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9/11 pilot thanks Yellowknife Terrence McEachern Northern News Services Published Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Capt. Ron Geer was forced to land his Boeing 777 here with 143 passengers and 17 crew aboard after all air travel in Canada and the U.S. was suspended and planes were forced to land wherever they could following a series of world-changing terrorist attacks that struck the U.S. He wrote to Yellowknifer Sunday 10 years later, thanking the community for its support. "With all of the horror taking place in our United States, you made this time more bearable for all of us," wrote Geer. Mayor Gord Van Tighem remembers ten years ago when his wife alerted to him to the news on the television. He was having breakfast at the dawn of a day that would see the city band together to help the unexpected visitors stranded in a new place, and grieving for their nation. At 6:46 a.m. Yellowknife time, the first of two hijacked passenger airplanes crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. Seventeen minutes later, a second hijacked plane flew into the south tower. There were two other hijacked planes that day - one that crashed into the Pentagon building in Washington, D.C., and another one that crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Van Tighem had only been mayor of Yellowknife for about a year. He rushed to city hall and saw staffers and emergency responders already at work. "It was like watching a well-oiled wheel turning," he said. Then a call came in that three large passenger planes were being diverted to Yellowknife. In the end, only one plane ended up coming to Yellowknife. The other two planes were diverted to Edmonton and Vancouver, B.C. The plane that did land around 1 p.m. at the Yellowknife airport was United Airlines Flight 876 route to Seattle, Wash. from Japan. "They were just on the edge of panic. So it was a very delicate situation. When you addressed the group, you had to be very careful what you said," said Van Tighem. He said the Department of National Defence's hangar was set up to provide customs support for the passengers. The Yellowknife Association for Community brought passengers and crew blankets, food and toys for passengers with children. "Once they cleared customs, they had the run of the city," said Van Tighem. Some passengers took up accommodations in hotels or at the Canadian Forces' Forward Operating Location whereas others rented cars and drove back to the U.S. When thinking back, Van Tighem is proud of the way the city's residents and organizations such as the fire department, municipal enforcement and the RCMP, to name a few, pulled together to help the passengers and crew stranded over the two-day period. One thing that stood out to Van Tighem was the emotion during a memorial service for the victims of the attacks held in Yellowknife days after the attack; as the final prayer was being read, those in attendance looked up to see the United Airlines airplane fly by and head back home. Van Tighem was impressed with the leadership displayed by the pilot of the airplane - Geer, who is now retired. "He was a six-foot-four-inch, white-haired, impressive-looking gentleman. When he got up and spoke (the passengers and crew) listened." Geer, last known to be residing in Snohomish, Wash., has visited the city a couple of times for holidays since 2001.
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