Delta 129

We boarded on time on September 11, 2001. Delta flight #129 backed from the gate at 12:30 PM Shannon time, 7:30 AM East Coast time, with arrival at Atlanta scheduled for 3:50 PM. About four hours into the eight plus hours of flying time the Captain, Wolf I believe he said, announced that the weather was clear and assured us that our plane was mechanically and instrumentally fine, but we were to make an unscheduled stop at Gander, Newfoundland. He asked all 280 passengers to bear with him, and was certain everyone would understand the reason for changing our flight plan which he would explain after landing at about 2:00 local time or 12:30 PM New York time (yes, NF is 1-1/2 hours ahead of NY).

On touchdown at Gander, planes similar in size to our Boeing 777 from Sabena, ATA, Al Italia, other Deltas, and many others, 28 others at that time, were lined up on side runways. It was very apparent something was amiss – Sherman burning Atlanta again, came to mind – then, as our plane found parking with the others on a side runway, Captain Wolf relayed to us what little information he had on the tragedy occurring at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. We were told that eventually there were about 50 planes carrying approximately 9,000 passengers and crew at Gander alone; with thousands more at St. Johns, NF, Halifax, NS and other cities in across Canada.

The logistics of handling thousands of unexpected guests in such a short period of time created obvious problems for all of the Gander authorities, but their emergency preparedness training became apparent, or it was by the time we debarked. After landing we sat on the tarmac for another 22 hours, but please keep in mind that Delta #129 was 29^th in line to deplane – down the stairway and onto school busses with all carry-on luggage in hand. Then to the terminal where security and customs inspected all persons and their belongings. By the time we reached “processing”, the system and the volunteers were performing well. Everyone was “registered” with the Red Cross; medications, infirmities and illnesses were noted; sandwiches, chips, bottled refreshments and fruit were handed out; then all on #129, (luggage, snacks and all) were re-loaded on 7 school busses for the 45 minute ride to Lewisporte, NF.

We feel that the fortunate passengers from the Gander planes were taken to Lewisporte, a town of 4,000 which accepted 800 guests who were taken to schools, churches, clubhouses, etc. with those needing special care taken to motels, B&Bs and residences. The Kinsmen Club of Notre Dame (see enclosure for details on this community service organization) welcomed the 280 of us from Delta 129 on Wednesday in the early afternoon with open hearts and hearths. Folding tables and chairs were set up in the Kinsmen Centre (meeting hall) where they served us hearty soup, sandwiches, and dessert - all home made – as well as chips, various juices and other refreshments. “Beds” (thick sheets of Styrofoam), complete with linens, pillows and blankets, presumably, from the homes of Kinsmen, were all along the walls for those of us who needed to rest on arrival. Some small cots and a folding bed arrived later. Soap and other personal hygiene needs were provided by the Red Cross which also, I understand, agreed to contribute to some, but not all, of the kinsmen’s expenses. At night, all tables were removed and “beds” filled the room – 180 of us slept in the Centre while the other 100 slept in an adjoining building, but all 280 of us ate together. In the morning, beds were removed from the central area and the tables and chairs miraculously appeared again.

There were Kinsmen, Kinettes or K-40s with us 24 hours a day to look after our needs – even to guide us by flashlight from our bed to the lavatory at night. The Kinsmen kitchen was a beehive of activity from midnight on Tuesday to midnight on Friday. Three hot dinners and two more lunches and hot breakfasts were served – cereals as well as eggs to order with Newfie steak one morning – one evening, charcoal grilled steaks done to order with baked potatoes served on delph plates with real cutlery, and with all the fixings. Available at all times were hot coffee, tea, sodas, water, chips, fruit and most anything else for the asking.

A ceiling-mounted TV in the Centre was tuned to CNN to bring us up-to-date with the horror in the USA, but updates on the situation with Delta #129 were lacking, until Friday afternoon. The kinsmen offered everyone rides downtown (we were uphill from Notre Dame Bay) to shop for clothes (since all stowed luggage remained on-board the aircraft) or to do laundry, or shower/bathe (the Centre had no showers), or go on boat rides or other excursions to local points of interest – again, the Kinfolks were always waiting to make our stay as comfortable as possible. Recent surgery kept me close to the hall but, in need of drugs, Bette drove me to Dr. Penney who called my US doctor for a list of medications, then to see Sam at Shoppers Drug to get a 5 days supply of pills at the expense of the Red Cross – nothing was a problem for the Kin Family.

