Murray Osmond remembers how it began.
"I was alone in my office at the Airport, on the phone, when the first plane hit. I got off the phone and turned on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit."
Minutes later, he heard the announcement: U.S. airspace was being shut down. All U.S. bound flights would be diverted to destinations in Canada. The Gander International Airport in Newfoundland, with its two large runways and its location at the easternmost edge of North America, would be called upon to accommodate most of the Atlantic flights.
Within hours, 39 jets, carrying some 6,500 passengers, had landed at Gander - For Murray - Gander citizen, father and family man, federal government employee - the day had changed dramatically. His life, he soon realized, had also changed, and it would never be the same again.
Murray says he knew immediately that Gander would play a major role in the aftermath of September 11. It was obvious, he says, because of Gander's strategic location, the length of its two runways, and the community's history of welcoming trans-Atlantic flights, scheduled and otherwise. So when he heard that United States air space was being shut down, "I was pretty sure we'd get a large number of planes landing here."
Murray also knew that, as the single Citizenship and Immigration Canada officer based in Gander, he would soon confront an enormous challenge - processing thousands of passengers, many of whom might not even be aware of the tragedy that had occurred in New York. "There was also the issue of security," he adds. "To be honest, we didn't know which planes still out there might have similar individuals aboard" as those who had attacked the World Trade Center.
Finally, there was the problem of feeding and housing literally thousands of people on the shortest possible notice. And not knowing how long they might have to stay.
At 10 o'clock that morning, Murray entered the airport's Emergency Control Centre. He was joined by airport, RCMP and firefighting officials. Together, they would have to coordinate a response to a crisis none of them could possibly have imagined.
Ten minutes later, the first aircraft landed.
Murray knew he'd need help and that he'd need it quickly. "The problem was, the main Citizenship and Immigration office is in St. John's. I'm the only CIC officer based in Gander." Normally, it would have been a simple matter to have additional support fly in, but with air space closed, that was no longer an option. Instead, three CIC officers had to make the 3˝-hour drive from St. John's to Gander.
When they arrived, Murray had processed the passengers from one of the planes. Another 38, containing more than 6,000 passengers, were still lined up on the tarmac. Even with their best efforts, it would be another 20 to 30 hours before the final passenger set foot on Newfoundland soil. Murray Osmond would work another 24 hours straight before going to rest for a few hours. Not surprisingly, he says he got little or no sleep before heading back to the airport a few hours later. He was not alone.
Murray says today that he wasn't sure what to expect when the first passengers disembarked on September 11. But it was evident that not everyone knew exactly what had occurred earlier in the States. "Most knew something had happened, but few had any real sense of the enormity of the tragedy." Still, he found the passengers were amazingly calm. "They weren't terribly frightened," he recalls. "If anything, most seemed to be relieved that they were somewhere where everything was OK."
In fact, they were much more than "OK" for the next four days as the community of Gander opened its doors and its heart to the scores of unexpected guests. "I think, for me, that will always be the real story of what happened here," says Murray. "These are my fellow citizens and what they did, what they were able to do, I think, put Canada on the map." As one of the passengers said later, "the people of Gander came together to make sure every single person would be taken care of."
With a population of only 10,000 and few hotels, Gander had to draw on all of its resources to meet the challenge. "Schools were closed so they could be used to house passengers," Murray recalls. "Churches opened their doors as did individual Ganderites to make sure everyone was looked after." Even the town's school bus drivers - on strike for weeks - abandoned their picket lines to shuttle passengers around town.
In the end, everyone chipped in. The local telephone company set up phone banks so that passengers could call home. They strung wires and cables so that the passengers would have access to television and the Internet. One Gander citizen who housed and fed a family for four days insists she and others in Gander did nothing out of the ordinary. "This is the way everybody is," she said simply.
Murray agrees. "It was," he says, "a typical Newfoundland response. We've got a reputation for that." It is a reputation that seems sure to grow in the years ahead. Three months after the September 11 tragedy, the town was still receiving cards and thank-you notes. Many of the grateful passengers included donations and promises to return to Gander to vacation. Murray says the local paper is still getting letters from passengers and crew members. It is one letter however, mailed to a local church that provided food and shelter to passengers and crew over the four days, that promises to have the most lasting impact. "It came (in early December) from the CEO at Lufthansa," says Murray, "expressing his heartfelt thanks for what the people of Gander had done. At the end of the letter, as a gesture of respect and thanks, he said that Lufthansa was going to name one of its aircraft "Gander."
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