Photos of Diverted Aircraft on Halifax International Runway

[penguin]

Photos of Diverted Aircraft on Halifax International Runway (http://www.hiaa.ca/photo_collection/index.htm)

[Cyclic Hotline]

Amazing. Absolutely amazing!

Thanks for that.

[Eboy]

You said it. I haven't seen one diversion photo in the U.S. press. You should send those to the Associated Press. By the way, the Canadians responded wonderfully to this. Not only officials, but locals who helped the passengers overnight.

[ 16 September 2001: Message edited by: Eboy ]

[Grainger]

Astonishing. Well done guys - all of you.

Heard tonight that the last of the diverted aircraft are leaving Halifax today. Understand Gander was pretty busy too !

[ 16 September 2001: Message edited by: Grainger ]

[innuendo]

Newfoundland had about 70 diversions between St Johns,Gander and Stephenville. Hard to imagine where everyone was put up. Tip o' the hat is due to a lot of people.

[innuendo]

Newfoundland had about 70 diversions between St Johns,Gander and Stephenville. Hard to imagine where everyone was put up. Tip o' the hat is due to a lot of people.

[Rollingthunder]

Vancouver had 34 unexpected guest aircraft, all heavies.Parked all over the field, taxiways, and finally on 26R/08L, all an explosion apart. Pax were put up wherever we could find space, hotels, halls, private homes. All departed except for two by Friday. Similar scenes in every major airport in Canada.

[Huck]

Wish I could hear stories about the many asian widebodies diverted to Whitehorse!

[Cyclic Hotline]

Rolling Thunder has a very good angle.

Many individuals hearing the stories about a lack of accomodation, came to the airports and offered strangers sanctuary in their homes.

Thanks Canada.

We are neighbours in more ways than one.

[Luftwaffle]

LoLevel, everyone else was grounded, so in terms of movements per hour, our airports were operating way under capacity. The problem was that all the movements were arrivals, so, as the pictures show, it took some creativity to park them all.

Great shots of Halifax. I should have flown over YVR after the airspace opened to get a shot of the 26L-08R parking lot

[gaunty]

penguin

thanks for those amazing shots our local rag might be interested in those, will pass on your addy.

Fantastic how people rally round in times of trouble.

[Code Blue]

FYI
Gander had 11,700 pax in a total of 38 a/c.

They were all accomodated by Wednesday morning. None of them knew the details or magnitude of the horror until they had been billetted. On top of 21+ hours in a a/c seat and sleep deprivation, there was a lot of emotion then.

The main alternate to hotels were the local schools. My daughters school, which houses normally 250 students, initially took 682 pax from NorthWest airlines and Continental. They were then redistributed to the Town hall and local church halls. Each location had at least one nurse on site. The number of pax who pack their pills and don't have them in their carry-on!! 4000 cots were flown in by the military but Canadian Tire opened their store here and gave away their camping gear as long as it lasted.

The local Salvation Army have a summer camp which was used on Thursday to ease the local hotels. Unfortunately, there were several distraught families from the Middle East who thought they were being moved to an "Army Camp". It was easier to keep them in the schools and send others until they calmed down.

By Wednesday evening every 'refugee' had had a hot meal with the exception of one school contingent.

By Thursday Walmart had sold out of underwear! The first flights left on Thursday for the UK (Virgin & BA to MAN I think). There was then a long delay before another batch of 9 a/c left, including 2 MAC c-17 and 2 CF transport a/c. Several families moved out into private homes at this point, and more did so over the next 2 days.

On Friday the local docs put a family physician into each centre for a couple of hours. Several US pax bought second hand cars and another group chartered a local bus to avoid being returned to their airport of origin. Unfortunately Hurrican Erin stopped the ferries that night :rolleyes:

The pax from the Aer Lingus flight were somehow lodged in a local bar :D and by Friday the RCMP had to cope with the effects of a longer than usual drinking spree!

By Saturday the place was almost empty and the schools cleaned ready to send the kids back on Monday (hurray). Several European pax decided not to complete their journeys to NY and are scheduled out on regular flights in the coming days.

Apart from the obvious tragic reason behind all of this, I cannot recall seeing so many happy faces during an enforced diversion, particularly of this magnitude. Some even said they might return as tourists.

edited for dyslexic keyboard

[ 16 September 2001: Message edited by: Code Blue ]

[flufdriver]

Every now and then, events occur, which force those of us in this industry to demonstrate our skills and flexibility.

My congratulations to all that had a hand (or a brain) in this massive operation of rerouting and accommodating all those flights without adding any more tragedy. WELL DONE!!

As for me, I merely landed my rig in MIA and stayed there for three Days.

[Indiana Jones]

Thks for the shots! Now I know why some of the company aircraft were so late coming out of Canada.......

[PaperTiger]

Wish I could hear stories about the many asian widebodies diverted to Whitehorse!

Only two, both KE. Following is from the Whitehorse Star:

Whitehorse received two Boeing 747s from Korean Air; a cargo and passenger plane. Originally, the passenger flight was scheduled to land in Anchorage, then proceed to New York, while the cargo aircraft was scheduled to refuel in Anchorage before heading to Toronto. However, it wasn’t until Thursday afternoon that Korean Air passengers were able to get on board their flight, which would have originally been in New York on Tuesday. After waiting hours to board the aircraft Thursday morning (when it was originally scheduled to depart at 10 a.m.), the flight finally took off at 4:10 p.m., after the Korean airliner received approval to fly to Anchorage. The cargo 747 departed at 2 p.m. Thursday.

