Constructed in the 1930s to facilitate development of transatlantic flight, the airport at Gander became the main staging point for the movement of Allied aircraft to Europe during World War II. As an essential technicial stop during the post-war "Jet Age", Gander soon earned the moniker "Crossroads of the World".

January 1938

Captain Douglas Fraser flies DeHavilland Fox Moth VO-ADE to the first landing at the Newfoundland Airport, now known around the world as Gander International.

November 1940

Captain D.C.T. Bennett leaves Gander for Europe, leading the first fleet of seven Lockheed Hudson bombers across the Atlantic during the Battle of Britain. More than 20,000 North American-built fighters and heavy bombers follow, some taking off from Gander one minute apart for hours at a time.

February 1941

Sir Frederick Banting's plane crashes in the woods near Musgrave Harbour. The pilot survives but Banting and two others are killed. Banting was the co-discoverer of insulin.

September 1946

A Sabena Airlines DC-4 crashes on the far side of Gander Lake, killing 26 of the 44 onboard. It takes days to locate the crash site from the air, and longer to get rescuers to the scene. Due to the remote location, the deceased are buried at the site, and their cemetery (foreground) is still maintained by area residents.

September 1967

A Czechoslovakian State Airlines Ilyushin 18 en route to Havana from Prague crashes on take-off. Thirty-seven of 69 aboard the airliner are killed.

October 1974

The supersonic transport Concorde lands at Gander after the first in a series of transatlantic test flights, two years before inauguration of scheduled commercial service.

December 1985

248 members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, along with eight civilian air crew, are killed when their DC-8 crashes on takeoff. There are no survivors. It is the worst-ever plane crash on Canadian soil.

September 11, 2001

As a result of terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., all airborne aircraft are ordered to land immediately. Some 40 of these planes are diverted to Gander, Newfoundland. Click here for more information and pictures.

On Sept. 11, 2002, Gander was the scene of Canada's official ceremony to mark the first anniversary of the U.S. attacks. Click here for more information and pictures.

Today

Gander International remains a true Crossroads of the World, one of the few places where a Russian jetliner might share the ramp with an American spyplane and a fleet of German fighters. It is also a designated alternate landing site for the Space Shuttle.

Photos courtesy North Atlantic Aviation Museum