The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

“For the better part of a week, nearly every man, woman, and child in Gander and the surrounding smaller towns […] placed their lives on hold for a group of strangers and asked for nothing in return. They affirmed the basic goodness of man at a time when it was easy to doubt such humanity still existed.”

Repeatedly, passengers stranded in Gander remarked on the extraordinary hospitality of the local communities. Strangers gave them unprecedented trust and generosity. The book develops this theme through vignettes exploring interactions between locals and passengers and the long-term relationships they developed during the five intense days.

“Without being called, off-duty controllers started arriving at the center within a half hour of the attacks. Eventually every controller working a screen had at least one backup and a supervisor to help.”

The book illuminates the intense pressure that air traffic controllers faced on September 11. The closing of US airspace meant that Canada was also under threat: No one knew whether passengers on planes still in the air were planning an attack, and some suspected they did. In addition to the existential threat was the practical problem of rerouting hundreds of planes without any accidents. Rather than exhibit reticence or fear, however, off-duty controllers threw themselves into the task with focus, confidence, and calm, exemplifying the spirit of the people of Newfoundland throughout the crisis and its immediate aftermath.

“A few more hours and they could shower in their own home, sleep in their own beds, eat in their own kitchens. Just a few more hours and they would have their lives back. As that idea sank in, they all began to relax.

And then the plane suddenly banked right. Thirty minutes later they were in Gander.”

The above passage describes the experience of the Lopers and Wakefields, who were traveling together after having both adopted daughters in Kazakhstan. One minute, they were nearly home; the next they were not. In their case, the detour came at the end of a physically and emotionally taxing journey, but for all the passengers, the detour to Gander is an unexpected jolt. Throughout the book, DeFede explores the detour’s impact from various angles, showing how the hospitality and kindness of locals eased the passengers’ anxieties and discomfort.

“Baldessarini felt ashamed for worrying about his fashion show. Fashion Week now seemed so trivial. How quickly a person’s priorities could shift, he thought.”

Baldessarini’s reaction to learning of the attacks mirrors the reaction of many passengers that day who were initially irritated or frustrated by the diversion but chastened when they learned the reason. Throughout, the book explores the range of emotional reactions passengers had both to the diversion and the crisis, depending on their closeness to the tragedy.

“Amazingly, as soon as the drivers realized what was happening, they laid down their picket signs, setting their own interests aside, and volunteered en masse to work around the clock carrying the passengers wherever they needed to go.”

Parallel to exploring passengers’ reactions to the crisis, the book explores those of the local population. The above passage describes school bus drivers. Though they were on strike, they halted it to meet the needs of fellow humans. Repeatedly, the text emphasizes that no one in Gander turned down the opportunity to help in whatever way they could.

“It was the start of a long process of discovery for the church members and their unexpected guests. And before it would come to an end, both the Moldovans and the Baptists would become experts in the art of pantomime and charades.”

Here, the text describes the relationship between a group of people from Moldovia emigrating to the US. Most of them spoke little English, and the volunteers at the Baptist church housed them. In this case, the volunteer attempted to warm up a baby bottle in the microwave, but the passenger was unfamiliar with microwaves. This exemplifies a challenge that volunteers and passengers faced throughout the five days: communicating across boundaries of language, cultural references, and expectations.

“He wondered if he would have the strength to run toward a Manhattan skyline missing its towers.”

This passage refers to George Vitale, whose daily routine at home in Brooklyn included a run before work that took him toward the World Trade Center (WTC) towers. Vitale is reflecting on how the crisis will necessarily reshape his daily life in ways both anticipated and unanticipated. His concern echoes throughout the perspectives of security personnel and flight crews, who understand that the events of September 11 will change how things are done in many industries.

“Three minutes later Fudge arrived. Bowen was standing in the lobby, still not sure why he needed to talk to her. The constable walked up to her and, without saying anything, wrapped his arms around her and squeezed tight.

‘That’s from your sister,’ he finally said.”

Oz Fudge was a constable in Gander who received a call from an investigator at a Georgia police department. She asked Fudge to find her sister, Sharlene Bowen, a Delta flight attendant stranded in Gander, and give her a hug. Fudge spend hours tracking Sharlene down to give her a hug. The book describes many similar scenarios, exemplifying the small, deeply personal ways the people of Gander attempted to comfort and console stranded passengers.

“Once the sun went down on Tuesday, the plane developed the vibe of a freewheeling United Nations cocktail party, with passengers mixing, mingling, and imbibing.”

