On 9/11, as America was under attack, the order came: Get every goddamn plane out of the sky. Thirty-eight landed at an obscure airport in Newfoundland. What followed was humanity at its best…
A quarter-century after the 9/11 attacks, this feature revisits Operation Yellow Ribbon, the response that saw 38 passenger jets diverted to the small airport at Gander, Newfoundland, when the United States abruptly closed its airspace on 11 September 2001. Fearing further hijackings, President George W Bush ordered all civilian aircraft over the US to land immediately and inbound international flights to turn back or land elsewhere, prompting a mass diversion to Canada's east coast. The episode is remembered as a rare moment of humanity amid the horror of the day, as a town of just 9,600 people opened its doors to thousands of stranded strangers.
Gander, chosen for its proximity to the transatlantic "Great Circle" flight route, ended up hosting nearly 7,000 passengers from 92 countries, including 90 terminally ill children travelling with the Make-A-Wish Foundation aboard the first plane to land. Locals fed, housed and cared for the bewildered travellers for five days until US airspace reopened, a story of generosity that later inspired the hit musical Come From Away, winner of Olivier and Tony awards and seen by more than 50,000 visitors to Gander itself.
- Gander, Newfoundland took in 38 diverted flights on 9/11
- Nearly 7,000 stranded passengers were cared for by 9,600 residents
- Story inspired award-winning musical Come From Away
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Operation Yellow Ribbon was the emergency response triggered when the United States shut down its airspace on the morning of 11 September 2001, following the hijackings that led to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. With officials fearing more hijacked aircraft, President George W Bush ordered every civilian plane over the US to land immediately, while flights already crossing the Atlantic had to be turned away or redirected elsewhere. This forced a scramble to find landing space for dozens of jets that suddenly had nowhere to go.
Gander, a small airport on the east coast of Newfoundland, Canada, became one of the main diversion points because of its position on the transatlantic flight path once used regularly by airliners crossing the ocean. Despite having a population of under 10,000, the town found itself responsible for nearly 7,000 stranded passengers from dozens of countries, arriving on 38 planes with nowhere else to go until US airspace reopened days later.
The events in Gander have since become known as an example of ordinary people responding to crisis with hospitality and care, as residents took in and looked after passengers for several days with little notice. The story later gained wider attention through the stage musical Come From Away, which dramatised the town's response and has been performed internationally, bringing renewed public interest to what happened there in the days after the attacks.