This animation was created by NASA using FAA air traffic control data from September 11, 2001. It shows the rapid grounding of air traffic across the US, and redirection of incoming international traffic, in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Time is at lower left, number of planes in the air lower right. At 9:06 am, FAA issued a ground stop to all traffic not yet departed that would encounter NY airspace [“tier one”- NY, DC, Boston, Cleveland] . A series of rapid decisions followed, including redirecting inbound traffic away from NY and warning airplanes in the air of potential cockpit intrusion. At 9:45 am, FAA Command Center decided to close all US airspace for the first time in history. Within a few hours, all commercial air traffic was grounded. This animation is displayed in the National Air and Space Museum’s “America by Air” exhibition.
38 planes landed in Gander, Newfoundland Canada.
"We landed in a town of 9,000. They took in 7,000 of us from 90 countries for 9 days...It was more than kindness. They were all about compassion. They engaged in the suffering of all of us.", Kevin Tuerff from Austin, Texas
Canada’s “Operation Yellow Ribbon”
Canada's goal was to ensure that potentially destructive air traffic be removed from United States airspace as quickly as possible, and away from potential U.S. targets, and instead place these aircraft on the ground in Canada, at military and civilian airports in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and British Columbia (and also several in New Brunswick, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec) where any destructive potential could be better contained and neutralized.
