The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland (18 page)

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Authors: Jim Defede

Tags: #Canada, #History, #General

BOOK: The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
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Knoth was especially concerned about one young member of his crew. This was his first flight to the United States and he just seemed daunted by the events. Knoth tried approaching him, but he refused to talk about it. For the longest time he just wouldn’t say anything.

There was genuine fear among the flight crews, especially as they were given notice that their flights were next in line to leave. Rumors were rampant that Canadian authorities were suspicious of some of the passengers, but they didn’t have enough proof to keep them from getting back on their planes. Some flight attendants were threatening not to fly if certain Middle Eastern passengers were permitted on the planes. Officials from the RCMP frequently had to assure flight crews that a particular passenger was not a threat.

The fears weren’t limited to passengers of Arab descent. In Gambo, the folks in town had posted a long three-foot-wide strip of brown paper on a table for passengers to sign and write comments on before leaving. Several passengers became concerned when they noticed someone had written, “Yahoo, Osama bin Laden. Looks good on you.” Nobody was quite sure what the words meant, but it sounded like the person was applauding the terrorist attack. Town officials called the police, and several Mounties arrived to investigate. Gathering all of the passengers together in one room, the Mounties started to ask if anyone knew who wrote the item, when a passenger from Continental Flight 29, which was going from London to Newark, admitted it was him. The young man was from Ireland and he said folks had misunderstood what he meant. He didn’t write it as a cheer for bin Laden; rather, he was saying it looked like he was the one responsible.

No matter the man’s real intentions—a misunderstanding of an idiomatic expression or just a really stupid thing to write down—the Mounties concluded that the man was not a terrorist. For his own safety, however, Gambo officials kept the man separated from the other passengers, some of whom were irate enough to assault the fellow. Some passengers even believed their flight was being delayed further because of his missive.

When word reached the crew for Continental Flight 29 in Gander, the pilot declared that he would not allow that passenger back on his plane. The Mounties assured the crew that the man was safe. As the plane was preparing to leave, the pilot said the only way he would allow the man back on his plane was if he was handcuffed for the duration of the flight. The Mounties told the pilot and the crew they had no legal authority to place the man in handcuffs; he hadn’t committed a crime. By now the Irish fellow was feeling quite embarrassed. He told the pilot and the Mounties that he would voluntarily agree to be handcuffed if he could get on the plane. Like everyone else, he just wanted to go home.

As the man was brought aboard the plane, the other passengers scowled at him. At the last minute the pilot relented. He told the man as long as he remained quiet and didn’t bother anyone, he would not have him handcuffed. The man thanked him and the flight proceeded without any problems.

 

 

T
erry Trainor, an investigator with the major crimes section of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, arrived at the Hotel Gander a little before 5
P.M.
on Thursday. Lufthansa Flight 440 was being given clearance to leave that night, but four passengers were missing, and Trainor had come to the hotel to meet with the pilot and his crew. Officers were being dispatched to the various shelters and to check the hospital, and the pilot was concerned that if the missing passengers weren’t found soon, it might hurt his chances of getting out that night.

Trainor could tell the pilot was ready to leave. The events in the United States, the uncertainty of their next move, and the stress of being isolated in Gander all contributed to his eagerness to get out as soon as possible. As Trainor was speaking with the pilot, the copilot, and the flight engineer, there was a knock on the pilot’s hotel-room door. It was a passenger, though, unfortunately, not one of the missing ones.

The man was American and looked to be ex-military. He was tall and athletic, probably somewhere between forty-five and fifty years old. Trainor could tell he had been drinking, although he didn’t appear drunk.

The man told the pilot that he’d been talking to some of the other passengers in the hotel bar and they were worried that once they became airborne, somebody might try to take over the plane as had happened with those flights on the eleventh. Proudly the man declared that he’d come up with a plan to prevent this from happening. He told the pilot he had already recruited three other passengers—big guys, Americans—who were prepared to stand in front of the cockpit door during the flight as guards. All they needed were axes.

Axes?

The man reasoned that if they were going to be called on to fend off a possible terrorist assault, they should be armed with axes. Obviously, they had thought about asking for guns, but ruled this out as being too dangerous. An errant shot might blow out a window and cause the plane to crash, and that would defeat the whole purpose of having guards in the first place. But if a guard had an ax, who would be crazy enough to challenge him?

Trainor looked over to see the pilot’s reaction. The man just sighed. He wasn’t angry, but he was unable to find the humor in the idea of passing out axes to passengers. He just looked tired and a bit exasperated. The pilot caught Trainor’s eye and gave him a look that the investigator interpreted as meaning one thing:
Find my missing passengers and let me get the hell out of here!

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
 

 

One of the pilots talks with his passengers.
Courtesy of Bruce MacLeod

 

B
y midafternoon, the pilot for Lufthansa Flight 438 arrived at the Lions Club with good news. Rather than flying back to Germany, as many of the passengers had feared, the plane would instead be going on to Dallas. The announcement was greeted with cheers and shouts of thanks.