This passage describes events on Continental Flight 5 (one of the last to land and thus deboard), which helps illuminate two of the novel’s themes: The Role of Community in Providing Comfort and Safety and How Unexpected Events Can Bring Diverse People Together. In addition, it exemplifies the range of people’s responses to the crisis and the goodwill that people exhibited toward one another at a difficult time. None of the passengers on this flight, who were from various backgrounds, had a known personal connection to people at the WTC or Pentagon, and they came together to keep the mood positive despite being on the plane for more than 24 hours.

“There were so many different cultures represented in the school, it was just staggering to Smith. Soon after the passengers arrived, school officials hung a large map of the world on the wall and asked everyone to place a thumbtack next to the place they were from. By her count, at Lakewood Academy alone there were people from forty different countries, from Sri Lanka to Tasmania. There were women in burkas and men in flowing robes. The hallways were filled with the sounds of different languages.”

Because more than 6,000 passengers were stranded in Gander, DeFede could not provide personal anecdotes for everyone in his book. Throughout the book, passages like this one help illustrate the meaning behind his title by highlighting how many different cultures and languages were present in Gander in the days after September 11. The words of Jean Chretien in the Preface echo in passages like this one, which show how various communities became “a global village” (8) in Gander.

“As Shaw berated him, the thirty-eight-year-old Fitzpatrick just stood there with his head hanging low. For those inside the church, it was a marvelous show. Here was this little old woman scolding this fellow who must have been at least a foot taller. As they like to say in these parts, she was ‘giving him the devil.’

‘Now you go give your mother a call,’ Shaw wrapped up. ‘Right now.’

As Fitzpatrick skulked away, several of the other passengers applauded.”

This passage exemplifies the kind of humorous anecdotes DeFede includes throughout the book. While the levity helps balance the heaviness of the events he describes, it also shows the different ways people coped, depending on their proximity to the tragedy, and the way that fostering a sense of community among strangers can build intimacy and bring comfort. Working the night shift at one of the shelters, volunteer Janet Shaw fielded hourly calls from an anxious mother looking for her son, Bill Fitzpatrick.

“Mercer felt like he was making friends in this short period of time that would last a lifetime.”

Tom Mercer was a volunteer who took a group of Iranian teens to the shopping mall, helped a group of women from Mozambique, and befriended the New York-based O’Rourkes, demonstrating the “global village” spirit in Gander. Mercer’s actions reflect throughout the book and in the Afterword, which describes the lasting relationships that grew among passengers and between passengers and Gander volunteers.

“No sooner had the first planes started to land in Gander than O’Donnell received a phone call from her bosses telling her she had carte blanche to donate everything in the store, if necessary, to the relief effort.”

The book emphasizes how the population of Gander almost doubled overnight, and meeting the needs of so many passengers simultaneously, given their a wide range of needs, required a coordinated effort. Local individual stripped their shelves bare to provide what they could. Canadian Tire matched that generosity at scale, donating almost $20,000 of merchandise from its own stores and providing another $10,000 in merchandise that it purchased from its competitors’ stores. This anecdote reveals the spirit of Gander, showing what made passengers’ experiences so transformative in the long term.

“That night, Kelly Vey went one step better. She met Peggy in person and assured her over dinner that there wasn’t a better place in the world to be trapped than Gander.”

Thematically demonstrating The Enduring Effects of Hospitality and Goodwill, the bonding of this “global village” did not just affect the passengers and locals in the moment. The effects stretched beyond the boundaries of Gander, reaching into the lives of people around the world. DeFede records several instances like the above passage. Patsy Vey realized that her daughter, Kelly, lived in the same city as Peggy, the daughter of an elderly couple stranded in Gander. Kelly went out to dinner with Peggy to reassure her that her parents were in safe hands.

“The selflessness of the townspeople gave Gray-Felder chills.”

Throughout the book, passengers repeat Denise Gray-Felder’s sentiments. Passengers repeatedly told DeFede that “[t]here was nothing [they] needed that the people in town weren’t prepared to provide” (142), and the generosity and care they received changed them. They felt moved to pay those experiences forward, not only within Gander but beyond it. Small, personal gestures, the book suggests, help change the world.

“Inside the lounge, Knoth studied his colleagues. They were angry and scared and depressed. Some were physically exhausted, while others were just wrung out emotionally. It didn’t particularly matter if any of these men and women personally knew a crew member from one of the hijacked planes. All they needed to know was that it could just as easily have been them.”

