20 years ago today we were on a Continental Airways (now @United) flight from Manchester to New York. It was for our first gig there for 4 years, to launch our 2nd Album, and we had a lot lined up. We were an hour off landing when the plane was diverted to a small town 1/
..in Newfoundland, called Stephenville. Stephenville had an old military runway big enough for passenger jets, so we landed with another 7 planes. We’d been in the air for about 6 hours. There was no infrastructure to deal with passengers,so we all had to stay on the plane for 2/
…another 17 hours while customs and extra police were brought in.When we got off the plane, the setup was amazing. It was 4am local time, and the local college (@CNA_News) had organised catering students to make food for everyone. We then all got a blanket,toothbrush,soap 3/
… & a towel. This was also amazing,especially for us. No one was allowed to get luggage from hold, so only hand baggage. In our case that was a bag of vinyl records each… the main hall was opened up and everyone had a campbed.Probably 400 people all sleeping in the hall….4/
We were there for four nights, then got back on the plane, flew to New York, got off the plane, then back on another plane straight away and back to Manchester. When we got back we were the first plane to Manchester from NY after the attack.All the time we were in Stephenville 5/
We were looked after- everyone there was super kind and helpful, even though the population of the town was nearly overwhelmed with the number of passengers walking about. Amazing example of how most people will have your back in a crisis if they can. 6/
Everyone has a 9/11 story, that’s ours, thank you for reading :). Mainly tweeting this b/c we never got a proper chance to say thank you to #Stephenville people :) #newfoundland
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