Operation Yellow Ribbon
Operation Yellow Ribbon (French: Opération ruban jaune) was commenced by Canada to handle the diversion of civilian airline flights in response to the September 11 attacks in 2001 in the United States.Yukon, New Brunswick, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, the Northwest Territories, and Quebec also took in aircraft so that any malicious or destructive potential threats could be better contained and neutralized.The SitCen is Transport Canada's emergency operations centre (EOC), originally constructed to deal with earthquakes along the British Columbia Coast.One of the tasks of the SitCen was to maintain contact with other members of the Canadian aviation community, such as the Air Transport Association of Canada and local airport authorities.The TCC was originally a training institute in Cornwall, Ontario, and headed by Kathy Fox, assistant vice-president of air traffic services.During the operation, SitCen staff focused on two issues: where to land the aircraft, and how to screen, deplane, and clear tens of thousands of passengers through immigration and customs.The Washington Post quoted a woman whose flight from Frankfurt to Dallas was diverted to Pearson, saying that three hours before landing, the pilot announced that the plane was heading through turbulence.Norman Mineta, the United States Secretary of Transportation, said at a White House news briefing that "we owe our Canadian neighbours a debt of gratitude for helping us as we redirected…flights and their passengers to airports in Canada.During the diversion of flights, some airports, including Vancouver International, were inundated with hundreds of telephone calls from members of the public and the corporate community offering their support.[citation needed] When asked in a CNN interview if he was able to get food to the passengers, Jean Chrétien, the Prime Minister of Canada, said that he was able to, and that "many of them have been accommodated in hotels and schools and gymnasiums and so on."[citation needed] Public efforts to help those affected by Operation Yellow Ribbon led to positive remarks on the subject by people such as Chrétien and his wife, Aline; the United States Ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci; Collenette; Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and her husband, John Ralston Saul; and in the provinces, premiers, and lieutenant governors.Edmonton International Airport also received a child passenger's drawing of the diverted flights on the ground there, published on page 12 of their 2001 annual report.The British Columbia Aviation Council presented its 2001 Airport Management Award to Vancouver International Airport, citing its professional and compassionate handling of the situation, while the Canadian Public Relations Society (Nova Scotia) presented Halifax International an Amethyst Award in the Crisis Communications category to honour the authority's crisis communication response to the situation.On September 11, 2002, about 2,500 people gathered at Gander International Airport for Canada's memorial service to mark the first anniversary of the attacks, over which Chrétien, Collenette, and Cellucci and other provincial and local officials presided.It was dramatized in the CBC miniseries Diverted and is the subject of the Broadway musical Come from Away, written by the Canadian writing team of Irene Sankoff and David Hein.
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