Delta Flight 15

Delta Flight 15

Amazing Story of Delta Flight 15
Written by a flight attendant.

"On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, we
were about 5 hours
out of Frankfurt, flying over the North
Atlantic. All of a sudden the
curtains parted and I was told to go to the
cockpit, immediately, to see
the captain. As soon as I got there I noticed
that the crew had that
"All Business" look on their faces. The
captain handed me a printed
message. It was from Delta's main office in
Atlanta and simply read,
"All airways over the Continental United
States are closed to commercial
air traffic. Land ASAP at the nearest airport.
Advise your destination."

No one said a word about what this could mean.
We knew it was a
serious situation and we needed to find terra
firma quickly. The captain
determined that the nearest airport was 400 miles
behind us in Gander,
New Foundland. He requested approval for a
route change from the
Canadian traffic controller and approval was
granted immediately--no
questions asked. We found out later, of course,
why there was no
hesitation in approving our request.

While the flight crew prepared the airplane
for landing,
another message arrived from Atlanta telling us
about some terrorist
activity in the New York area. A few minutes
later word came in about
the hijackings.

We decided to LIE to the passengers while we
were still in the
air. We told them the plane had a simple
instrument problem and that we
needed to land at the nearest airport in
Gander, New Foundland to have
it checked out.

We promised to give more information after
landing in Gander.
There was much grumbling among the passengers,
but that's nothing new!
Forty minutes later, we landed in Gander.
Local time at Gander was 12:30
PM! . . . that's 11:00 AM EST.

There were already about 20 other airplanes on
the ground from
all over the world that had taken this detour
on their way to the U.S.

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. The
reality is that we are here for another reason."
Then he went on to
explain the little bit we knew about the
situation in the U.S. There
were loud gasps and stares of disbelief. The
captain informed passengers
that Ground control in Gander told us to stay
put.

The Canadian Government was in charge of our
situation and no
one was allowed to get off the aircraft. No
one on the ground was
allowed to come near any of the aircrafts. Only
airport police would
come around periodically, look us over and go
on to the next airplane.
In the next hour or so more planes landed and
Gander ended up with 53
airplanes from all over the world, 27 of which
were U.S. commercial
jets.

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 U.S. were either blocked or jammed.

Sometime 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. By now the passengers were
emotionally and
physically exhausted, not to mention frightened,
but everyone stayed
amazingly calm. We had only to look out the
window at the 52 other
stranded aircraft to realize that we were not the
only ones in this
predicament.

We had been told earlier that they would be
allowing people off
the planes one plane at a time. At 6 PM,
Gander airport told us that our
turn to deplane would be 11 am the next
morning. Passengers were not
happy, but they simply resigned themselves to
this news without much
noise and started to prepare themselves to
spend the night on the
airplane.

Gander had promised us medical attention, if
needed, water, and
lavatory servicing. And they were true to their
word. Fortunately we had
no medical situations to worry about. We did
have a young lady who was
33 weeks into her pregnancy. We took REALLY
good care of her. The night
passed without incident despite the
uncomfortable sleeping arrangements.

About 10:30 on the morning of the 12th a
convoy of school buses
showed up. We got off the plane and were taken
to the terminal where we
went through Immigration and Customs and then
had to register with the
Red Cross.

After that we (the crew) were separated from
the passengers and
were taken in vans to a small hotel. We had no
idea where our passengers
were going. We learned from the Red Cross that
the town of Gander has a
population of 10,400 people and they had about
10,500 passengers to take
care of from all the airplanes that were
forced into Gander! We were
told to just relax at the hotel and we would
be contacted when the U.S.
airports opened again, 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 had lots of time on our hands and
found that the
people of Gander were extremely friendly. They
started calling us the
"plane people." We enjoyed their hospitality,
explored the town of
Gander and ended up having a pretty good time.

Two days later, we got that call and were
taken back to the
Gander airport. Back on the plane, we were
reunited with the passengers
and found out what they had been doing for the
past two days. What we
found out was incredible.

Gander and all the surrounding communities
(within about a 75
Kilometer radius) had closed all high schools,
meeting halls, lodges,
and any other large gathering places. They
converted all these
facilities to mass lodging areas for all the
stranded travelers. Some
had cots set up, some had mats with sleeping
bags and pillows set up.

ALL high school students were required to
volunteer their time
to take care of the "guests." Our 218
passengers ended up in a town
called Lewisporte, about 45 kilometers from
Gander where they were put
up 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 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 facility. There
was a dentist on call and both male and female
nurses remained with the
crowd for the duration.

Phone calls and e-mails to the U.S. and around
the world were
available to everyone once a day. During the day,
passengers were
offered "Excursion" trips. Some people went on
boat cruises of the lakes
and harbors. Some went for hikes in 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 schools.
People were driven to
restaurants of their choice and offered wonderful
meals. Everyone was
given tokens for local laundry mats to wash
their clothes, since luggage
was still on the aircraft. In other words,
every single need was met for
those stranded travelers.

Passengers were crying while telling us these
stories. Finally,
when they were told that U.S. airports had
reopened, they were delivered
to the airport right on time and without a
single passenger missing or
late. The local Red Cross had all the
information about the whereabouts
of each and every passenger and knew which
plane they needed to be on
and when all the planes were leaving. They
coordinated everything
beautifully. It was absolutely incredible.

When passengers came on board, it was like
they had been on a
cruise. Everyone knew each other by name. They
were swapping stories of
their stay, impressing each other with who had
the better time. Our
flight back to Atlanta looked like a chartered
party flight. The crew
just stayed out of their way. It was
mind-boggling. Passengers had
totally bonded and were calling each other by
their first names,
exchanging phone numbers, addresses, and email
addresses.

And then a very unusual thing happened. One of
our passengers
approached me and asked if he could make an
announcement over the PA
system. We never, ever allow that. But this time
was different. I said
"of course" and handed him the mike. He 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 continued by saying that he would
like to do something in
return for the good folks 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 college scholarships for the high school
students of Lewisporte.
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, the total was for more
than 14,000 dollars!

The gentleman, a MD from Virginia, 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.

I just wanted to share this story because we
need good stories
right now. It gives me a little bit of hope to
know that some people in
a far away place were kind to some strangers
who literally dropped in on
them. It reminds me how much good there is in
the world."*