The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

by Jim DeFede

At 4:30 P.M., the passengers aboard Virgin Air Flight 75, the first plane to land in Gander, made their way off the plane and into the terminal. It took almost three hours for the 337 passengers to go through the various checkpoints and board buses for the shelter. At that rate it would take almost three days to get all of the passengers off the planes. Des Dillon wasn’t worried, however. He knew the first plane would take some time while each of the agencies perfected the way they did things and added more staff. Before long, they would be able to process a plane every forty-five minutes. For now, though, it was a slow and arduous task. Watching the passengers as they moved through the terminal, Dillon was amazed by their demeanor. No one was cranky or complaining. They all seemed in good spirits. Without any TVs or telephones to distract the passengers, there weren’t any unnecessary delays. Except for one. A volunteer had taped a large map of the world to the wall and with a crude red marker drew an arrow pointing to Gander. YOU ARE HERE, the volunteer wrote on the map. Exhausted passengers would stop and stare at the map for several minutes, trying to regain their bearings.