WINNIPEG — Sunday marks the 15 year anniversary of 9/11; a day that shook people across the world – including here in Winnipeg.
On Sept. 11, 2001, nineteen men hijacked four planes and crashed them into each tower of New York City’s World Trade Center complex, the Pentagon building in Washington and a field in Shanksville, Pa.
The attacks resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. Twenty-four of them were Canadians, including one woman from Winnipeg.
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Hours after the attacks, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it was no longer allowing planes into their airspace, meaning many planes were redirected to Winnipeg.
WATCH: Planes redirected to Winnipeg airport following the terror attacks
Flights across Canada were also cancelled, leaving thousands of passengers stranded for days at the former Winnipeg International Airport.
READ MORE: Remembering 9-11 and the impact it had on Canadians
Steve Malloy, an air traffic control instructor was working in Winnipeg the day of the attacks, and recounts the hours and days following it.
“Sept. 11, 2001, I was an air traffic control job instructor,” Molloy said.
“I had been working with a trainee when some coworkers came in to mention what they had seen on TV, that there was a plane that hit the World Trade Center.”
“The latter part of that morning, when the news was already breaking on what was happened, we were advised that the FAA were not allowing airplanes into their airspace.”
WATCH : Air traffic control instructor recounts the hours following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and how it affected controllers in Winnipeg
Airspace was shut down. Controllers at the centre in Winnipeg frantically diverted and landed planes in three provinces.
“That was a fairly frantic part of it for us,” he said.