On Sept. 11, 2001, American Airlines pilot Beverly Bass, the first female captain in the airline’s history, and her crew left Paris for a flight back to Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. Then, as it was with so many others that day, she got some stunning news.
A plane had flown into one of the World Trade Centers Twin Towers. “We assumed it was a small airplane,” Bass said. As did many, myself included. Twenty minutes later came word that a second plane had hit the second tower. Suddenly, the word terrorism was being mentioned from many lips, including those communicating with Bass and her crew, who were still in the air.
Due to closure of American air space, she and her crew were ordered to divert to Gander International Airport in Gander, Newfoundland in Canada. It was there she would spend the next five days, as would lots of others on other airplanes forced to land there. “Sixty seven hundred landed in three hours. The population of Gander was only 9,400,” Bass, now age 74 and living in Argyle with her husband Tom Stawicki, told a comfortable crowd at Casa Manana’s Reid Cabaret Theatre on Tuesday, May 19.
The presentation, titled “An Evening With Beverly Bass,” featured her alongside director/choreographer Eugenio Contenti and stars Chamblee Ferguson, Christina DeCicco (who plays Beverly) and Sharon Wheatley from the touring musical “Come From Away.” Abigail Hofbauer, Director of Exhibits at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, served as moderator.
“Come From Away” will be at Casa Manana May 29-June 7. It tells the story of Bass’ five days in Gandor and the connection made between her and the almost 7,000 others on the diverted flights and the locals. The show opened on Broadway in 2017 and was nominated for seven Tony Awards, winning one for Best Direction of a Musical for Christopher Ashley. The London West End production received nine Olivier Award nominations and won three, including Best New Musical.
Bass said she has seen the show 183 times. She recalled the first time seeing it in 2015 at its premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. “I didn’t know what they were talking about,” Bass recalled when being invited to the premiere. She had been interviewed a few years earlier by the show’s creators, Irene Sankoff and David Hein on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 events, and remembered getting an occasional follow-up call to clarify some points. However, it was news to her that it had been turned into a musical. “We missed about 75 percent of the first show, we were so overwhelmed,” she said, adding with a chuckle, “But we’ve seen it a few times since.”
DeCicco said portraying Bass, especially having her alongside her at this event, was “extremely intimidating and overwhelming in a great way.” “It gives you a new ground-ness to it. I’m getting tingly thinking about it,” Dedicco said. “I experienced 9/11 first-hand,” she continued, noting she could see the Twin Towers from her college dorm. “To see your city crumble and to see it from the perspective of being a New Yorker, and now carrying it to Texas is really special.”
Contenti said even when he directed the show in Italy, the message was sound. “Even abroad this message was extremely clear to everybody, the ability to heal and what it can do in the darkest of times,” he said. “And now, to do it in this theater, which I really love, it’s an honor.”
Bass made history when she was promoted to the first female captain for American Airlines in 1986, making more history later that year when she captained the first all-female flight crew. A 1974 TCU graduate, growing up in Florida flying was all she could think about as her aunt would drive her in her Volkswagen and park by a fence near a local airport so they could watch the planes take off.
“I was one of those kids who always knew what I wanted to do,” Bass said. “I announced when I was 8 years old and I never lost that desire.” She recalled her first professional job as a pilot, flying bodies from Fort Worth to locations for a local mortician. She said the plane was so small there was no room for a casket, just a covered body. “I had to climb over a face to get to my seat,” she said. “I was so proud of that job, to get paid to fly is an incredible feeling.”
As for becoming the first female captain for AA, she humbly said, “It was just my turn. As far as being part of history, I never set out to have that happen.”
Nonetheless, it did, and she has done much more than simply accept that fact. For example, she and pilot Stephanie Wallach founded the International Society of Women Airline Pilots, which began as a group of women aviators but later changed into a program providing career support and mentorship to aspiring pilots.
Bass’ son now works for Austin Executive Airport and her daughter and son-in-law live in Dallas and are both pilots for AA.
And yes, Bass does plan to see the show again – and again. She has some advice for those audience members who might wonder about how dark it is, considering it involves 9/11. “There are a couple of sad moments, of course, but the way it is written it never allows you to dwell in those times,” she said. “It forces to something funny or something happy.”
For tickets or more information about the show, visit casamana.org.
