Ten years ago this Sunday disaster that struck the United States had a long-lasting ripple effect in the Cayman Islands.
The Caymanian Compass led the 12 September, 2001, edition of the newspaper with the headline ‘United States under attack’. Also on the same front page was another, telling and worrying headline, ‘Cayman – US flights grounded’.
There were a series of four coordinated suicide attacks against targets in New York and Washington, DC, on 11 September, 2001. On that morning, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger jets. The hijackers intentionally crashed two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City; both towers collapsed within two hours. Hijackers crashed a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. When passengers attempted to take control of the fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, it crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, preventing it from reaching its intended target in Washington. Nearly 3,000 died in the attacks.
Tourism
The attacks immediately harmed the Tourism Industry in the Cayman Islands. In a 12 September, 2001, article titled ‘Tourists await developments’, the Compass reported that “Terrorist attacks on the US yesterday have had a negative impact on Cayman’s tourism industry – a problem that could be around for the rest of the year”.
Then Cayman Islands Tourism Association President Rod McDowell told the Caymanian Compass he expected the crisis would have a long-term affect on the industry through Christmas as people continued to be nervous about flying. “We should know within the next week what the trend will be,” he said at the time.
From 2001-2002, air arrivals in Cayman dropped by 9.4 per cent (334,000 to 303,000).
But Government took charge and began wooing cruise tourism.
Cruise arrivals increased by 29.6 per cent (1.21 million to 1.57 million). The net result was an increase in total visitor arrivals of 21.2 per cent (1.55 million to 1.88 million), according to the government’s Annual Economic Report for 2002.
The report writers attributed the increase in cruise tourism to the following factors: Proactive steps taken by government, growth of the global cruise ship market, Cayman’s strategic location and movement of cruise ships to the Caribbean from other parts of the world.
But in the immediate aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, those in the Tourism Industry were worried.
And there was a scare at our own Owen Roberts International Airport on 11 September, 2001, when the facility was evacuated as officials checked a suspicious bag left beside the American Airlines check-in desk in the main terminal building. The package turned out to contain nothing more than a computer with a scanner and posed no threat to anyone.
Security measures
Government held a press conference on 12 September to announce that Cayman’s Civil Aviation had taken security measures and was continuously in contact with authorities in the US and the United Kingdom. It was not certain when US airports would re-open, but Cayman’s airport remained open for regional traffic to Jamaica as well as service to London. All Cayman Airways flights remained cancelled.
Visitors who found themselves stranded on the Cayman Islands because of flight cancellations to the US were put up at various hotels.
On Thursday, 13 September, the Federal Aviation Authority in the US gave Miami International Airport permission to reopen, but it was unclear with CAL would be allowed to resume operations; two of its planes were grounded in Miami following the attacks.
The closure of US airports also had an affect on Caymanian supermarkets and consumers of fresh seafood. The first shipment to arrive since the attacks came in to Kirk’s Supermarket on 14 September.
Also on Friday an American Airlines flight took passengers to Miami after travellers had to go through rigorous security measures.
Afghans
On Monday, 17 September, 2001, Compass readers woke up to the front page headline ‘Afghans in Cayman attract US probe’.
“In the wake of last Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in the US, speculation that the three Afghan men seeking political asylum here are terrorists agents is being fully investigated by US and local officials.
“The suggestion the three men were terrorists was made in an anonymous letter delivered to Radio Cayman two weeks before the attacks on the US. The letter writer said he or she had ‘been convinced’ the Afghans were agents of Osama Bin Laden. The three were here ‘organising a major terrorist attack against the US via an airline or airlines’, the letter said.”
The three men were detained at Northward Prison while the investigation continued.
The Afghans had arrived in the Cayman Islands more than a year before the attacks on the US with no forms or identity. At the time of their arrival the relevant authorities in the UK, United Nations and Canada were notified. Four months after their arrival they applied for political asylum.
The Afghans remained in Cayman and were eventually given a grant of exceptional grant to stay so they could remain in Cayman. Two of the Afghans have moved to the US; one remains here.
Premonition
On 20 September, 2001, the front page of the Compass carried a story titled ‘Premonition came at 3am’ in which West Bayer Byron Barnett was revealed as the writer of the letter. He said he wrote the letter as the result of a powerful premonition, which struck him at 3am on 29 August.
On 21 September, a Page 1 story titled ‘Private sector feeling the pinch’ reported ‘Operators in the tourism industry are faced with empty rooms, boats, restaurants and retail shops as numerous tourists cancel their Cayman Islands vacations after last week’s terrorist attacks in the United States’.
The statement came from CITA, which reported that more than 80 per cent of Cayman’s air arrival visitors come from the United States.
As time marched on news about the attacks faded from the front pages of the Compass and tourism has slowly made a comeback.
But Cayman did have its share of problems brought on by the attacks thousands of miles away.
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