# During the 9/11 attacks did any other Nations close their airspace? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 5, 2010, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996 "2010-12-05T03:07:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/1 "2010-12-05T03:07:50Z")
The US diverted all inbound flights. A lot went up to our friendly neighbors of the north. Was their other countries that would not ‘accept’ the return of a possibly hijacked plane? I would think some of the West European countries and the UK may have been a little concerned for attacks to happen with them to. Did anyone else close the border madagascar style or did everyone accept our redirected flights ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/2 "2010-12-05T03:40:31Z")
[NavCanada.ca says Canada did as well.]([http://www.navcanada.ca/NavCanada.asp?Language=EN&Content=contentdefinitionfiles](http://www.navcanada.ca/NavCanada.asp?Language=EN&Content=contentdefinitionfiles) ewsroom\backgrounders\911crisis.xml) I have no idea if that is perfectly reliable or not, but it would make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/3 "2010-12-05T04:21:09Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > [NavCanada.ca says Canada did as well.]([http://www.navcanada.ca/NavCanada.asp?Language=EN&Content=contentdefinitionfiles](http://www.navcanada.ca/NavCanada.asp?Language=EN&Content=contentdefinitionfiles) > ewsroom\backgrounders\911crisis.xml) > > I have no idea if that is perfectly reliable or not, but it would make sense. I was in Vancouver BC on 9/11 and yes Canada shut down its air traffic. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/4 "2010-12-05T04:42:51Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > I was in Vancouver BC on 9/11 and yes Canada shut down its air traffic. Anecdotally, ISTR that once all inbound flights from overseas to North America were accommodated on 9/11–that is, diverted to Canadian airfields when the US closed its airspace–Canada closed its airspace too. ---
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/5 "2010-12-05T04:57:38Z")
So we landed anyway even though they closed their airspace? EDIT: Anyone know where I can read other nations responses to our attacks? Their alert level and things like that? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/6 "2010-12-05T05:40:31Z")
If you think about it, it’s pretty hard to isolate US air space from Canadian air space. We share a very long border, have major cities within a few hundred miles of each other, and the great circle flight pattern takes many US airplanes over the Canadian land mass. Not to mention that something like 75% of all Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/7 "2010-12-05T08:14:15Z")
> [@ChrisBooth12](#): > > So we landed anyway even though they closed their airspace? No, the US first closed its airspace. Then, inbound flights from overseas to the US were diverted to Canadian airfields. Once they were all safely landed and accounted for, only then did Canada close its airspace. The sequence of events is important; the US closed its airspace while flights were en route to the US, and somebody had to take care of those flights. Canada was the obvious choice. Once all inbound were looked after, Canada could close its airspace, and it did. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/8 "2010-12-05T08:52:50Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > If you think about it, it’s pretty hard to isolate US air space from Canadian air space. We share a very long border, have major cities within a few hundred miles of each other, and the great circle flight pattern takes many US airplanes over the Canadian land mass. Not to mention that something like 75% of all Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border. True. If there had been plans for further attacks the next logical step after American flights shut down would have been to hijack a Canadian flight. A flight out of Toronto or Montreal could have been used to target NYC. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/9 "2010-12-05T18:30:41Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > The sequence of events is important; the US closed its airspace while flights were en route to the US, and somebody had to take care of those flights. Canada was the obvious choice. Once all inbound were looked after, Canada could close its airspace, and it did. 1. Did Mexico also receive flights? 2. Did Mexico close its airspace too? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/10 "2010-12-05T18:31:44Z")
Nevermind. Googling found that Mexico took flights and did **NOT** close their airspace, unless my info. is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/11 "2010-12-06T00:50:03Z")
[This](http://www.sct.gob.mx/transporte-y-medicina-preventiva/aeronautica-civil/)is the web page for the Mexican DGAC (Civil Aviation Authority), which might have information about their response on 9/11. I can’t read Spanish nor do I have the time to try and find anything on that site, but perhaps a Spanish-speaking Doper can have a look and see. [Here]([http://www.navcanada.ca/NavCanada.asp?Language=EN&Content=contentdefinitionfiles](http://www.navcanada.ca/NavCanada.asp?Language=EN&Content=contentdefinitionfiles) ewsroom\backgrounders\911crisis.xml)is a detailed summary of the NAV Canada response, including the sequence of events. The airspace was ordered closed at 12:28pm Eastern, but that still left some 200 aircraft in the air over the Atlantic and Pacific which had to be directed to various airports in Eastern and Western Canada. > [@](#): > > ``` > * NAV CANADA recovered 239 aircraft destined for the U.S. and Canada, and all landed safely in Canada without incident. Of these, 38 went to Gander, 1 to Deer Lake, 21 to St. John's, 8 to Stephenville, 7 to Goose Bay, 47 to Halifax, 10 to Moncton, 10 to Mirabel, 7 to Dorval, 14 to Toronto, 4 to Hamilton, 15 to Winnipeg, 6 to Edmonton, 13 to Calgary, 1 to Yellowknife, 3 to Whitehorse and 34 to Vancouver. Gander received 6,600 diverted passengers; Vancouver received about 8,500. The last aircraft to land was from the Pacific. By about 6:00 PM EDT, all planes had landed. > > * Military aircraft escorted two aircraft. One, an Air China Boeing 747 flying from Bejing to San Francisco, landed in Vancouver. The other, a Korean Airlines Boeing 747 carrying 207 passengers and crew and bound for New York landed in Whitehorse, Yukon. > > ``` The same cite indicates that aircraft which hadn’t crossed the halfway mark of their trans-oceanic flights were directed to turn around and return to their originating airports, so there would have been a similar amount of work for Eurocontrol to land all those planes and for airports/communities to potentially accommodate the passengers onboard. Based on [reports](http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1271410612.html)from the airspace closures due to the Icelandic volcano, it appears that European airspace was not shut down following 9/11, but there would have been significant disruption due to halting all trans-atlantic flights. [Here](http://www.cfmu.eurocontrol.int/cfmu/gallery/content/public/network_operations/critical_events/docs/149_151_SW46.pdf)’s a brief report on the actions of the Central Flow Management Unit of Eurocontrol during 9/11. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/12 "2010-12-06T06:14:57Z")
