Gander, Newfoundland: The tiny Canadian town where 38 planes were grounded during 9/11

Beverley Bass did not expect to land her plane in Canada that morning. She was piloting an American Airlines flight from Paris to Dallas along the "Great Circle" route. "There wasn't a cloud and the sky was crystal blue, everything was perfect about it," she remembers. Midway through the flight, news came through that a plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York. She assumed it was a small passenger aircraft. "It never entered our minds that it was an airliner, never." Later, she heard that a second plane had hit the second tower and that US airspace was shut. Told to land in Canada, she expected to be directed to Toronto, Montreal or another major city.

In fact, hers was one of 38 planes instructed to land in Gander on the morning of September 11 2001 - a town of 11,000 inhabitants on the Canadian island of Newfoundland, which saw its population almost double in the days after 9/11. As the United States faced its biggest security crisis since Pearl Harbour, every passenger flight across North America was cancelled, and the new arrivals were left stranded in Canada for nearly a week.

Many of the passengers had never heard of Gander and were desperate to return home. For the next five days, however, the town's inhabitants did everything they could to make their guests feel welcome. They opened up their homes, organised walks and parties. They offered soup, sandwiches, and hot showers. Many made friendships that lasted for years.

This remarkable kindness is now the subject of a musical, Come From Away, which opens in London's Phoenix Theatre on Monday. Packed with upbeat show tunes, the production has been described as achieving a seemingly impossible feat: it is a "feel-good 9/11 musical". It received critical acclaim when it was performed in New York, San Diego, Toronto and Dublin.

Written by Irene Sankoff and David Hein in 2012, it focuses on a handful of real-life stories from Gander, including that of Bass, who had previously made headlines when she was appointed a captain by American Airlines in 1986 - the first woman to be given the honour. The musical tells the story of how "somewhere, in the middle of nowhere, you've found your heart but left a part of you behind" - a lyric from its most popular song, 38 Planes.

It also tells the story of Nick Marsden, a British man who had been flying from London to Houston for a work conference on 9/11 when his flight was diverted. While queuing for registration at Gander Airport he met Diane, a Texan woman. After a five-day romance in Gander the pair, who were then aged 52 and 60, ended up marrying the following year: they now live together in a suburb of Houston, but are flying to London to catch the opening night of the musical, which they have already seen 86 times.

"The whole of this community put their lives on hold for five days, and probably didn't even go to bed at night," says Nick. "If it hadn't been for the kindness and the outpouring of love, Diane and I wouldn't have met. We'd probably have been in a hangar somewhere or sleeping on the floor, or maybe stuck in the aeroplane. But this community bent over backwards to make us welcome and to take our mind off what was happening out in the real world."

After touching down in Gander, which saw its last big population influx during the war when 10,000 Allied troops were stationed there, the pair were taken to a nearby community hall, where dozens of makeshift beds were laid out each night. In the morning, the beds were cleared away and breakfast was cooked by locals; at night they played music, served beer and danced.