There were also news reports that the pax 747 was squawking emergency after being turned away from ANC - low fuel ? An RCMP Swat team met it upon arrival at YXY. Haven't seen confirmation from the authorities.

[ 16 September 2001: Message edited by: PaperTiger ]

[Scottie Dog]

Code Blue

My sincere and heartfelt thanks go to the people of Gander for all their care and attention to passengers.

My Mother-in-Law, together with her son, his wife and 3-year old son (Cherry, Peter, Michelle and Ben Moss) were on VS075 that diverted and they have told of the warmth and affection that they received. My nephew has a heart condition and other medical problems, and they where reassured to find that medics were already aware of the problem and had feed bags made up for him and everything. They were accomodated at the Salvation Army hostel at Twin Ponds.

As well as the people of Gander, I would like to express my thanks to the Virgin crew who, I understand, spent a lot of time with the passengers.

To all of you, whoever you were, thank you.

Scottie Dog


:) :) :) :) :) :)

[Thin Controller]

Well done you guys. These pictures are amazing. Beleive Gander had 38 birds. Also Malev B767 in somewhere with pax oboard for 2 days and nights......

All staff and locals at all Canadian airports deserve medals for this....
Thanks
:eek: :eek:

[Noddy Staltern]

Code Blue,

I would also like to add my personal thanks to the people of Gander who made everything work so well on Tuesday and subsequent days. I was flying one of the aircraft that diverted there, and spent a frustrating day on the aircraft until we were able to disembark.

What we did not appreciate until entering the terminal was the huge amount of work that had gone on behind-the-scenes at the airport and in the town and surrounding areas. The response of all the people in Gander was absolutely fantastic. The kindness, generousity, compassion, good-humour and sheer hard work of all those we came into contact with (and the many we didn't) was humbling.

You did an incredible job. My sincerest thanks to you all.

[Huck]

I was in Anchorage on the 11th. The news media reported that one of the KAL flights was not responding to radio calls (not uncommon between Shemya and the mainland) and was treated as a potentially hostile aircraft. Downtown Anchorage was evacuated and F-15's sent to intercept. Eventually radio comm. was re-established.

They probably were quite low on fuel by the time they landed. Makes you wonder - what if you declare an emergency and STILL aren't cleared to land!

[Dockjock]

Read in the Globe & Mail that alot of the departures were delayed due to fuel shortages- 27 widebodies on the ramp at an airport (St. John's) that normally sees 1 a day!

All around good work in the maritimes! Congrats.

[Mode7]

I was on one of the BA diverted flights to Halifax and all I can say is the Canadian people are the best. The way in which they handled all of as was quite amazing. We were the 38th of 39 and thought that we would be there for the duration but food and water where out to the aircarft within the hour. Accommodation was good for us and the people in Halifax where just the very best. Thanks so much to all you guys there for making the stay so pleasant under the circumstances. Hope some day to visit again under less stress. :) ;) :) ;) :) ;) :D

[Megaton]

I too was on one of the ac diverted into Halifax (BA213) on the way to Boston. Crew were excellent but Nova Scotians surpassed themselves with an unbelievable display of generosity. Red Cross volunteers were out in force as were the students from the college in whch we were billetted. Flew back to UK on Thursday to be abandoned in London with no accom. Eventually managed to convince BA to put me up in an hotel near the airport. Next day, however, I came downstairs to find two elderly, blind American gentlemen turfed out of the hotel by BA after two nights and left to fend for themselves. One elderly lady refused to leave her room. BA might have been busy but their lack of sensitivity was unbelievable. Hotel rooms may have cost the company money but the hiss-poor publicity will leave a far longer impression on those who suffered at the hands of BA.

Finally. flew past NY on way home this afternoon. Smoke plume visible for hundreds of miles. Very sad sight.

RIP

[ivan]

the marvel of the human spirit - may it continue in the months ahead

[latin sky]

Good job guys... :)

[airbourne]

Code blue> Why is always assumed that if theres a bar nearby, you wont be able to get the Irish out of it. Do you think that we are all drink-crazed fools?

[Tom the Tenor]

Hi airbourne, It is unlikely that code blue was being in any nasty in his remark about the RCMP being called to clear the bar after the EI pax had a few jars. Code blue spoke about his daughter's school being used to house people so there is a chance he is a native Newfoundlander anyway and an awful lot of those folk originally came from the Wexford area and what is more they still have the very same Wexford type accent too, not a bit North American sounding! Also, the Newfounlanders, many of whom used to take their living from the sea, now drink lots at home quietly, especially in the winter, with their welfare cheques now that the fishing grounds around the Grand Banks area have been plundered mainly but not only by our Spanish friends.

[Sir_Lurkalot]

Airbourne>

Having work with several lads from the emeral isles I partly agree with you - fools they were not.

However, drink-crazed pub-magnets - absolutly
:D

[Code Blue]

Airbourne:
Do you think that we are all drink-crazed fools

I apologise if my post left anyone with that impression, for it is not a point of view to which I subscribe.

rgds
CB