[BITList] Delta 15 - A Great Read - A 9/11 incident

[John Feltham]

This story has taken a long time to get to Australia!  :-)



Delta Flight 15... (true story)

 
Here is an amazing  story from a flight attendant on Delta Flight 15, written following  9-11:

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,  New Foundland.

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, New Foundland, 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 U.S.

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 U.S. 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 U.S.  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 Centre 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 realise 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 U.S. 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 MATCH 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 kilometres 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 harbours. 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 travellers. 

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.

"I just wanted to share this  story because we need good stories right now. It gives me a little bit of hope  to know that some people in a faraway place were kind to some strangers who  literally dropped in on them. 

It reminds  me how much good there is in the world."

"In spite of all the rotten things we see going on in today's world this story  confirms that there are still a lot of good and Godly people in the world and  when things get bad, they will come forward.

"God Bless America... and God Bless the  Canadians."


http://www.snopes.com/rumors/gander.asp



ooroo

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