The Short Version
Today I’m going through the true story behind The Day the World Came to Town, and the musical it inspired, Come From Away. What really happened in Gander, Newfoundland, after September eleventh, two thousand one? And how do the numbers add up?
Short answer: it really happened, and the scale is astonishing. A town of about ten thousand people took in more than six and a half thousand strangers, for up to five days.
Why Planes Were Diverted
On the morning of September eleventh, after the attacks, the United States closed its airspace for the first time in its history. Hundreds of planes already flying toward North America were ordered to land immediately elsewhere.
Canada’s response became known as Operation Yellow Ribbon. More than two hundred flights were diverted to Canadian airports, from Vancouver to Halifax.
Why Gander
Gander, in Newfoundland, was one of the first major airports a plane meets coming from Europe. Its airport opened in nineteen thirty eight and, as the book points out, was once the largest in the world, because transatlantic flights had to stop there to refuel.
By two thousand one, it was much quieter, but it still had the long runways and the space to park dozens of wide-body jets.
The Numbers
According to DeFede’s book, thirty eight planes landed at Gander on September eleventh. On board were six thousand, one hundred thirty two passengers, and with crew, six thousand, five hundred and ninety five people.
Gander’s population was barely ten thousand. So the town’s population grew by about two thirds, almost overnight.
Where They Stayed
The passengers couldn’t all fit in Gander. They were sent to schools, churches, Lions Clubs, legion halls, and the Salvation Army, in Gander and in nearby towns like Lewisporte, Appleton, Glenwood and Gambo.
Volunteers cooked thousands of meals. The phone company set up rows of free phones on the sidewalk. Pharmacists tracked down medications. And school bus drivers, who were on strike at the time, left the picket line to drive passengers to shelters.
The People
The book follows real people, and many are still known by name today. Hannah O’Rourke and her husband Dennis were stranded in Gander while their son Kevin, a New York firefighter, was missing at the World Trade Center. Kevin’s body was recovered on September twenty third.
Beverley Bass, one of the first female captains at American Airlines, was piloting one of the diverted flights. And Gander’s mayor at the time, Claude Elliott, became the public face of the town’s response.
The Animals
There’s a lesser-known part of the story. Several planes had animals in their cargo holds, including cats, dogs, and two rare bonobo apes traveling to a zoo.
SPCA volunteers like Bonnie Harris and Linda Humby fed and cared for the animals for days. One of them was a puppy named Ralph.
Faith And Community
DeFede also describes Rabbi Leivi Sudak, stranded at a school shelter in Glenwood, where a volunteer noticed the Orthodox passengers weren’t eating and got kosher meals delivered within an hour. Through the rabbi, a local man named Eddie Brake revealed that he had been born Jewish, smuggled out of Poland before World War Two, and adopted by a family who later moved to Newfoundland. He had never told his neighbors.
And Moldovan families who didn’t speak English were cared for by a Baptist church, communicating through gestures and charades.
What Happened Next
The passengers left over the following days, as airspace reopened. Many kept in touch. On one flight, Delta Flight fifteen, passengers raised money on the plane home to create a scholarship fund for students in Lewisporte. The book reports it was preparing to announce its first recipient in the summer of two thousand two.
Many passengers returned to Newfoundland for anniversaries, and friendships between passengers and locals have lasted for decades.
How It Became A Musical
In two thousand eleven, at the tenth anniversary, Canadian writers Irene Sankoff and David Hein traveled to Gander and interviewed locals and passengers. The result was Come From Away, which opened on Broadway in March twenty seventeen and won the Tony Award for Best Direction. A filmed version was released on Apple TV Plus in twenty twenty one.
The Takeaway
So, did it really happen? Yes. Some details in the musical are combined or dramatized, but the core is true. A small town decided, without hesitation, that six thousand strangers were their guests.
Tell me in the comments: did you know this story before Come From Away? My review and the book versus musical comparison are linked below.
