Gander Airport To Get Their Fourth Terminal

The Gander International Airport Authority is considering building a smaller airport terminal building to replace the present one for financial reasons. A news item has been released by the CBC news explaining the situation. The question is not should be it be replaced but what to do with the present terminal? Hopefully this will be answered with open minds and common sense. We are confident this will be resolved with some good discussion.

Down Homer article

We recently have learned that the monthly magazine publication of Down Homer has contacted us for more information on Ms. Alena Zimova’s planned visit to Gander to tour the original crash scene of Czechoslovakian flight 523. The Down Homer will be doing a feature article about this accident featuring Ms. Zimova who was one of the survivors on that fateful flight.This visit is certainly generating a lot of interest about the aircraft accident that occurred some 47 years ago. So much, in fact, we decided that our website should document some of the history behind this tragedy. We have since added a new section in the Transition era for your viewing. We will be providing more documented information to this section in the near future.

The Old Canadian Side

We have just received a request for information whether they could visit an area in Gander where their grandfather once lived. He was a doctor in the RCAF and served in Gander at the military hospital during 1944-45. Letters he had written to his wife during this period depicts a very interesting way of life during this period. After viewing these old letters the grand children now would like to visit this area and walk the same streets as their grandfather. We have informed them that the streets are still intact for walking but unless they were familiar with the area it may be difficult in locating particular areas that would interest them. This is unfortunate because there are no guided tours available. A few years ago this area was refurbished somewhat with street and building signs posted that would make a visit of more value but now is in a state of disrepair. This makes our project to construct a table model of the old airport town all that more important.

St. John's Philatelic Society

The St. John’s Philatelic Society has visited our website and discovered several articles we have posted concerning postage stamps and envelopes from Gander during WWII and post war eras. They asked for and received R. Pelley’s permission to publish these articles in their news letter. The first was published this month with plans to publish others. This gives us great pleasure in knowing the research carried out documenting the airports history has a value appreciated by others.

A School History Project

It has been suggested by others in our group that it would be an interesting project for our schools to encourage students to study & research the history of Gander and it’s pioneers. Such a project would be a benefit in their education and to provide valuable research by seeking out old photos, interviews with those that lived in the old town and maybe discover lost journalistic articles. The GAHS would be more than happy to assist in setting up such a project.