A point the book repeatedly returns to is that the building of community in Gander starkly contrasted with the destruction of community that brought the passengers to the small Newfoundland town. DeFede draws attention to this by documenting the experiences of flight personnel, whose workplace on other planes the hijackers had turned into their own workplace in a horrifying mission. Though the book emphasizes the acts of kindness and care that sprang up in response to September 11, it also addresses the fear and anxiety that many faced in the aftermath, creating a balanced account.

“As they made their way down the row, hugging and thanking each person, both Roxanne and Beth were surprised by how emotional it was. They had known these people for less than thirty-six hours, but they were already family. Bruce handed Roxanne a piece of paper with his name, phone number, and email address, and told her to call when they arrived safe in Texas.”

As the passengers of Lufthansa Flight 438 prepared to depart from their shelter, the volunteers line up to say goodbye and wish them well, “like a receiving line at a wedding” (148). Many of the passenger accounts echo Beth and Roxanne’s experience of an emotional goodbye and feeling of family, which developed during their short but intense time together. As evident in Bruce MacLeod’s recollections of this moment and as the Afterword notes, passengers and volunteers forged lifelong friendships.

“Olesya and the others listened, not really understanding the words, but recognizing the joy in the voices.”

Olesya was one of the Moldovan emigres at the Baptist church. The church volunteers and Moldovans passed their evenings singing hymns and gospel songs together, the Moldovans in Russian and the volunteers in English. Olesya did not need to understand the words to recognize the joy. This anecdote symbolizes the effect of goodwill: People can feel it despite what may seem the most profound obstacles, exemplifying one of DeFede’s stated purposes in authoring the book.

“There was no hatred. No anger. No fear in Gander. Only the spirit of community. Here, everyone was equal, everyone was treated the same. Here, the basic humanity of man wasn’t just surviving but thriving. And Baldessarini understood that he was a witness to it and it was affecting him in ways he’d never imagined.”

Baldessarini attempts to honor his experience in Gander. As a high-ranking fashion executive, he was accustomed to special treatment, but in Gander, he was another passenger to care for, no more important than anyone else. Rather than seizing opportunities to capitalize on his status, he repeatedly rejected special offers like the use of a private jet. His experience exemplifies the individual transformation that occurred throughout the five days as the generosity of locals humbled the passengers.

“His picture, and all the warmth and good spirit it represented, captured on film by hundreds of passengers, a final memento of this life-altering detour.”

This passage describes Corporal Grant Smith, a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for 26 years, who dressed in his ceremonial uniform to pose with passengers as they boarded their flights. Smith’s intention was for passengers to leave with a happy memory, and the photos became a physical memento of their Newfoundland experience, something to carry with them to remember the power of kindness and goodwill as they returned to their daily lives.

“By the time they finished, Vitale felt better than he had felt in weeks. Over the next few months Flynn seemed to call him at just those moments when he was feeling his lowest.”

The book notes how many of the friendships between passengers and volunteers lasted and they stayed in touch, thematically reflecting The Enduring Effects of Hospitality and Goodwill. Vitale and Flynn powerfully illustrate this experience: Vitale’s feelings of guilt and anxiety followed him in the years after September 11. Often, on days when his struggle was especially painful, Flynn called him at just the right moment, bringing back “all the good memories Vitale had about the people in Newfoundland” (196).

“Clemens was a passenger, Clemens Briels, and when teachers at the school did a little further checking, they learned that he was a renowned Dutch artist.”

The Epilogue mentions several famous figures who were quietly present in Gander, experiencing the locals’ hospitality and goodwill without seeking attention or special treatment, similar to Baldessarini. In thanks for all he received, Briels left behind a chalk drawing that the locals preserved and displayed at the school where he drew it. Like the photos with Corporal Grant Smith that the passengers left with, the Briels painting provides future generations with a physical reminder of the community’s impact on the passengers.

“Can we have some of that unity without the pain that caused the unity? I don’t think that’s too much to ask. But evidently it is. We’ve lost the ability to come together in America. And I’m worried about the future. I don’t know how we move forward in any kind of harmony.”

Vitale expressed the above sentiments when reflecting on what he experienced in Gander. The book does not remark on whether the pain is necessary to prompt the unity, allowing passengers and volunteers to speak about their own experiences without assessing them. Rather, in providing a record of the special events that transpired in Gander, DeFede suggests that transcending the isolation and differences of language, culture, and experience remains possible, if people choose to embrace it.