From a flight attendant on Delta Flight 15
written after 9-11
Posted on September 10, 2015by annlaemmlenlewis
annlaemmlenlewis.wordpress.com
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. The captain
determined that the nearest airport was 400 miles behind us in Gander,
Newfoundland.
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. A few minutes later word came in about the hijackings.
We decided to LIE to the passengers while we were still in
the air. We told them the plane had a simple instrument problem and that we
needed to land at the nearest airport in Gander, Newfoundland, to have it
checked out.
We promised to give more information after landing in
Gander. There was much grumbling among the passengers, but that’s nothing new!
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 US.
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 US. 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. 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.
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 US 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 . Some did get through, but
were only 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. 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.
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. 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. 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 US 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.” 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 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. If any
women wanted to be in a women-only facility, that was arranged.
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.
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. 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. 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 everything 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. 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.
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). 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.
Pretty cool story, huh. It reminds us of how many helpful
people there are in the world. The ones who aren’t helpful just get a lot more
press.