> [@ChrisBooth12](#): > > The US diverted all inbound flights. A lot went up to our friendly neighbors of the north. [snip] Ya gotta love “friendly neighbors to the north.”🙂 Were you in journalism, because that’s the proverbial old article title on a slow news day. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/13 "2010-12-07T05:16:31Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Ya gotta love “friendly neighbors to the north.”🙂 Were you in journalism, because that’s the proverbial old article title on a slow news day. I use it sometimes too, but I think it’s just from reading it so often. ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Norse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/big_norse/32/9954_2.png) [@Big\_Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Norse)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/14 "2010-12-07T20:33:22Z")
> [@ChrisBooth12](#): > > The US diverted all inbound flights. A lot went up to our friendly neighbors of the north. Was their other countries that would not ‘accept’ the return of a possibly hijacked plane? I would think some of the West European countries and the UK may have been a little concerned for attacks to happen with them to. Did anyone else close the border madagascar style or did everyone accept our redirected flights This is anecdotal but my bro-in-law was flying an American Airlines flight that left London for Boston shortly before the attacks. After the US closed their airspace and they were not allowed to continue to their destination, they were denied return to London or the chance to land in any country (within reach) other than Canada. I know he said he tried London and Iceland at least. I think this was a case of not actually closed airspace but denying landing privileges to any other plane that might be transporting similar hijackers. Canada also denied them landing in anyplace with a large population, so they ended up in Gander. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/15 "2010-12-07T20:51:42Z")
> [@Big\_Norse](#): > > I think this was a case of not actually closed airspace but denying landing privileges to any other plane that might be transporting similar hijackers. Canada also denied them landing in anyplace with a large population, so they ended up in Gander. Technically, Transport Canada “requested” that incoming pilots avoid the larger cities, but they didn’t outright deny landing to incoming flights at such airports. As noted by **Mnemosyne** ’s post above, a good number of planes were diverted to large cities on September 11 — 34 to Vancouver, 17 to Montreal (Mirabel & Dorval airports), 14 to Toronto, 15 to Winnipeg, and 47 to Halifax. (Halifax isn’t huge—under 300k—but it’s not as tiny as Gander.) The reason Gander got so many planes relative to its size is that (a) it’s in Newfoundland, which is the first North American landfall for a huge number of flights between northwestern Europe and northeastern North America, (b) it has a fairly long runway due to the presence of a [Canadian Forces Base](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFB_Gander) and a long history of use as a refueling stop. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/16 "2010-12-07T21:39:33Z")
> [@Big\_Norse](#): > > This is anecdotal but my bro-in-law was flying an American Airlines flight that left London for Boston shortly before the attacks. After the US closed their airspace and they were not allowed to continue to their destination, they were denied return to London or the chance to land in any country (within reach) other than Canada. I know he said he tried London and Iceland at least. I think this was a case of not actually closed airspace but denying landing privileges to any other plane that might be transporting similar hijackers. Canada also denied them landing in anyplace with a large population, so they ended up in Gander. That can’t have been universal, lots of planes turned and landed back in the British Isles. Perhaps he needed somewhere in North America due to fuel/distance out, and given his route was given Gander? ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/17 "2010-12-07T22:08:33Z")
That is odd, given as Reykjavyk is one of the most commonly listed ETOPS alternate airports and a common emergency diversion airport for flights using the Northern Atlantic routes. I suspect your brother-in-law’s flight considered first turning around to return to London, but discovered it was out of range (or would land below fuel minimums), then considered the natural alternate in Iceland. It probably turned out to either be closer to continue to Canada or one-too-many for Rejkjavik but had suitable fuel to continue on to North America so other aircraft were diverted there instead. There wouldn’t really have been any other choices, other than perhaps Greenland anyways. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/18 "2010-12-07T23:40:53Z")
The more I hear about what happened in all the airports on September 11th, the more impressed I am with the people working that day. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/19 "2010-12-08T00:19:54Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > No, the US first closed its airspace. Then, inbound flights from overseas to the US were diverted to Canadian airfields. Once they were all safely landed and accounted for, only then did Canada close its airspace. > > The sequence of events is important; the US closed its airspace while flights were en route to the US, and somebody had to take care of those flights. Canada was the obvious choice. Once all inbound were looked after, Canada could close its airspace, and it did. Eh? Potential threats were _sent to Canada_? Geez, I knew the relationship wasn’t equal, but I didn’t realise Canada was expected to take a bullet for the US. ---
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996/20 "2010-12-08T00:54:51Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > Eh? Potential threats were _sent to Canada_? > > Geez, I knew the relationship wasn’t equal, but I didn’t realise Canada was expected to take a bullet for the US. If the hijackers’ goal was to attack the US, why would they change plans and attack Canada? They took control of the flights, and they wouldn’t care if the airspace was declared closed – they’d still attempt to destroy their targets. The only flights that would comply with a request to divert to Canada would be those that were still under the control of the original pilots. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-the-9-11-attacks-did-any-other-nations-close-their-airspace/562996.md?page=2)