By Tony Aiello
“Remember you are now on foreign soil.”
Two decades later, the images remain etched in my mind. Plane after plane on the tarmac in Gander, Newfoundland. September 11, 2001.
“We have to assume that whoever has done this is using commercial airliners as weapons of mass destruction in this,” said Captain Nick Dobi.
Thirty eight planes carrying 7,000 people diverted to Gander on 9/11. My wife Liz and I, returning to New York from vacation, were on the 37th to land.
(credit; Tony and Liz Aiello)
Much of the video from our experience 20 years ago has never been seen publicly.
Captain Dobi told us of the nightmare unfolding in New York.
“Two American Airlines flights were hijacked and crashed into the two World Trade Center buildings. They were destroyed. Rubble. Thousands are dead and wounded,” Dobi said.
We were stunned and anxious, with no idea what to expect in Gander, and I certainly never imagined that, years later, the loving kindness we experienced would inspire a smash Broadway show.
“It would be wonderful if the world was like Newfoundland, and we didn’t need to celebrate stories like this. But right now I think we still need to,” said David Hein.
Hein and Irene Sankoff are the Canadians who wrote “Come From Away,” the hit musical about the open hearts and helping hands Newfoundlanders offered the stranded travelers.
“We wanted to capture that and put it out for whoever could see it,” Sankoff said.
They were grateful for the opportunity to do something.
Complete Coverage: 9/11 Twenty Years Later
“It’s a story about taking care of one another,” Hein said.
The long hours on the plane in the days before smartphones meant we could only imagine the terror visited on New York, and elsewhere.
It was the afternoon of September 12th before we were allowed off the plane, and into the terminal. There, we finally saw what happened, and realized it was worse than we imagined.
By Wednesday, Gander ran out of places to put passengers. Local bus drivers answered the call for help. They came off of strike to take us where we needed to go.
“It needed to be done, and so it was done,” said Petrina Bromley.
Bromley is the only Newfoundland native in the Broadway cast. She says the province has a long history with shipwrecks and stranded travelers.
“Tragedy washing up on our shore kind of thing. So I’m hoping it’s somewhere in our DNA to be there and be ready to help,” Bromley said.
(credit: Tony Aiello/CBS2)
The buses took us to the Philadelphia Pentecostal Tabernacle in Lewisporte. Locals donated pillows and blankets so we could sleep on the pews. Lewisporte Middle School is where we watched TV and used the Internet. The locals constantly checked on our every need.
Every time we tried to walk around town, locals stopped to insist on driving us. We had our pack of donated clothing and toiletries. They fed us well, even buttering our toast, and one morning pastor Ross Bartlett proudly made an announcement.
“We made ‘Newfie’steak for you this morning,'” he said.
Newfie steak, great. So we walk into the cafeteria and they hand us a plate of fried bologna. They were having a little bit of fun at our expense.
“Everyone’s on edge, they know how to turn up the dial a little bit to put you at ease,” Sankoff said.
We gathered to worship on Friday night, and created a thank you board before we left on Saturday, Sept. 15.
Twenty years later, it’s the song “Stop The World” that best sums up my time in Newfoundland. It’s hard to keep my emotions in check. It was a moment in my life, but it’s a moment that we think about all the time, with gratitude.
“We all wanted to help, and we all felt helpless. But the Newfoundlanders could do something and they were so thankful for it,” Hein said.
from CBS New York https://ift.tt/2Izr88c
