Without access to television, radio or any news, they had no inkling of the enormity of the event. “You have
to understand, you people who were watching TV: you knew what was happening. We did not know; we
didn’t have visual. We didn’t know that United flew into the tower and it was seen on TV. We didn’t know
that the planes had been hijacked, so we were operating blind.”
Shortly afterwards, word came through that New York airspace would close. Then, all US airspace. Bass
immediately started programming the computers to Toronto, Montreal, any of the larger cities in Canada.
But when they approached 50 degrees west longitude, which is where pilots first come into contact with
North America, Gander control, the message was unequivocal.
“Gander control called us and said, American 49, land your plane immediately in Gander, Newfoundland.
And that’s when I had to tell the passengers.”
“On the northeast tip of North America, on an island called Newfoundland. It used to be one of the biggest
airports in the world. And next to it is a town called Gander.”
The runway at Gander airport as Bass’s
American 49 approached (Beverley
Bass/American Airlines)The musical Come from Away begins with Claude, the mayor of Gander, introducing the “rock”, so-called
for its isolation. Gander is “on the edge of the world, where the river meets the sea”.
But its location proved strategic for a refuelling stop – or emergency landing – between the United
Kingdom and North America, and in 1938, Newfoundland Airport was open for business. By 1949, after US
and Canadian army planes and the first commercial transatlantic flights had begun to regularly pass
through, it had been renamed Gander international airport. In turn, most of the streets in the town are
named after famous pilots, including Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh.
In “Welcome to the Rock”, the islanders explain what they were doing the morning of 11 September, before
they turned on the radio, and heard the news. The US airspace was shut, and planes would be diverted to
the Rock. One, then another. Bass landed her plane at 10:15am, the last of 38 wide aircraft to touch down in
Gander. Almost 7,000 people, passengers and crew arrived in a three-hour time frame – to a town of about
10,000.
Any available community buildings in Gander were commandeered for shelters, while locals mustered
blankets, bedding, medicine, toiletries and all the food they could find. Bass later learnt that the townsfolk
filled over 2,000 medical prescriptions that night.