. Internet access was also a priority in the highschool IT departments. Televisions were brought in so passengers could watch the unfolding events.
Two such passengers on this plane who had loved ones working in the towers, one, a woman who's Sister was in there but got out and she actually saw her Sister on the television, and a gentleman who's Son was in the north tower who wasn't so lucky.
Imagine getting the news that you're child is missing presumed dead while you are stranded hundreds of miles away from everything and everyone you know. Well, you can't really can you ?
The manageress of a hotel in Ganda felt such compassion for this Father and put herself in his position of hearing that news and knowing there was no way to tell when his flight to New York would be, she suggested he drive over a hundred miles to the ferry and get home that way. Of course, there was no car for him, no cabs so, she gave him her own car, GAVE him her car ! Nothing asked for in return, just gave her car.

It took them hours and hours and hours organising for passengers who only had a minimum of meds they had to take, to have those meds prepared by pharmacists for hundreds of miles around.
Basically, the people of Ganda and surrounding towns didn't sleep. They knew that there was only a certain amount of food mac donalds and KFC could prepare so the people of Ganda prepared food from their own stocks. Soap, shampoo, deodorant and all other toiletries were donated and when the shops ran out, the people of Ganda donated their own.
Washing and showering was also a huge problem, there were only so many showers in the hotels and schools, so yet again the people of Ganda opened up their own homes for passengers to use their showers. They had lines of people queing up outside peoples homes waiting for their turn to shower.

Mattresses, bedding, towels ect ect, were all donated from hundreds of miles around and yet again, when those ran out, the people of Ganda gave their own.

I'm sure I have forgotten lots of it and thats just an abridged version but, if you have never wondered what happened to all those planes full of passengers and crew in the air on 9/11, thats just a taster. That's just one town in Canada, there were many, many more who opened up their homes and hearts to these frightened, stranded people and by golly, I salute every single one of them !

Fasinating stuff and certainly an eye opener.

[Steveg]

Wow!

I'd never thought about that aspect of it.

[Lily]

No I hadn't either Steve and yeah, it's only when you are made aware of it that you do go, wow !
Even the people of Ganda had to make it up as they went along really. I mean something on this scale had never happened before so no reason to even think about preparing for such an event, never mind having to actually deal with it.

Of course, that only covered the people in the air on the morning of 9/11, there were also thousands of people stranded at airports all over the world after having their flights to NY cancelled indefinately.
Can you imagine the back log ?

[Steveg]

Originally Posted by Lily

No I hadn't either Steve and yeah, it's only when you are made aware of it that you do go, wow !
Even the people of Ganda had to make it up as they went along really. I mean something on this scale had never happened before so no reason to even think about preparing for such an event, never mind having to actually deal with it.

Of course, that only covered the people in the air on the morning of 9/11, there were also thousands of people stranded at airports all over the world after having their flights to NY cancelled indefinately.
Can you imagine the back log ?

Must have been horrendous for those involved. The media tends to focus (naturally) on the main story but it shows there are other fascinating stories in the background that don't normally get told.

[Lily]

Yeah, it sure was. Some planes who requested they land at Toronto were even told that clearance was denied and if they didn't clear the airspace, then jets would be airbourne in minutes and they would be seen as targets themselves. Still very patchy info on the ground at that point you see.