Thousands of passengers traveling to the US piled up in Canadian airports after terrorist attacks in New York and Washington prompted US authorities to halt all air traffic there.
Rasmi Simhan and her family left Bombay, India, headed for the Washington, DC, when the pilot of their Northwest Airlines flight told passengers an unspecified "emergency" in the US had halted all commercial flights.
"All we were told is that there was some sort of emergency and that there were no flights in or out of the United States," said Simhan, 20, after finally landing Tuesday at the Mirabel charter and cargo airport outside Montreal.
The news brought silence in the cabin, said Simhan.
"There was an odd calm," she said.
Her flight was one of more than 100 bound for the US that instead headed to Canada.
"Until further notice, all air movements from Canadian airports are grounded, except for those flights required for urgent humanitarian purposes, and diversions by the FAA of international aircraft previously destined for the United States," Transport Minister David Collenette announced.
In the US, pilots and air traffic controllers managed the logistical nightmare of safely grounding hundreds of planes in US skies.
Dozens of airplanes were diverted to Kansas airports following the attacks on New York's World Trade Center and Pentagon. One Kansas county declared a state of emergency as a small Garden City airport struggled to provide transportation, food and lodging for 180 stranded passengers on three grounded commercial planes.
"We had to pull some tricks out of our hats to get everybody accommodated," said Andrew W. Perry, director of aviation at Garden City Regional Airport.
About an hour after Captain Jay Meinen's Boeing 737 took off from Cleveland, an air traffic controller told him, "Divert the plane. You are not flying to Los Angeles anymore. Please prepare to land at Indianapolis. This is a national emergency."
The plane descended minutes later at Indianapolis International Airport.
At Mirabel, Simhan said buses arranged by airport officials then took them to Dorval, the city's main terminal for commercial flights, and on to hotels or other places to stay for the night.
On Tuesday night, Montreal officials made a public plea for help in finding lodging for about 1,000 people expected on flights still coming in to Mirabel or Dorval.
Other airports accepting unscheduled flights were the Canadian military base at Goose Bay in Labrador; Saint John's, Newfoundland; Moncton, New Brunswick; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Toronto; Vancouver, British Columbia; and even Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory.
The Canadian military was put on alert and major government and tourist sites were closed, including Parliament Hill in the capital, Ottawa, and the tall CN Tower in Toronto. The US Embassy was closed and under increased security.
Some border posts temporarily closed, but reports that the entire frontier would be sealed proved untrue.
Erin Wayne and her parents were flying back from Scotland to New York on Tuesday when the flight was diverted to Montreal's Dorval airport due to what the pilot called "a tragedy."
The family took a taxi to the border and walked across, luggage in hand, to search for a ride to Syracuse, New York.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique