September 11th 2001, a day many will never forget.
24 Canadians were among the nearly 3,000 who lost their lives after four planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, The Pentagon in Virginia and a field southeast of Pittsburgh.
“We decided that we would go with wall to wall coverage from ABC News on the radio station, so for most of that day you heard ABC News and then at the top of the hour or in between we had the local reaction to what was going on,” recalls former News Director with Acadia Thunder Bay Vic Krasowski.
Krasowski added, “Before we used to just be able to flash our drivers licence to the American authorities, but now we are required to show our passport, that was a big change. I think a little bit of our freedoms were taken away after that day and that was the biggest shock for me.”
Listen: Vic Krasowski full interview
In a piece with Acadia News in 2020, former CEO of the Thunder Bay Airport Authority recalls being in Montreal for the Conference of the Airports Council International, alongside other airport Chief Executive Officers.
“The room there was silent, other than people whispering on telephones. It was stunning and I think we were all stunned for a while” remembers McFadden. “I was trying to get on the phone to Thunder Bay. We already were hearing that the airspace was being closed and aircraft were being diverted. The airport was put on alert for a brief period of time with the potential for diversions of transatlantic or transpacific flights.”
Checked baggage scanning and security screening, among other things, were enhanced in the five years following that fateful day.
McFadden felt the day was a turning point for the industry as a whole.
