The Gander, N.L., airport is shown on July 6, 2023. The Canadian Press/Sarah Smellie
Nearly 25 years after they stepped up to help stranded airline passengers during 9/11, residents in Gander, N.L., displayed their generosity again by forming a volunteer shuttle service for hundreds of travellers whose flights were diverted to the small community.
Gander resident Jackie Freake, who is the assistant manager of the Quality Inn in Gander, says it all started with a social media post late on Jan. 7, after two flights had been diverted to Gander from St. John’s due to weather, and the people on board needed to get to their hotel rooms.
The passengers were booked into four hotels in town, but there were only two cabs available in town to transport them, and it became a “pretty slow process,” Freake said.
Freake said she then had the idea to see if she could find help, and wrote a post on a local Gander Facebook group at around 10 p.m. that night.
