SUNDAY 25 AUGUST 2019The female captain who piloted
a flight on 9/11
Beverley Bass was flying one of 38 planes forced to land in Gander,
Newfoundland. She tells Harriet Marsden about that day, and the
beautiful Ganderites who welcomed them
Bass became American Airlines’ first female captain in 1986 (Beverley Bass/American Airlines)
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Bev speaking. There’s been a crisis in the United States and all of the
US airspace is closed. We’re going to be landing our aeroplane in Gander, Newfoundland...”
On 11 September 2001, those words were spoken on a Boeing 777 somewhere over the north Atlantic. Bev
was Beverley Bass, the first female captain in American Airlines history. And Bass’s plane was one of 38
that landed at Gander international airport, northeastern Newfoundland, as part of Canada’s Operation
Yellow Ribbon when two airliners hit the North and South Towers of the World Trade Centre.
Bass, and about 7,000 crew and passengers, were grounded in the tiny town for nearly six days, almost