Darkness And Trees

[Bob]

We can see them from the plane

This long line of headlights coming through the darkness

[Company]

Off of the airplane

[Flight Attendant]

Ladies and gentlemen, you can take only your carry-on items

Any checked luggage will remain in the hold

[Company]

Into the airport

[Diane]

The captain and flight attendants tell everyone

To take the blankets and pillows off the plane

[Company]

Out of the windows

[Kevin T]

We grab bottles of water too

No one has any idea where they're taking us

[Company]

Darkness and trees

[Bob]

As we enter the airport, all those car lights are still aimed at us

[Hannah]

We're scared

They're probably scared too

[Flight Attendant]

The people here don't know what to expect off of these planes

[Kevin T]

The airport looks like something left over from the Cold War

Kevin is like

[Kevin J]

Oh my God, we've gone back in time

[Bob]

The whole procedure the soldiers and all the formality

It just makes me really nervous

[Beverley]

There's a giant map on the wall of the airport

And someone has written in red marker

You are here

[Hannah]

Excuse me

I need to find a phone

I need to call my son

[Customs Officer]

I'm sorry

The pay phones are out of order

[Oz]

They're all lined up at the airport pay phones

So eventually we put an out of order sign on them just so we can get people on the busses

[Claude]

11:48 PM, busses and drivers are now taking passengers to shelters

Not just in Gander, but also to Gambo, Appleton

And farther communities of Lewisporte, Norris Arm, and Glenwood

[Company]

Our bus sits there forever

While all the others leave

Finally, this other passenger gets on

This guy from the Middle East

Someone says he got questioned

Someone says he got searched

And now he's on our bus

[Janice]

I try to interview the Red Cross, the Salvation Army

But they've got more important things to do than talk to me

That's when I see them, the Plane People, through the bus windows

The terror on their faces

They have no idea where they're going

[Beverley]

They take me and my crew in a separate van

And I'm looking out the window, tryin' to see where we are

But it is pitch dark

Now I have flown over this area hundreds and hundreds of times

And it is just darkness hardly any lights anywhere

And now here I am

Oh my God, this is just so remote

[Men]

Into the darkness

[Women]

Stars and the moonlight

[Men]

But all around us

[Women]

Nothing but darkness

[Men]

Out of the windows

[Women]

Into the darkness

[Company]

Darkness and trees

[Garth]

Every school bus we got is goin' back and forth all night

Out to the Salvation Army camp

We've delivered passengers from Germany, England, and France

And around three in the morning

My bus is designated to take all these African people out there

[Company]

Into the darkness

[Muhumuza]

My family and I try to see out the bus windows

No one tells us where we are going

[Company]

Onto a gravel road

[Garth]

Silence comes on the bus

We get outside of Gander and you could hear a pin drop

[Company]

And all around us

[Muhumuza]

My wife and daughter are scared

They ask me what is happening and I do not know

[Company]

Darkness and trees

[Garth]

Behind me, this big man comes up to me and he says in this low voice

[Muhumuza]

Wewe watuchukuwa wapi?

[Garth]

What's that, now?