The passengers would have only a short time to get their belongings together before the buses arrived to take them to the airport. Roxanne and Clark Loper were thrilled. When the buses arrived, the volunteers at the Lions Club formed a line leading to the door. It was like a receiving line at a wedding. As they made their way down the row, hugging and thanking each person, both Roxanne and Beth were surprised by how emotional it was. They had known these people for less than thirty-six hours, but they were already family. Bruce handed Roxanne a piece of paper with his name, phone number, and e-mail address, and told her to call when they arrived safe in Texas.

MacLeod had one more chore before they all left. He had learned that one of the passengers, a nineteen-year-old from India or Pakistan—he wasn’t sure which—had spent the last of her traveling money in town. She was on her way to live with relatives in the United States and didn’t speak much English. MacLeod pulled the young woman aside and discreetly handed her an American twenty-dollar bill. The young woman seemed confused.

“I wouldn’t send my daughter on a plane without any money in her pocket, and I’m not going to send you that way either,” he told her.

The woman burst into tears and threw her arms around him.

Once at the airport, passengers were run through a gauntlet of security. They were gone over with a metal detecting wand and patted down as well. From there, they were broken into groups of forty. Each set of passengers was then ushered onto the tarmac, where, alongside their plane, was all of their luggage. It had been removed and screened, but before it would be placed back on the plane, each passenger had to personally identify his or her bags.

Roxanne, Clark, and Alexandria were in the final group. As they pointed out their luggage for the baggage handlers, eighteen-year-old Lisa Cox came running over to Roxanne.

“This plane is going back to Germany,” she said excitedly.

“What do you mean?” Roxanne asked.

“It’s going back to Germany,” Lisa repeated. “That baggage handler over there told me.”

Roxanne looked to the member of the ground crew Lisa was pointing at and ran over to him.

“Where is this plane going?” she asked.

“Germany,” he said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Roxanne was furious. Clark thought it might still be a mistake. Maybe the baggage handler was wrong. He saw the pilot standing near the steps leading up to the plane. “Where are we flying to?” Clark asked.

“Germany,” the pilot declared.

“Why did you lie to us?” Clark demanded angrily.

“I didn’t know myself until two hours ago,” he said.

By now Roxanne was standing alongside Clark and Alexandria.

“Two hours,” she hissed. “That was plenty of time to tell us. Why didn’t you come into the terminal?” She realized the passengers on the plane had no idea they were heading to Germany. Frustrated that his secret had leaked out, the pilot told Clark and Roxanne to get up the stairs and take their seats.

“What will happen to us when we get to Germany?” Clark asked.

“We’ll talk about that on the plane,” the pilot said.

“No, we won’t,” Clark said. “We’re not getting on that plane.”

During the previous twenty-four hours, as his wife rallied the other passengers to oppose the idea of flying back to Germany, Clark had been fairly ambivalent. If the quickest way to get home was by first flying back to Germany, then he was willing to consider it. He wouldn’t have left his wife and child behind, and ultimately he’d probably have deferred to his wife’s strong wishes, but it would have been worth a talk with her in private.

Now that he felt lied to by the pilot, there was no way in hell Clark was boarding this flight. Another couple, Tera and Jason Saarista, who were traveling with their two children, overheard the argument between Clark and the pilot. The Saaristas announced that they weren’t getting on the plane either. The pilot finally gave up and stormed off. The two families were led back into the airport, placed in a holding area, and placed under armed guard.

The scene on the plane was about to get equally chaotic. Beth and Billy Wakefield were among the first to board the plane and had no idea what was happening outside to Roxanne and Clark. As she settled into her seat, Beth jokingly asked the flight attendant, “Just making sure, we are going to Dallas, aren’t we?”

“There will be an announcement once everyone has boarded,” the grim-faced flight attendant said.

“Are you saying we’re going to Frankfurt?” Beth asked.

“There will be an announcement after everyone is on the plane,” the flight attendant repeated.

Beth could feel herself begin to shake. Her husband, Billy, started yelling at the flight attendant and telling other passengers they were going to Germany. In another part of the plane, Lisa Cox was telling her mother and her sister the same thing.

“Let’s get off the plane,” she pleaded to her mother.

By now word had spread among all of the passengers that the plane was heading for Frankfurt. Some were standing in the aisles, screaming and shouting profanities at the pilot and the crew. Beth was sobbing uncontrollably. Diana was screaming. The pilot was yelling for everyone to settle down or he would have the police board the plane to restore order. Then another voice pierced the crowd.

“Nobody wants to go to Dallas more than I do,” the man declared. “My mother is being buried tomorrow. But there is nothing we can do. Now everyone sit down and let’s go.”

The passengers immediately quieted down. By his reasoning, the sooner they got back to Germany, the sooner they would be able to find another flight to the United States. The pilot addressed the passengers and said he wouldn’t force anyone to go to Germany. And if they wanted to get off the plane now, they could do so.

Beth stood up. She wanted off the plane. She was still shaking and crying. Billy followed her out with Diana. As he walked down the aisle, one of the passengers grabbed his arm. It was a man Billy had spent a lot of time talking to at the Lions Club. He liked him and found him to be a decent fellow.

“I think your family should stay on the plane,” he told Billy.

