This is a story told by his father, my Uncle.
1st letter
Yes, they still are stuck in Newfoundland. Fred called his wife. There are 37 planes on the ground at that airfield, with a total of over 11,000 passengers and crews. The total population of the village is only about
10,000. They put the pilots in the few hotel rooms, to get sleep before flying back home. Passengers are being put up in gyms, school rooms, private homes, churches etc.
There have been conflicts and changes in information. It presently looks
like they may leave about noon today. Because they dumped fuel before
landing, to reduce the landing weight, they will have to stop in Bangor, ME,
or perhaps some other field, and refuel before going on to Atlanta. The airfield does not have enough fuel for all the planes. Thus we do not expect
them until evening. I know it is a frustration, but safety of all those
plane loads of people comes first.
Part of it has been a very thorough security check of everyone's luggage, person and the planes. Fred said they were talking of taking
panels and bins loose in the plane for inspection. The U.S. planes are being
inspected more rigidly than the foreign carrier planes.
2nd letter:
Good Morning:
Since the calamity in New York and Washington, I have written to many
of you about our son, Fred having to land in Newfoundland Tuesday on his return
flight from Frankfurt, Germany. He is a Delta Airlines Captain flying MD-11s. When they shut down U.S. air space, his plane and 36 other big trans-Atlantic planes, with a total of 11,000 passengers and crew ended up
on the old Gander Air Base. The town has a population of only 10,000.
After the first night sleeping on the plane, and eating up whatever meals were
left, the passengers were put in Red Cross tents on cots, and the pilots doubled up in the few hotel rooms so they could rest for the remainder of the flight home.
The days went by, and finally Friday morning it came their turn to fly home. I expected a grumpy son, because of all the delays, and strain of trying to get home. Instead a very happy son arrived. In fact I think he
would not have objected to another day or so there.
Our Canadian cousins may have seen him on Canadian TV. He went down to feed and water some dogs that they were carrying back as baggage. The Canadian media people started questioning him about the interrupted
flight.
He was seen quite a few times during their news spots on Canadian TV.
Fred said that the Newfies (Newfoundland Canadians) were wonderful.
They opened their homes to let the airline people take showers. Some were taken on tours. The mayor entertained and partied with some of them. I don't
think that Fred had previously experienced the Canadian hospitality, the way that we had.
A Canadian Doctor in the first class section of the plane started collection for a scholarship fund for the local high school. They got pledges of over $15,000 US. What a wonderful thank you to those folks.
It got up to 86o F, or 30oC up there. The heavy aircraft sank down in the asphalt sitting there. It took quite a bit of throttle to get the plane back up on the surface.
I just thought you would like to know that we appreciate the Canadian hospitality.
Thanks, all of you Canadian cousins.
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