Our Captain and some of the crew (they had not stayed in Lewisporte) finally appeared late Friday to review the status of the situation at Gander and the outlook for the continuation of our flight. All of us, to the person, took our overall unexpected situation in stride without complaint and in awe of the effort of the Newfoundlanders of Lewisporte including Don, Jeff, Clayton, Brian, Rex, Bryce, Bob, Tom, Paula, Donna, and the 45 other “Kinsmen” who waited on us hand and foot.

Just after midnight on Saturday morning they awakened us for transport to Gander and eventual departure at 10 AM, box lunches in hand. All food on the plane had been consumed during our earlier 26 hour stay on board and had not been replaced, but otherwise the plane had been serviced. Candy, crackers, water, hot tea and black coffee were available – Bailey’s lightened the coffee for some of us. We arrived in Atlanta at 2:00 PM on Saturday to “welcome home” banners at the gate and cheers, applause and placards as we exited Customs.

What an adventure but, most importantly, what an experience of the true meaning of the word “caring”. Lewisporte and, in our case, the Kin Family of Notre Dame have given all of us that wonderful experience. For the hatred that was shown the world on September 11, 2001 the hearts that were open by strangers to strangers in Lewisporte clearly shows the other side of the coin.

As an aside, Delta #129 originated in Ireland so naturally most of the passengers had strong ties to Ireland and were of course in touch with family and friends on the old sod. Thus, we learned what most of the outside world is as yet unaware of to this day – the respect that the country of Ireland paid to the memory of those lost in the tragedy. It is best summarized in the following email from a family friend:

Please know that I was in Ireland at the time and they closed the whole of Ireland on the Friday after the disaster and held a day of prayer. ...no stores, no public or government buildings, no restaurants, NO PUBS...just flowers, handshakes and a pat on the shoulder plus signing a book of condolences, church services, flags at half staff. As a tourist - our restaurant served us a buffet main meal by its supervisory staff as the regular staff was off for the day. Yet I see no mention of our Irish friends sharing our sorrow in the press. . I haven't developed my film yet - flowers and flags. In fact one man, unknown to me, insisted on buying me a Guinness at the airport when he found I was going back to the USA! Take care JCK

Along this same lines, this letter was sent to John Murray from one of his cousins in Ireland. His daughter's name is pronounced Alva (spelled the Gaelic way) and she is 12 yrs. old.

I am writing to express my deepest sympathy about the awful terrorism that has hit your country. We were all terribly shocked when we heard. I hope you can soon rebuild your lives after this terrible tragedy. At our schools and also at all shops and offices we will be closed tomorrow 14th in solidarity with the people of the United States of America. We are

Having a special church service and will pray for all your needs. We hope you can find the people that did this. I send my best wishes to you hoping that it will help you in some way. Regards from Ailbhe Benson . Age 12.”

If you’re interested in learning more about the “Gateway to the North” contact:

Lewisporte Town Hall
Tourism Department
PO Box 219
Lewisporte, NF A0G 3A0

Tel. 709-535-2525
Fax. 709-535-2695

- EKF

The following reached me by an unknown route – from a friend of a friend of a friend….

We were about 5 hours out of Frankfurt flying over the North Atlantic and I was in my crew rest seat taking my scheduled rest break. All of a sudden, the curtains parted violently and I was told to go to the cockpit, right now, to see the captain. As soon as I got there, I noticed that the crew had one of those "all business" looks on their faces. The captain handed me a printed message. I quickly read the message and realized the importance of it. The message was from Atlanta, addressed to our flight, and simply said, "All airways over the Continental US are closed. Land ASAP at the nearest airport, advise your destination." Now, when a dispatcher tells you to land immediately without suggesting which airport, one can assume that the dispatcher has reluctantly given up control of the flight to the captain. We knew it was a serious situation and we needed to find terra firma quickly. It was quickly decided that the nearest airport was 400 miles away, behind our right shoulder, in Gander, on the island of Newfoundland.

A quick request was made to the Canadian traffic controller and a right turn, directly to Gander, was approved immediately. We found out later why there was no hesitation by the Canadian controller approving our request. We, the in-flight crew, were told to get the airplane ready for an immediate landing. While this was going on, another message arrived from Atlanta telling us about some terrorist activity in the New York area. We briefed the in-flight crew about going to Gander and we went about our business 'closing down' the airplane for a landing. A few minutes later, I went back to the cockpit to find out that some airplanes had been hijacked and were being flown into buildings all over the US. We decided to make an announcement and LIE to the passengers, for the time being. We told them that an instrument problem had arisen on the airplane and that we needed to land at Gander, to have it checked. We promised to give more information after landing in Gander. There were many unhappy passengers, but that is par for the course. We landed in Gander about 40 minutes after the start of this episode. There were already about 20 other airplanes on the ground from all over the world.

