IN DEPTH: AVIATION
Flight path: Gander
Alison Hancock, CBC News | December 10, 2003
Because the shortest distance across the Atlantic is between Newfoundland and Ireland, Newfoundland has always played a crucial historic role in transatlantic communications. Shipping, cable, radio – and aviation. Many pioneers of transatlantic flight took off from the Rock: Alcock and Brown, Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart, who used the air strip at Harbour Grace.
But pride of place in Newfoundland’s aviation history must go to Gander, a town that grew up around flying.
While the 1920s were the heady days of aviation, by the mid-’30s the idea of passenger flight had taken hold. Airlines were established, and wanted to offer flights between Europe and North America. These needed a refuelling stop, and the great circle – the shortest – route between London and New York passes through Gander and its neighbour Botwood.
Atlantic Canada: birthplace of Canadian aviation
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At a 1935 conference in Ottawa, the British, Irish and Newfoundland governments agreed to establish a regular North Atlantic mail and passenger service using flying boats. British officials selected Botwood Harbour, a deep water inlet of Notre Dame Bay, as a refuelling base for seaplanes. By 1937 the airport was ready.
On July 5, 1937, two experimental transatlantic commercial flights took off: The Pan Am Clipper III flew from Botwood to Foynes, Ireland, and a British Imperial Airways seaplane, the Caledonia, flew from Foynes to Botwood. The trial was a success and heralded two years of test flights.
PanAm clipper plane arrives for refuelling at Botwood, NL
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On June 28, 1939, the Pan Am Yankee Clipper, the largest airplane of the day, left Botwood on the first scheduled transatlantic passenger flight. The passengers flew in luxury, with the Clipper fitted out like the Ritz. Just before the start of the Second World War, the first regular mail and passenger flights were spanning the Atlantic, and refuelling at Botwood.
NEWFOUNDLAND AIRPORT
It was clear, however, that the future of passenger flight lay with land planes, and the same Ottawa conference selected a site at Hattie’s Camp, on the north shore of Lake Gander, for a Newfoundland airport. The location, alongside the Newfoundland railway, was perfect.
Doug Fraser piloted the first flight from Newfoundland Airport, 1938
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When construction began in 1936 there was no town of Gander, only dwellings for the workers employed building the airport.
The Newfoundland Airport was finished in 1938 and with its four runways was the largest on the planet.
SECOND WORLD WAR - 1939
Gander and Botwood became crucial military bases under the control of the RCAF and the Canadian Army. Canadian, British and U.S. forces used the airfields for refuelling, and Botwood as a seaplane base.
The flying boat service was operated by the U.S. and British military during the war. The powerful and famous – Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt travelling to strategic summits, for instance, or Bob Hope en route to entertain the troops in Europe – all passed through Botwood on the beautiful flying boats.
FERRY COMMAND
Both Canada and the United States manufactured planes for the European Allies. The problem was how to get them across the Atlantic. At first it was thought they would have to be shipped, but RAF Ferry Command and U.S.
Civilian Ferry Command pilots en route to Newfoundland
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Air Transport flew them over from Gander, at first to Aldergrove in Ireland, and later to Prestwick. The first seven Lockheed Hudsons flew from Gander to Europe on November 10, 1940. One of these planes is on display at the North Atlantic Aviation Museum at Gander.
The Ferry Command pilots came from all over North America, and lived in railcars. They included bush pilots and the flying boat captains of Pan Am and British Imperial Airways.
With all the wartime flying at the Newfoundland bases, there were many accidents. So many men of the RCAF and Newfoundland Regiment were killed this way, that the only Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery outside Europe is in Gander.
Gander's Aviation Accidents
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| 1946 |
1967 |
1985 |
| worst airline accident in the world to that date: Sabena passenger plane crashed in remotely wooded area 20 miles from airport. 27 people killed |
Czechoslovakian airliner crashed on takeoff from Gander. 37 people killed |
256 U.S. people killed when chartered plane bringing them home for Christmas from peacekeeping mission in Sinai desert crashed shortly after takeoff. It was the worst air disaster on Canadian soil |
| The Silent Witness Memorial at the 1985 crash site commemorates the 101st Airborne losses. It was erected by the residents of Gander |
GANDER - CROSSROADS OF THE WORLD
Even before the Second World War, everyone recognized the vital role Gander would play in the future of North Atlantic passenger services. Then, in the post-war years, commercial aviation really took off.
This is when Gander came into its own. Before the jet age, all transatlantic flights, including those of Trans Canada Airlines, refuelled at Gander before or after crossing the ocean.
Gander became known as the “Crossroads of the World.”
East bloc passengers disembark from East German Interflug airliner at Gander, the site of many defections
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During the Cold War, Gander was a stopping place for Soviet dignitaries en route to nuclear summits. Russian hockey players and ballet dancers, and Hollywood stars stopped there. Nikita Khrushchev passed through Gander, so did Marilyn Monroe. To accommodate these celebrities the airport installed an enormous VIP lounge, which today houses an aviation museum.
Fidel Castro was a frequent visitor at Gander’s VIP lounge, en route between Havana and Moscow. In the 1960s, a resident took him for a toboggan ride.
Locals tell Cold War era stories of defections by Russian hockey players and artists. By the end of the Cold War, the number of Aeroflot passengers jumping ship and claiming refugee status at Gander had become a serious problem for the provincial government.
Since the ’50s, Gander has been vitally important as a North Atlantic Air Control Centre. The Gander Nav Canada Centre controls all North American air traffic as far as the mid-Atlantic, where Prestwick takes over.
Air traffic controller guides planes across the Atlantic
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On September 11, 2001, Gander’s Nav Can Centre was responsible for redirecting all westbound North Atlantic air traffic. More than 400 large jets were headed for North America that day, and Gander’s Nav Can Centre landed 40 planes at Gander, making aviation history.
Gander’s fortunes have been up and down. As soon as jet liners could cross the Atlantic without refuelling, the airport declined. Once the town’s largest employer, it has even been threatened with closure. Today, although quiet, the Gander airport handles many private jets – and still occasionally plays host to Fidel Castro.
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