Leading from the Stop
Positive influence and heartfelt resilience in times of adversity
Twenty years after 9/11, Elias Kanaris shares an insider's view of being on one of the diverted planes to Gander International Airport and lessons learnt during that fateful time.
Elias Kanaris offers an insider's view of what happened on 9/11 when the plane he was flying on was diverted, alongside another 37 planes, to Gander International Airport due to the terrorist acts in NYC and DC. What the passengers expected was going to be a short layover, turned into five days as they were hosted by the Salvation Army in Newfoundland, Canada.
After spending 24 hours on the tarmac, with only the BBC World Service providing them with an update on what had happened, they were finally cleared to disembark. Expecting a short layover and a quick return to the plane, they were instead instructed to board a bus and head over to the Salvation Army Church in Gambo, Newfoundland.
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“Elias has cleverly lent on his personal experiences to teach us sound leadership lessons. This book is an easy read, very relatable and applicable across a wide age group.”
Angela Holland, New Zealand
“Elias Kanaris has managed to mix fact with logic and strong leadership messages. Even though the story is 20 years old the leadership messages are current and insightful, a thoroughly interesting read, skilfully woven into a great business book.”
— Lindsay Adams OAM, Australia
With a funeral planned during our stay, it was all hands to the pumps.
We created an ‘escape committee’ to break down the workload required to clean the Salvation Army church from top to bottom to remove any evidence of 197 plane people lurking there.
We had daily updates from Capt. Mike and the UA929 crew.
Our hosts from the Salvation Army had to respond quickly
Some of the best leadership lessons came when we observed what the locals (‘Newfies’) did.
Learn the leadership lessons from the locals.
Hear from the former mayor of Gander, Claude Elliott, as he shares what happened on September 11, 2001. What started out as an ordinary day would soon become no ordinary day, especially when you’re the mayor of Gander and Gander Airport was about to get extremely busy.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer Oz Fudge shares how he heard about the terrorist acts. “Our emergency plan would deal with fires, plane crashes, anything along those lines. But, we had nothing where seven thousand people would drop in for a bucket of tea and a bicky.”
Salvation Army Secretary, Theresa Antonietti (nee Burry) started by phoning the leader of their women’s ministries group and asked her to coordinate the congregants to start preparing soup, sandwiches and something that people can have with a cup of tea or coffee.
What People Are Saying
“Leading from the Stop is the book we all need now.”
— Martin Brooker, Australia
“I did like the narrative structure interspersed with the thinking-points - definitely a useful and worthwhile framework for self-improvement. I know from my own experience with Local Government Emergency Response that the lessons learnt from Gander have been far reaching and I've seen the experiences we had have a direct benefit on integration of voluntary organisations with emergency departments across the world.”
— Craig Fisher, Fellow UA929 Passenger, UK
“In this book, Elias Kanaris weaves a tale of encouragement, using snapshots captured in time. This is a beautiful narrative of influence and resilience in times of adversity. I couldn’t put it down!”
— Patrick Snow, USA
“This book, and Elias' story, so beautifully, honestly and thoughtfully told, harnesses the power of storytelling to shine a light on the messages we need to be reminded of now more than ever.”
— Rabia Siddique, International humanitarian, best-selling author, leadership consultant, mentor and advocate
“Having known Elias now for nearly a decade and having followed his incredible work with the Global Speakers Federation, I am confident that the lessons he learned those five days in Newfoundland will point you to a powerful philosophy of values-based, people centric, servant leadership.”
– Mark Cole, CEO/President of The John Maxwell Enterprise
