neuron

As a Canadian who had just moved to NYC a few months before 9/11, I was no more proud to be Canadian than that fateful day. Operation Yellow Ribbon was put into place within an hour of the US and Canadian airspace being closed (except military operations).

The only public planes permitted were those carrying transoceanic passengers. The next 8 hours, they came from both sides, over 200 flights carrying more than 30000 passengers. While Gander's population took a disproportionate number, other cities like St. John's, Yellowknife, Halifax, Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto took in people. While it was agonizing for the stranded people, Canadians tried their best to comfort them.

Watching the profile brought back some of the anxiety of that day, but more importantly reinforced why I am proud to be a Canadian, knowing that as a nation, we were there when we were needed!

Nuts4vball

I am so sorry that I missed seeing this special and like all of you, hope it is online soon. My husband, who was flying home on a US military cargo plane on 9/11, was also diverted to Gander and was on one of the first planes to arrive. He had already told me how amazing the local response was in Gander: the local sandwich shop bringing in food all day long, the local bus drivers coming off strike to assist with transportation, the extra security crews they brought in to handle the thousands of passengers who were stranded, even the drugstore giving away supplies to anyone in need. He raved about the Ganderites and their kindness. I do hope the special re-airs so that I have a chance to see it.

For those who may be interested in hearing even more about Gander's response on 9/11, there was a wonderful book written: THE DAY THE WORLD CAME TO TOWN: 9/11 IN GANDER, NEWFOUNDLAND, by Jim DeFede. I highly recommend it, as it is life-affirming and a true account of the sort of kindness and selflessness that is missing in so much of our lives.

dstan

Welcome to FlyerTalk, Nuts4vball, and thanks for sharing your husband's experience with us! The local bus drivers coming off strike to transport all of the passengers was also highlighted in the feature.

And welcome to dre27nyc and skinnedtea as well!

blbpdsusa

My son and I were watching NBC Saturday when Tom Brokaw came on, and we just assumed he was gonna do one of those "peg-legged slovakian guy wins 3 golds and makes us feel even more lazy" olympic segments. But instead he launches into a 9/11 emotional haymaker, and ten minutes into the piece a bunch of artfully weaving ground zero, airliner and Gander storylines are all still building. I dove for the tivo recorder at the first commercial break, and fortunately it had enough memory to buffer backwards about 20 minutes, so we have the entire program in HD including intro. It was every bit as amazing as warranted by others above, incredible archival footage, interviews, beautifully sweeping aerial photography...a stunning 45-minute piece of journalism that's sure to win whatever awards are given for this stuff, and made even more noteworthy by the completely random timing of the broadcast itself (4:41p et). By 5:30 we were simply in shock...NOBODY can say they saw this coming, and sure enough my wife and I were approached repeatedly for dvd copies when word got out at a party later that night.

-bb

Trevor L

Hey BB - have you thought about breaking it up in pieces and then posting it to an open Facebook group ? Not sure if you can upload then entire piece - and not sure how large/how long it is - but am pretty sure that if you want to share it you should be able to do so with Facebook. As a last resort, you could post it to a private group - eg. that is if Facebook don't let you leave it open for copyright reasons - and then just approve people for the next few weeks and by that time, someone will have re-recorded it and figured out how to post it somewhere in the open/public. Good luck - I really want to see it.

cheers-
Trevor L

Centurion

Wow I would love to see that. How about uploading to a high storage site with a link. Would that violate Flyertalk tos.

blbpdsusa

see below

jennwarburt

I was lucky enough to see the Gander documentary when it aired and I have been searching for an online link ever since to watch it again. I am hoping someone has success posting/finding the story online.

BearX220

I wrote to NBC News asking about buying a copy of the piece, but got a same-day reply saying it is not available for purchase. I suppose they could be saving it to use as part of an Olympics best-of DVD set... in which case I'm sure some Flyertalkers would buy it to get hold of the Gander piece and toss aside all that skiing and skating stuff.

blbpdsusa

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?...00000818756367

click on "wall" tab

I'mOffOne

I also highly recommend The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland , which was linked to in a previous post. It's an engaging read with a lot of details and personal accounts from Newfoundlanders, passengers, and crew. It tells how the locals had sign-up sheets in the halls for showers and would ferry passengers back and forth from the halls and churches to their houses to take showers. It talks about how the local stores would just give stuff to the passengers instead of charging them when they found out they were "plane people", and how so many different cultures and languages came together in a small town for a few days. If you found the documentary interesting, you'll really enjoy that book.

bhatnasx

You beat me to it...I was doing some contract work up in St. John's and the guy who I was working for's wife found out I was really into traveling. She bought me a copy of this book as a gift. It's an excellent read for sure.

The Newfies are some of the greatest and friendliest people people on earth. It's hands-down one of the best places with the best people I've ever met. Everyone was so friendly. When I landed, I hopped a cab to the Courtyard in St. John's & the cabbie asked me if I had ever been to St. John's before. When I said no, he offered to take me on a tour of the area. I figured it was a scam to get some extra mileage on the meter - but he turned the meter off & we spent about an hour just driving around before going to my hotel. Sure, I tipped him well, but I don't think he would have cared either way. They are just good people in Newfoundland! ^

If you ever go there, try fried cod tongue, it's a delicacy!

PropWasher

OT but,

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/16113/

http://www.mun.ca/gazette/issues/vol40no15/phillips.php

chanp

I watched most of it, it was great.

dstan

Welcome to FlyerTalk, blbpdsusa, and thanks for posting!