The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

On the day her family would begin its long journey back to Texas, Roxanne Loper woke up with flu symptoms. Bruce MacLeod helped her group rent the last available vehicle in Gander, a van large enough to accommodate her family and the Saaristas. They planned to travel to St. John, New Brunswick, where they could leave their rented van. The Puccis, friends of Roxanne’s mother who lived in Maine, would meet them there and drive them over the border into the US, where they would rent another van for the trip to Texas. The plan depended on what path Hurricane Erin would take.

At the Baptist church housing the Moldovan emigres, volunteers brought their children to play with the passengers’ children. In the evening, they gathered to sing gospel songs, hymns, and local Newfoundland songs, alternately singing in Russian and English.

The passengers of Continental Flight 23 were taken to the airport but learned that their flight would not depart until the following day. The situation in the US was constantly changing: Some airports opened, but others remained closed as they assessed security issues. The flight crew initially told the passengers they could not fly into Newark, their original destination, but when the flight was finally cleared to depart, the passengers learned that they would go to Newark after all.