Monday, March 01, 2010

NBC's Gander Airport Special

Did anyone catch this report by Tom Brokaw on the Gander Airport in Newfoundland as it was impacted by 9/11? It was absolutely fascinating and NBC currently does not have it listed for replay on the Internet.

Background
It's a little airport in Newfoundland. On 9/11 the U.S. airspace was closed and planes beyond the midpoint across the ocean from Europe had to land somewhere, so many of them were directed to Gander, which is about the size of Martin's State Airport in Middle River, Maryland. I think they said 68 jumbo jets landed there bringing almost 8000 people to a town that only has about 10,000 people total and 500 hotel beds. The video footage was incredible. They showed townspeople coming to the airport to watch these giant planes land one after another for hours. Here's a picture of what the runway looked like that day. They had to stack them up and no one was allowed to disembark until they went through customs, which took about 32 hours because the airport only have a few people to do the work.

If you happen to find it, please respond. I would love to watch it again.

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