Escape to Freedom - Luben Boykov & Elena Popova

Countless Journeys

Gander, Newfoundland was made famous internationally with the hit Broadway musical Come From Away. The Tony Award-winning blockbuster centered around how the town handled the massive influx of stranded airline passengers impacted by the grounding of flights after the September 11th terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001. What a lot of people don’t realize is that Gander was able to handle that crisis in part because of its experience as the site of defections of tens of thousands of refugees from Eastern Bloc countries during the Soviet era. Some days more than 300 people would claim refugee status in Gander. More than 3000 Bulgarian refugees defected while they were en route through the Gander International Airport. And among them were artists Luben Boykov and Elena Popova. In 1990 the young couple was just starting a family in Sophia, Bulgaria when they made the life-changing decision to board a plane for Cuba under the guise of going there to a holiday. But their real plan was to defect once the plane landed in Gander to refuel. In this final episode of season three of Countless Journeys, Luben and Elena share their harrowing tale of fighting their way off that flight, uncertain of what lay ahead. “The plane started descending,” says Luben Boykov. “We had no idea where we were. Because no information was given, no PA announcements, nothing.” “I was choking. I had tears in my eyes. I couldn't breathe,” recalls Elena Popova. “I was trying desperately to take a breath of air and I did, and it was minus 20. I could feel the cold air, but it was the freshest breath of air I ever took.” The couple would go on to make Newfoundland their home for close to thirty years, where they raised their daughters and created art that is among gallery and private collections throughout the world.