@cbcnews: "We had to literally drain the sky." Don O’Brien was one of the air traffic controllers on duty in Gander, N.L., on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when co-ordinated terrorist attacks in the U.S. shut down North American airspace. He recently told CBC's David Common about the herculean effort required to get planes safely on the ground that day and how the sudden arrival of "the plane people" brought the community together. The Gander airport is one of the first places where flights crossing the Atlantic Ocean can land. It brought in 38 planes that day carrying thousands of passengers — almost doubling the town’s population. The air traffic control centre also landed dozens more flights that day for other regional airports. #cbcnews #thenational #newfoundland #canada