Reliving 9/11 terror (From Penarth Times)

Reliving 9/11 terror

PENARTH musician and actor Peter Ferris is to make a documentary about his terrifying experience with other passengers on board a flight to America as the events of 9/11 unfolded.

In 2001 Peter had been on tour in America with a cover group called The Beatles Band.

On September 11 he was flying to Texas with a band member on Continental Airlines Flight 5 to arrange future gigs. Halfway across the Atlantic it was announced that the plane would not be able to proceed through American airspace, and would be forced to land in Canadian Newfoundland instead.

Around 10,000 passengers flying to a host of destinations in North America on different flights were forced to land at the town of Gander in Newfoundland.

Peter said: "When we landed at Gander airport there were military bombers at the end of every runway. I honestly thought that a nuclear war had started. We were kept on the plane for 36 hours and then, after a thorough search, we were evacuated to the nearby town of Gambo.

"We were taken to a camp that had been set up at the town fire station where we stayed for five days.

"We were given food by the Salvation Army, and local people offered to take us to their homes for meals and so that we could shower.

"We were shown enormous compassion and generosity by total strangers because of our predicament. There was an incredible sense of unity and willingness to help - something akin to the wartime spirit in Britain I'd imagine."

Jim DeFede, a journalist with the Miami Herald, published a book entitled The Day The World Came To Town, about the heartwarming kindness shown by the citizens of Gander and its surrounding communities to their unexpected guests.

The book gives a full account of how Peter and fellow band member Paul Moroney raised the roof with an impromptu rendering of Beatles numbers in a Gambo bar.

The documentary, which is likely to be called Newfoundland 9/11, will also examine how people's lives were changed by the experience.

He said: "I believe people caught up in what happened made bigger decisions faster as a result.