Subject: (no subject)
From: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 15:41:43 -0700 (PDT)

Subject: Delta Flight 15 
This is a GREAT story! 
****************************************************************** 
Here is the story from Nazim-Amin: "Nazim" is a Delta 
Airline employee - one of the cockpit crew. 
We were about 5 hours out of Frankfurt flying over the 
North Atlantic and I was in my crew rest seat taking 
my scheduled rest break.  All of a sudden the curtains 
parted violently and I was told to go to the cockpit, 
right now, to see the captain. 
As soon as got there I noticed that the crew had one 
of those "All Business" looks on their faces.  The 
captain handed me a printed message.  I quickly read 
the message and realized the importance of it. The 
message was from Atlanta, addressed to our flight 
and simply said, "All airways over the Continental US 
are closed. Land ASAP at the nearest airport, advise 
your destination." 
Now, when a dispatcher tells you to land immediately 
without suggesting which airport, one can assume 
that the dispatcher has reluctantly given up control 
of the flight to the captain.  We knew it was a serious 
situation and we needed to find terra firma quickly. 
It was quickly decided that the nearest airport was 
400 miles away, behind our right shoulder, in Gander, 
on the island of New Foundland.  A quick request 
was made to the Canadian traffic controller and a 
right turn, directly to Gander, was approved immediately. 
We found out later why there was no hesitation by the 
Canadian controller approving our request. 
We, the in-flight crew, were told to get the airplane 
ready for an immediate landing. While this was going 
on another message arrived from Atlanta telling us 
about some terrorist activity in the New York area. We 
briefed the in-flight crew about going to Gander and 
we went about our business 'closing down'  the 
airplane for a landing. 
A few minutes later I went back to the cockpit to find 
out that some airplanes had been hijacked and were 
being flown into buildings all over the US.  We 
decided to make an announcement and LIE to the 
passengers for the time being.  We told them that an 
instrument problem had arisen on the airplane and 
that we needed to land at Gander, to have it checked. 
We promised to give more information after landing in 
Gander.  There were many unhappy passengers but 
that is par for the course. 
We landed in Gander about 40 minutes after the start 
of  this episode. There were already about 20 other 
airplanes on the ground from all over the world. 
After we parked on the ramp the captain made the 
following announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen, 
you must be wondering if all these airplanes around 
us have the same instrument problem as we have. 
But the reality is that we are here for a good reason." 
Then he went on to explain the little bit we knew 
about the situation in the US.  There were loud gasps 
and stares of disbelief. 
Local time at Gander was 12:30 pm. (11:00 AM EST) 
Gander control told us to stay put.  No one was 
allowed to get off the aircraft.  No one on the ground 
was allowed to come near the aircrafts.  Only a car 
from the airport police would come around once in a 
while, look us over and go on to the next airplane. 
In the next hour or so all the airways over the North 
Atlantic were vacated and Gander alone ended up 
with 53 airplanes from all over the world, out of which 
27 were flying US flags. 
We were told that each and every plane was to be 
offloaded, one at a time, with the foreign carriers 
given the priority.  We were No.14 in the US category. 
We were further told that we would be given a tentative 
time to deplane at 6 pm. Meanwhile bits of news 
started to come in over the aircraft radio and for the 
first time we learned that airplanes were flown into the 
World Trade Center in New York and into the Pentagon 
in DC. 
People were trying to use their cell phones but were 
unable to connect due to a different cell system in 
Canada.  Some did get through but were only able to 
get to the Canadian operator who would tell them that 
the lines to the US were either blocked or jammed and 
to try again. 
Some time late in the evening the news filtered to us 
that the World Trade Center buildings had collapsed 
and that a fourth hijacking had resulted in a crash. 
Now the passengers were totally bewildered and 
emotionally exhausted but stayed calm as we kept 
reminding them to look around to see that we were 
not the only ones in this predicament.  There were 52 
other planes with people on them in the same situation. 
We also told them that the Canadian Government was 
in charge and we were at their mercy. 
True to their word, at 6 PM, Gander airport told us 
that our turn to deplane would come at 11 AM, the next 
morning.  That took the last wind out of the 
passengers and they simply resigned and accepted this 
news without much noise and really started to get into a 
mode of spending the night on the airplane.  Gander 
had promised us any and all medical attention if  needed; 
medicine, water and lavatory servicing.  And they were 
true to their word.  Fortunately we had no medical situation 
during the night.  We did have a young lady who was 33 
weeks into her pregnancy. We took REALLY good care 
of her. The night passed without any further complications 
on our airplane despite the uncomfortable sleeping 
arrangements. 