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. But the reality is that we are here for a good 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. Local time at Gander was 12:30 pm (11:00 AM EST). Gander control told us to stay put. No one was allowed to get off the aircraft. No one on the ground was allowed to come near the aircrafts. Only a car from the airport police would come around once in a while, look us over, and go on to the next airplane. In the next hour or so, all the airways over the North Atlantic were vacated and Gander alone ended up with 53 airplanes from all over the world, out of which 27 were flying US flags. We were told that each and every plane was to be offloaded, one at a time, with the foreign carriers given the priority. We were No. 14 in the US category. We were further told that we would be given a tentative time to deplane at 6 pm.

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 US were either blocked or jammed and to try again. Some time late 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. Now the passengers were totally bewildered and emotionally exhausted but stayed calm as we kept reminding them to look around to see that we were not the only ones in this predicament. There were 52 other planes with people on them in the same situation. We also told them that the Canadian Government was in charge and we were at their mercy.

True to their word, at 6 PM, Gander airport told us that our turn to deplane would come at 11 AM, the next morning. That took the last wind out of the passengers and they simply resigned and accepted this news without much noise and really started to get into a mode of spending the night on the airplane. Gander had promised us any and all medical attention if needed; medicine, water, and lavatory servicing. And they were true to their word. Fortunately, we had no medical situation during the night. We did have a young lady who was 33 weeks into her pregnancy. We took REALLY good care of her. The night passed without any further complications on our airplane, despite the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements.

About 10:30 on the morning of the 12th, we were told to get ready to leave the aircraft. A convoy of school buses showed up at the side of the airplane, the stairway was hooked up and the passengers were taken to the terminal for "processing".

We, the crew, were taken to the same terminal but were told to go to a different section, where we were processed through Immigration and customs and then had to register with the Red Cross. After that, we were isolated from our passengers and were taken in a caravan of vans to a very small hotel in the town of Gander. We had no idea where our passengers were going. The town of Gander has a population of 10,400 people. Red Cross told us that they were going to process about 10,500 passengers from all the airplanes that were forced into Gander. We were told to just relax at the hotel and wait for a call to go back to the airport, 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 enjoyed ourselves going around town, discovering things and enjoying the hospitality. The people were so friendly and they just knew that we were the "plane people." We all had a great time until we got that call, 2 days later, on the 14th at 7 AM. We made it to the airport by 8:30 AM and left for Atlanta at 12:30 PM, arriving in Atlanta at about 4:30 PM. (Gander is 1 hour and 30 minutes ahead of EST -- yes! 1 hour and 30 minutes.) But that's not what I wanted to tell you.

What passengers told us was so uplifting and incredible and the timing couldn't have been better. We found out that Gander, and the surrounding small communities within a 75 kilometer radius, had closed all the high schools, meeting halls, lodges, and any other large gathering places. They converted all these facilities to mass lodging areas. Some had cots set up, some had mats with sleeping bags and pillows set up. ALL the high school students HAD to volunteer taking care of the "GUESTS." Our 218 passengers ended up in a town called Lewisporte, about 45 kilometers from Gander. There they were put 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 given no choice and 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 were DDS on call and they had both male and female nurses available and stayed with the crowd for the duration. Phone calls and emails to US and Europe were available for everyone once a day. During the days, the passengers were given a choice of "excursion" trips. Some people went on boat cruises of the lakes and harbors. Some went to see 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 school for those who elected to stay put. Others were driven to the eatery of their choice and fed. They were given tokens to go to the local laundromat to wash their clothes, since their luggage was still on the aircraft. In other words, every single need was met for those unfortunate travelers.

Passengers were crying while telling us these stories. After all that, they were delivered to the airport right on time and without a single one missing or late. All because the local Red Cross had all the information about the goings on back at Gander and knew which group needed to leave for the airport at what time. Absolutely incredible. When passengers came on board, it was like they had been on a cruise. Everybody knew everybody else by their name. They were swapping stories of their stay, impressing each other with who had the better time. It was mind boggling.

Our flight back to Atlanta looked like a party flight. We simply stayed out of their way. The passengers had totally bonded, and they were calling each other by their first names, exchanging phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses. And then a strange thing happened. One of our business class passengers approached me and asked if he could speak over the PA to his fellow passengers. We never, never, allow that. But something told me to get out of his way. I said "of course." The gentleman 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 further stated that he would like to do something in return for the good folks of the town 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 a scholarship for high school student(s) of Lewisporte to help them go to college. 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, it totaled to $14.5K or about $20K Canadian. The gentleman who started all this turned out to be an MD from Virginia. He 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. Why all of this? Just because some people in far away places were kind to some strangers, who happened to literally drop in among them. WHY NOT? Nazim