Beth was already at the door and Billy followed her.

Lisa Cox, meanwhile, was still pleading with her mother and sister to get off the plane. They eventually convinced her it was best to stay on board.

The Wakefields were escorted to the same holding area as Clark and Roxanne Loper and Tera and Jason Saarista. Beth was still crying and Billy was visibly upset. None of them had any idea what to expect when the pilot walked in.

“You have two minutes to decide if you are getting on the plane,” he said, clearly angry and frustrated. “Then we’re leaving whether you come or not.”

Roxanne and Clark had already made up their minds, as had Tera and Jason. They were staying put. Beth and Billy, however, were still trying to decide. Billy kept hearing his friend’s words on the plane encouraging him to stay.

“I think we should go,” he told his wife in a hushed voice.

Beth didn’t know what to do. She was terrified that if they went to Europe, it might take them days or even weeks to obtain another flight to the United States. She couldn’t bear the thought of being away from her son that much longer. Who knew how long airspace in the United States might be closed to foreign airplanes? If they stayed in Canada, she thought, they could always drive home.

“I’m leaving,” the pilot huffed. “Make up your mind right now.”

Once again, Billy said he thought they should go.

“Okay,” Beth said. They quickly hugged everyone good-bye and followed the pilot back to the plane.

The others watched as the plane taxied away. Roxanne could feel her stomach tighten as the doubts began to creep in. Oh my God, she thought to herself. What have I done? They watched as the plane sped down the runway, became airborne, and then climbed, its lights growing more and more faint in the distance.

No sooner was the plane out of sight than Roxanne felt an amazing sense of relief. All of her doubts were gone. She knew they had made the right decision.

The guard assigned to watch them just shook his head and grimaced. This was the first local person they had encountered during their stay in Gander who didn’t smile. Roxanne dubbed him “the meanest Canadian.”

 

 

A
irport and government officials didn’t know what to do with the remnants of Lufthansa Flight 438—the Lopers (Roxanne and Clark and their two-year-old daughter, Alexandria) and the Saaristas (Tera and Jason, and their two kids, ten-year-old Colby and four-year-old Kennedy). After refusing to get on the flight back to Germany, the two families were held under guard for more than an hour. Finally, someone in authority realized they didn’t have to do anything with them. It was up to the couples to figure out their own way home. And so they were released.

Entering the airport terminal this time, there were no Red Cross tables set up to help them. No CARE packages with sandwiches and water. No school buses waiting outside.

Just moving through the terminal wasn’t going to be easy. Since the couples didn’t get on the plane, neither did their luggage, which they now had to carry with them. For Roxanne and Clark it wasn’t that big a nuisance, only a couple of suitcases. Tera and Jason, however, were a different story. A sergeant in the United States Army, Jason was moving his family back home from Germany, where he had been stationed for three years. He was due to report to warrant-officer school at Fort Rutger in Dotham, Alabama, on September 27, but before he could do that, he had to get his family settled. They had eleven pieces of luggage that they needed to claim, as well as a cat, which the local SPCA had been caring for.

By the time they gathered everything together, the two families looked like the Joad clan in
The Grapes of Wrath
. Tired and angry, with a mountain of belongings, three young children, a cat, and four adults, one of whom was five months pregnant, they stood in the middle of the airport terminal in Gander, Newfoundland trying to figure out how they were going to get to Texas, which on a straight line was 2,423 miles away. No problem, Roxanne thought.

“Hey, Bruce,” she said, holding an airport pay phone in one hand and the piece of paper MacLeod had given her in the other. “Guess what? We’re still here.”

Roxanne ran quickly through the events of the last few hours.

“How many got off?” MacLeod asked.

“There’s seven of us,” she said. “And a lot of luggage.”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes with two vans,” he said.

Within an hour they were all sitting around the MacLeods’ dinner table trying to determine their next move. A call to various airlines revealed U.S. airspace was still closed down, which only made Roxanne and Clark angrier at Lufthansa. How could they have promised to fly them to Dallas earlier in the day when everything was shut down? The pilot must have deliberately lied to avoid getting into an argument with his passengers.

Since no one knew when flights into the U.S. would resume, the couples decided their best option was to drive home. This seemed a simple enough proposition until they looked at the map. Newfoundland is an island. They would need to drive 330 miles from Gander to the town of Port aux Basques, where they could catch a ferry for a six-hour boat ride to the port city of Sydney in Nova Scotia. From there it was another four hundred miles to the U.S. border in Maine.

Hashing things out that night, they identified three problems.

First, all of the rental cars in town were taken. Second, even if they found a rental car in Canada, they were told they wouldn’t be allowed to take it on a one-way trip into the United States, which meant they would have to drive to the border, return their Canadian rental car on the Canadian side of the line, somehow cross into the United States, and then rent another car for the trip to Texas.

Assuming they could work out the first two bugs, they still had a third problem, which they only discovered when they called to find out the ferry schedule in Port aux Basque. After relaying the departure times of the ferry, the operator warned that the service might have to shut down for a few days.

And why was that?

“Well,” the ferry operator said, “because of the hurricane.”

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