About 10:30 on the morning of the 12th we were told to 
get ready to leave the aircraft. A convoy of school 
buses showed up at the side of the airplane, the 
stairway was hooked up and the passengers were taken 
to the terminal for "processing".  We, the crew, were 
taken to the same terminal but were told to go to a 
different section, where we were processed through 
Immigration and customs and then had to register with 
the Red Cross.  After that we were isolated from our 
passengers and were taken in a caravan of vans to a 
very small hotel in the town of Gander.  We had no 
idea where our passengers were going. 
The town of Gander has a population of 10,400 people. 
Red Cross told us that they were going to process 
about 10,500 passengers from all the airplanes that 
were forced into Gander.  We were told to just relax 
at the hotel and wait for a call to go back to the 
airport, but not to expect that call for a while.  We 
found out the total scope of the terror back home 
only after getting to our hotel and turning on the TV, 
24 hours after it all started. 
Meanwhile we enjoyed ourselves going around town 
discovering things and enjoying the hospitality.  The 
people were so friendly and they just knew that we 
were the "Plane people".  We all had a great time 
until we got that call, 2 days later, on the 14th at 7AM. 
We made it to the airport by 8:30AM and left for 
Atlanta at 12:30 PM arriving in Atlanta at about 4:30PM. 
(Gander is 1 hour and 30 minutes ahead of EST, yes! 1 
hour and 30 minutes.) But that's not what I wanted to 
tell you. 
What passengers told us was so uplifting and 
incredible and the timing couldn't have been better. 
We found out that Gander and the surrounding 
small communities, within a 75 Kilometer radius, 
had closed all the high schools, meeting halls, lodges, 
and any other large gathering places. They converted 
all these facilities to a mass lodging area.  Some had 
cots set up, some had mats with sleeping bags and 
pillows set up.  ALL the high school students HAD 
to volunteer taking care of the "GUESTS". Our 218 
passengers ended up in a town called Lewisporte, 
about 45 kilometers from Gander.  There they were 
put in a high school. If any women wanted to be in 
a women only facility, that was arranged. Families 
were kept together.  All the elderly passengers were 
given no choice and were taken to private homes. 
Remember that young pregnant lady - she was put 
up in a private home right across the street from a 
24 hour Urgent Care type facility. There were DDS 
on call and they had both male and female nurses 
available and stayed with the crowd for the duration. 
Phone calls and emails to US and Europe were available 
for every one once a day. During the days the 
passengers were given a choice of "Excursion" trips. 
Some people went on boat cruises of the lakes and 
harbors.  Some went to see the local forests.  Local 
bakeries stayed open to make fresh bread for the guests. 
Food was prepared by all the residents and brought to 
the school for those who elected to stay put.  Others 
were driven to the eatery of their choice and fed. 
They were given tokens to go to the local Laundromat 
to wash their clothes, since their luggage was still on 
the aircraft. In other words every single need was met 
for those unfortunate travelers. 
Passengers were crying while telling us these stories. 
After all that, they were delivered to the airport 
right on time and without a single one missing or late. 
All because the local Red Cross had all the information 
about the goings on back at Gander and knew which 
group needed to leave for the airport at what time. 
Absolutely incredible. 
When passengers came on board, it was like they had 
been on a cruise.  Everybody knew everybody else 
by their name. They were swapping stories of their 
stay, impressing each other with who had the better 
time.  It was mind boggling. Our flight back to 
Atlanta looked like a party flight.  We simply stayed 
out of their way.  The passengers had totally bonded 
and they were calling each other by their first names, 
exchanging phone numbers, addresses and email 
addresses. 
And then a strange thing happened. One of our business 
class passengers approached me and asked if he 
could speak over the PA to his fellow passengers. We 
never, never, allow that.  But something told me to 
get out of his way.  I said "of course".  The gentleman 
picked up the PA and reminded everyone about what 
they had just gone through in the last few days. 
He reminded them of the hospitality they had received 
at the hands of total strangers.  He further stated that 
he would like to do something in return for the good 
folks of the town of Lewisporte.  He said he was going 
to set up a Trust Fund under the name of DELTA 15 
(our flight number).  The purpose of the trust fund is 
to provide a scholarship for high school student(s) 
of Lewisporte to help them go to college.  He asked 
for donations of any amount from his fellow travelers. 
When the paper with donations got back to us with 
the amounts, names, phone numbers and addresses, 
it totaled to $14.5K or about $20K Canadian. 
The gentleman who started all this turned out to be an 
MD from Virginia.  He promised to match the donations 
and to start the administrative work on the scholarship 
He also said that he would forward this proposal to 
Delta Corporate and ask them to donate as well.  Why, 
all of this?  Just because some people in far away places 
were kind to some strangers, who happened to literally 
drop in among them? 
WHY NOT? 
Nazim-Amin 
-- 
Bill & Eleanore Graham 
6978 Ivandale 
Independence, OH 44131 
(216) 524-7695