|
|
THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING
|
TRAVEL Official says Logan may reopen today
By Thomas C. Palmer Jr. and Raphael Lewis, Globe Staff, 9/14/2001
In a teleconference, Massachusetts Port Authority director Virginia Buckingham told Senator Edward M. Kennedy and most of the state's eight congressmen that the airport had met all of the new, strict federal security guidelines established this week.
But, she told the lawmakers, she also wanted to clear the airport's new procedures with nearly 40 federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities who convened at Logan yesterday for nearly two hours. The group, which included the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the US Marshal's Service, made suggestions that Massport officials began to address immediately, said spokesman Jose Juves.
US Representative Michael Capuano, whose district includes East Boston, where Logan sits, said the delegation seemed uniformly impressed that appropriate steps were being taken to ensure that passengers arriving at the reopened airport would be safe. That, he said, dwarfed opening quickly, especially since two of the four jets hijacked Tuesday began their journeys at Logan.
''I'm satisfied that in the circumstances we're in, the measures are good, and that they are erring on the side of caution,'' Capuano said.
Logan, where 37 airlines operate, was one of a minority of the nation's airports that remained closed yesterday, as the Federal Aviation Administraion authorized airlines to take flight for the first time since Tuesday.
A limited number of passenger flights did take off elsewhere in the nation yesterday, but most were planes that had been diverted Tuesday. By the end of the day the skies were filling with empty passenger jets making their way back to airline hubs.
At Logan, some jetliners took off, the first a Continental Airlines jet at 2:30 p.m. bound for Newark, but none carried ticketed passengers. The planes, officials said, were simply being sent to various hubs, such as Newark, where Continental sent more than 30 of its jets to prepare for today.
By midnight last night, American Airlines expected to operate about 70 flights compared with its normal 2,500 daily.
A United Air Lines spokesperson said the company would begin flying with a reduced schedule at 8 a.m. today.
United will have a limited number of flights through the weekend, with priority given to flights that were diverted on Tuesday.
Likewise, Delta Air Lines officials said they began a limited number of regional flights yesterday. ''We will continue to build our service going into the weekend,'' said Cindi Kurczewski.
She said Delta is also repositioning planes so that normal service can be resumed Monday. Some Delta planes were on international flights and were diverted to Canada on Tuesday.
Rick Weintraub, a US Airways spokesman, expected about 200 jets to take off by the end of yesterday. ''If all goes well, we'll have a substantially larger number'' today, he said. ''On a normal day we'll run 2,500 jet flights.''
About 330 airports were on a list of those approved to open for commercial flights by the Federal Aviation Administration late yesterday, including T.F. Green in Providence, Hanscom Airfield in Bedford, and Manchester, N.H.
Two Delta flights, to Cincinnati and Atlanta, made it out of T.F. Green yesterday, which normally has 128 departures daily. For the few who made it out, ambivalence was the predominant mood.
''I'm quite apprehensive. But with so much new security, I feel hopeful I'll be safe,'' said Amy Rakestraw, 33, before boarding the 6:30 p.m. flight to Atlanta. ''I'm lucky to get home.''
Delays will almost be a certainty, given the unprecedented grounding of the nation's commercial air fleet. Late yesterday, all flights to the New York area, including Newark, were grounded because of an FBI investigative operation at Kennedy. And terminals at LaGuardia and in Orlando, Fla., were evacuated yesterday during brief bomb scares.
Speaking at an event in Randolph yesterday, Acting Governor Jane Swift said, ''Our entire national aviation system is doing a gut check. When a tragedy of this enormity happens it is obvious to all of us there is a problem.''
One airport that is not scheduled to open anytime soon is Reagan National Airport.
Prized for its location just across the Potomac River from Washington, the Virginia airfield has an approach and takeoff pattern that routes aircraft between the Pentagon and the White House and almost directly over the Lincoln Memorial. Authorities now realize that may be a mistake, said a person who attended yesterday's meeting of FAA administrator Jane Garvey and members of the New England congressional delegation, since there would be little time to react if a plane suddenly veered off course.
The delay in opening Logan apparently was not related to the ongoing criminal investigation into the hijackings of two planes that left Boston Tuesday morning.
The new FAA precautions included removing all knives from restaurants and shops at the airport as well as a conducting a comprehensive evacuation and sweep of Logan's 1.2 million square feet of terminal space, which was completed yesterday afternoon.
They also call for increasing security inspections and random identification checks of employees, reducing access to secure and operations areas, banning curbside check-ins, and developing a plan to make employees aware of new security procedures.
This story ran on page A30 of the Boston Globe on 9/14/2001.
|
