Gander is a city on the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador .
| Gander English Gander | |
|---|---|
| - City - | |
 | |
Coordinates: | |
| Control | |
| A country |  Canada |
| Provinces | Newfoundland and Labrador |
| Established | 1936 |
| Demography | |
| Population | 11 054 people (2011) |
| Density | 106 people / km² |
| Official language (s) | English |
| Geography | |
| Square | 104.25 km² |
| Height above sea level | 128 m |
| Timezone | UTC − 3: 30 |
| Postcode | A1V |
| Web site | |
Content
Geography
The city is located in the northeast of Newfoundland, about 40 kilometers south of Gander Bay and 90 km east of Grand Falls Windsor , on the northeast shore of Lake Gander . About 11 thousand people live in the city. Near the city there is the Gander International Airport, which in the past played a very important role - here planes landed and refueled, making flights across the Atlantic . Most of the streets in the city are named after famous pilots, including in honor of Amelia Earhart , Charles Lindbergh , Mark Garno , Charles Yeager .
History
In 1935, Gander was chosen for the construction of an air base because of its geographical location near the northeastern tip of the North American continent . In 1936, the construction of the base began, and with it the city began to grow. On January 11, 1938, Captain Douglas Fraser made his first landing at Newfoundland Airport, now known as Gander International Airport (or “CYQX”), on a single-engine Fox Moth BO-ADE biplane. During World War II , at least 10,000 Canadian, British, and American troops were stationed in Gander, which became a strategic point for the Royal Air Force. About 20 thousand American and Canadian fighters and bombers landed in Gander on the way to Europe. After the war, the airbase became a civil airfield, and the city itself was moved to a safe distance from the runway (about 5 kilometers) [1] .
On December 12, 1985, Gander was in the limelight when the DC-8 of Flight 1285, carrying 256 passengers, 248 of which were American soldiers returning from Egypt , crashed after takeoff . All passengers and crew died. This plane crash is the largest in Canadian territory.
Over time, the importance of the airport decreased, since most modern aircraft overcome the Atlantic without refueling. But on September 11, 2001, the Gander International Airport once again played an important role in the history of world aviation: for several hours immediately after the September 11 attacks , when all of North America’s airspace was closed, the airport accepted 39 transatlantic flights under Operation Yellow Ribbon. More than 6,600 passengers and crew members (equivalent to 66 percent of the local population) stayed in Gander for several days until airspace was open and flights were resumed. According to other information, it was 53 aircraft and 10,500 passengers [2] .
Notes
- ↑ Encyclopedia Canadiana, the Grolier of Canada Limited, Toronto - Ottawa - Montreal, 1967, vol. 4, page 317
- ↑ 9/11: Flight attendant's story Archived January 28, 2016 on the Wayback Machine .