The North Atlantic Aviation Museum wants to borrow your 9/11 artifacts

The North Atlantic Aviation Museum in Gander is looking for your artifacts specifically from Sept. 11, 2001.

"There's a lot of interest in Gander, and there's a lot of interest in the stories behind 9/11," DermChafe of the North Atlantic Aviation Museum told CBC Radio's Newfoundland Morning.

Newfoundland and Labrador communities played asignificant rolein coming to the aid of 6,600 stranded passengers as flights across the Atlantic Oceanwere diverted and grounded in the province largely at the Gander International Airport due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

The town of Gander doubled in population in a matter of hours as stranded passengers left their planes and were taken into area homes.

The events that took place in and around Gander during those few days of lending a helping hand inspired the hit Broadway musical Come From Away,which has been performed across North America and Europe.

Due to the town's increased profile around the world, the museum is planning to install a permanent exhibit of the day when strangers helped strangers under difficult and tragic circumstances.

"What we're trying to do at the museum, the museum being one of the focal points from atourism perspective, is to develop a product that tells the back story about 9/11," Chafe said.

Photographs to borrow

Specifically, the museum is in search of photographs to display on a story board hidden gems showingthe help provided to the stranded passengers that somebody may have captured duringa time where the world had witnessed the terrorist attacksthat killed nearly 3,000 people.

The museum is interested in anything captured while the flights were grounded in the area, Chafe said. The photos will be borrowed and copied to create high-resolution images for an eight-foot-tall display.

"People helping people, people sleeping, accommodations, people partying, things like that," he said.

"Things that were happening that day."

On top of the 'helping hand' theme depicted in Come From Away, Chafe said he and the museum want to go deeper and tell the full story, every last detail everything from the logistics of crews on the ground, to what people ate and things they did to keep busy.

"People want to know that part of the story as well, and we've picked up the gauntlet to try to develop that product," Chafe said.

To get in contact and share your pictures, e-mail: info@northatlanticaviationmuseum.com.

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