‘They All Have Big Hearts’: NL Community Celebrated for Helping Stranded Airline Passengers on 9/11 Does It Again

The Gander, N.L., airport is shown on July 6, 2023. The Canadian Press/Sarah Smellie

Nearly 25 years after they stepped up to help stranded airline passengers during 9/11, residents in Gander, N.L., displayed their generosity again by forming a volunteer shuttle service for hundreds of travellers whose flights were diverted to the small community.

Gander resident Jackie Freake, who is the assistant manager of the Quality Inn in Gander, says it all started with a social media post late on Jan. 7, after two flights had been diverted to Gander from St. John’s due to weather, and the people on board needed to get to their hotel rooms.

The passengers were booked into four hotels in town, but there were only two cabs available in town to transport them, and it became a “pretty slow process,” Freake said.

Freake said she then had the idea to see if she could find help, and wrote a post on a local Gander Facebook group at around 10 p.m. that night.

“I just basically said, ‘There’s 100 to 300 passengers at the airport that need to get to hotels,’” she said. “And within minutes, my phone lit up.”

Freake said the volunteers got out of bed, drove to the airport, and started shuttling passengers to the hotels. All the stranded passengers were transported to their hotels within an hour of her post, she said.

Meanwhile, the same thing happened the next day, when the stranded passengers needed to leave their hotels to return to the airport and were facing backlogs with the taxi service. Gander residents again stepped up to help.

“I put another post and again, within minutes, all the people from the community were on their way to work, stopped at the hotels, picked up these passengers, and took them to the airport on their way to their jobs,” Freake said.

9/11

The Newfoundland and Labrador community of less than 12,000 people gained a reputation for its hospitality after opening its doors to nearly 7,000 airline passengers diverted following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

About 38 commercial planes carrying 6,579 passengers from 92 different countries were forced to land at Gander International airport following the attack.

At the time, officials declared a state of emergency, closing schools, the community centre, and other public buildings, which were then used as accommodation for the travellers.

The generosity didn’t stop there, as prescriptions were filled for free, supplies were given out, phones were made available, and some Gander residents welcomed people to sleep in their homes or use their showers. Others lent out personal vehicles to the travellers.

The true story of Gander’s hospitality was later turned into a musical called “Come From Away.”

Freake said the locals are surprised at the media attention over something that comes naturally to them.

“I just think they all have big hearts. And it’s not just Gander, it’s Newfoundlanders, that’s how we are. It’s how we think,” she said.

She also thanked all the residents who helped transport passengers to and from the airport.

“It makes a difference. We are not thinking that it’s making a difference, we’re just reacting, but it does make a difference to someone else.”

Trevor Phipps contributed to this article.