“The events of September 11 were historic for many reasons. One of them was that the airspace over the United States was shut down, and every plane in the sky was ordered to land immediately at the nearest available airport.”
Those are some lines from the introduction to Jim DeFede’s book The Day the World Came To Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland.
This book is the basis for a BBC radio play, a CBC movie, and the award-winning Broadway musical Come From Away. On 9/11, more than 250 aircraft were diverted to 15 Canadian airports. Thirty-eight of those planes, carrying 6,595 passengers, landed in Gander, Newfoundland, that was, back in the 1940’s, the largest airstrip in the world.
When the townspeople realized that the airspace wouldn’t reopen for several days, they leapt into action finding places for the passengers to sleep, feeding them, and opening their homes for passengers to take a shower and have a little peace. They opened their homes and their hearts to all the passengers, including the 20+ animals that were in the baggage compartments.
The author shares details of a few of the passengers, including two couples traveling home after adopting infants, a Rabbi, a clothing designer on his way to a fashion show, the Hugo Boss chairman, and the parents of a New York City fireman.
As the book jacket says this book “is the remarkable true story, beautifully told, of a community that exemplified love, kindness, and generosity during one of the darkest chapters in American history.”
If you’re looking for a book that will restore your faith in humanity, then you must read The Day the World Came to Town by Jim DeFede.
