Remembering 9/11: When Gander provided safe haven in a time of crisis

Located on the island of Newfoundland, Gander is home to around 12,000 residents. Even fewer people lived here on September 11, 2001, when Gander's far northeast positioning made it an ideal landing spot for grounded flights. "Once you leave Europe in the morning, once you get halfways across, the nearest airport is Gander," said Claude Elliott, who was mayor of Gander on 9/11.

By the end of that day, 38 planes had landed at Gander's airport, something for which there was no contingency plan. "We have an emergency plan, every municipality has it. But there's nothing in that plan to tell you what to do with 7,000 people if they decide to drop in for four or five days." Once it was clear that the planes wouldn't be taking off anytime soon, Gander had to scramble to figure out what to do with its influx of temporary visitors from all around the world.

Elliott declared a state of emergency. Calls went out for supplies. Churches and schools became shelters.

Even the local hockey rink was put to use. "We got truckloads of food and we put it all in the community center on the ice surface, and we used it as a refrigerator to keep the food cool," Elliott said. Locals referred to the new arrivals as the "plane people." Offers to help poured in.

Elliott said, "The greatest asset that your community has is its people. Everybody came out." One of those volunteers was Gander resident Beulah Cooper. She told us, "I said, 'Thank God they're coming here, 'cause I know they will be looked after." Cooper volunteers at the Royal Canadian Legion in Gander, which housed 67 people from an Aer Lingus flight.

She brought sandwiches, shuttled stranded passengers to pay phones around town, and even invited some to sleep and shower at her home. Cooper said it was helpful to her to be helpful: "Oh, my gosh, it does so good in here [tapping her chest] to know that you're doing something to help somebody. And that's what I'm all about anyway." Cooper is one of the people who provided the inspiration for characters in the musical "Come From Away," which premiered on Broadway in 2017.