On Friday, the Halifax Stanfield International Airport marked the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed 3,000 people in the United States. “We did take the most aircraft, the widebody aircraft, of all the airports in Canada,” says Joyce Carter, president and CEO for the Halifax International Airport Authority (HIAA). Carter says, initially, the report was a small plane accidentally hit one of the Twin Towers, but they quickly learned the situation was much more serious. “Why we were told that would impact us at the time was potentially, they would have airspace shut down around the New York area and we could expect some flights to come to Halifax. Obviously in the moments that followed, we realize that it was much more than that,” Carter says. Forty planes in total were diverted to Halifax. Other scheduled flights already on the ground brought the number on the tarmac even higher. The first plane, a United Airlines Flight, landed at 11:35 a.m. After that, it’s estimated aircraft were coming in every three to four minutes until they all had a spot on the runway. “The aircraft were coming in fast, they were all wide-bodied aircraft with 2, 3, 400 passengers on board and they got parked and we just had to figure out how we were going to get these folks off the aircraft and get them processed because we didn’t know what kind of threat we were dealing with. If we had terrorists on the ground on these aircraft,” says Junior Gosse, who was the airport’s security manager at the time. In total, 8,000 passengers had to be screened before being allowed to leave their planes. Edith Ludwig was on one of those planes. She was a purser aboard a Lufthansa flight from Düsseldorf to Newark. “The captain called me about five hours into the flight and said, ‘We need to land immediately, we need to land immediately.’ I said is something wrong with the aircraft, mechanical problems? ‘No, no, the aircraft is fine, but we need to find the next possible airport.’” That was Halifax. The passengers were eventually allowed off but Ludwig and her crew spent that first night on the plane. The next day, Air Canada crew members brought them all to their homes. Ludwig is back in Halifax for the first time since 2001. “It’s important for me to be here. That’s why I wanted to come back our crew, everybody and the airline business are so grateful for what you people in Halifax did. So, for me, it was really important to come back, and it was, for me, one of the most important days in my career with Lufthansa.” Five days later, the planes were gone and passengers made it to their destinations. But the care and compassion they received have created a lasting memory during a very dark time, and it hasn’t been forgotten, says Viki Limaye. The U.S. Consul General to Halifax was working near the Pentagon during 9/11 and heard the plane slam into that building. Six months Limaye later joined the US Foreign Service. “That decision led me to be here with you all today, 25 years later with the honour to say thank you on behalf of the American people, thank you.” For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
