The world was completely stunned by the incredible horror that unfolded in the United States with the terrorist attacks using commercial jetliners on Sept 11, 2001.
In the confusion and the still unknowns on that day, the US Government closed its airspace to prevent the possibility of additional attacks. All aircraft in the air over the US, were ordered to land immediately, while international flights were told US airspace was closed to them.
That left literally hundreds of planes and tens of thousands of passengers on international flights heading into various airports in the US, with nowhere to go.
On September 11, when the world was reeling in shock and confusion over the terrorist attacks, Canadian air traffic controllers, suddenly found themselves scrambling at a moment’s notice to redirect US bound flights into the already busy airspace around the major Canadian airports big enough to handle these large jets, most of which were the intercontinental jumbo jets.
Immediately called Operation Yellow Ribbon, the emergency measures and exceptional coordination meant that Canada was able to safely direct between 239 and 255 planes safely to the ground and deplane and screen some 33-thousand passengers.
Most of the passengers were not told of the real reason for the diversion until the planes were on the ground.
After screening (there were still concerns that terrorists may have been aboard other aircraft) passengers were told of the tragedy that unfolded in the U.S.
Due to the very limited hotel space, a great number of the thousands of passengers were taken into private homes by Canadians until the situation was resolved and they could fly home, ins some cases, many days later.
Some strong friendships are known to have developed between some of the stranded passengers and the Canadian families that took them in.
It remains one of the good stories to come from an otherwise horrific day in history.
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