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THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING
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Logan reopens amid tight security Travelers are wary; traffic in air is light By Raphael Lewis , Globe Staff, 9/16/2001
Still, if ticket queues and runways remained mostly empty on the first day of Logan flight operations since Tuesday's hijackings, the airport was full of tension, sadness, and confusion.
Several would-be travelers, many of them stranded in Boston, showed up as early as 5 a.m. yesterday, only to find flights canceled or delayed for as long as 12 hours.
Others literally trembled at the thought of boarding a jet at the airport where, only four days earlier, 10 hijackers boarded two jets and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York.
''The closer you get to flying, the more frightened you get,'' said Moira Harris, traveling to her hometown in Scotland, which sits just 60 miles from Lockerbie, where Pan Am Flight 103 crashed 13 years ago after a terrorist's bomb blew it apart.
With frayed nerves the order of the day, there were three incidents. One flight at Logan was halted temporarily yesterday, when a passenger on a Delta jet bound for Atlanta aroused the suspicion of flight attendants.
According to airport officials and witnesses, the passenger attempted to move from coach to business class as the jet taxied toward the runway - when passengers are told to sit with seat belts fastened - at 9:15 a.m. The pilots, alerted to the commotion by the attendants, abruptly stopped the plane and soon afterward, passengers were ordered off, officials said. State Police searched the plane and interviewed the man, but later released him without pressing charges. The jet, and the remaining passengers, finally took off for Atlanta at noon, officials said.
Three unruly passengers were removed from a Northwest flight to Minneapolis. And a TWA flight from St. Louis was held on the tarmac while a man with the same name as one of the terrorist suspects was questioned briefly.
By day's end, only about 300 flights arrived at and departed from Logan, roughly one-quarter of the typical flight volume on Saturdays, said Jose Juves, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs the airport. The flights averaged only 40 percent capacity - even though the Saturday before the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, has traditionally been a busy one. About 50 percent of the flights normally scheduled for a Saturday managed to take off yesterday nationwide, airlines reported.
Juves said the lighter schedule would likely last several days, perhaps weeks, as airport and airlines alike adjust to the new security requirements imposed by Massport and the Federal Aviation Administration.
''I have serious doubts we will return to normal levels anytime soon,'' said Tom Kinton, director of aviation. ''This is a new era in civil aviation, and it's going to take some time to restore confidence in the system.''
Worcester Airport, which Massport also reopened yesterday, closed down for a few hours after an airline employee noticed a jet's door ajar, and officials could not determine who had last been aboard the plane.
Airline workers moved the plane away from the gate and a State Police bomb squad swept through but found nothing, Juves said. The airport opened again at 1:10 p.m. The passengers, meanwhile, were bused to the airport in Manchester, N.H., Juves said.
At Logan, travelers quickly got a taste of the new security restrictions, which have touched virtually every corner of the airport. Parking has been cut by a quarter because of new regulations forbidding parking within 300 feet of terminals. Curbside baggage checks and valet parking, too, were gone.
Travelers also had to present identification three times before boarding planes: once at the ticket counter, once at the gate, and again at the jetway prior to boarding.
Also, security guards passed hand-held metal detectors over all passengers, whether or not they set off the walk-through metal detectors. In addition, passengers were forced to place the contents of their pockets in baskets that security officers examined with X-ray machines, which rarely happened at Logan prior to Tuesday.
People who came to Logan to see off travelers were not allowed beyond security checkpoints, either; only ticketed passengers were allowed in the waiting areas by the gates. And many were picked at random at ticket counters to have their bags opened and searched by law enforcement agents.
''They opened my purse and my suitcase and even some little gift boxes I have with glass fish in them,'' said Cecilia Lindberg, who has been trying to get home to Enumclaw, Wash., since Tuesday morning, when her flight was canceled.
Lindberg, who passed the morning reading ''No Ordinary Time,'' a biography of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the World War II years, said she didn't mind the new security measures. On the contrary, she said, they were comforting.
''I didn't mind one bit,'' Lindberg said of the luggage search. ''The girl tried very hard to put my things back nicely.''
For those unnerved by the new security landscape, Massport sent out an army of ''greeters'' to help direct passengers, answer questions, and just smile.
Like Adeleine Kilduff, normally a secretary at Massport, all of the greeters had volunteered, saying it was their way of contributing to the nation's effort at pulling together.
''There are people who are distraught and I want to help them any way I can,'' Kilduff said.
With so few flights leaving Boston yesterday, Massport continued its efforts to find housing for stranded travelers. Since Tuesday, 42 such travelers had been placed in the homes of 37 families who had called Massport offering to help out. Another 100 families stand at the ready, said Massport's community liaison, Dorothy Steele.
''The outpouring and the kindness of people has been astonishing,'' Steele said.
Many who came to Logan yesterday went out of their way to express their gratitude to the federal, state, and local law enforcement officers patrolling the airport, some of whom wielded M-16 assault rifles.
One hundred federal marshals were assigned to Logan, and a normal State Police force of 80 yesterday was increased to 130.
Even with the heightened security, though, some travelers yesterday said they were simply unprepared emotionally to take a plane so soon after the terrorist attacks.
Naomi Silberg bought a ticket with Southwest Airlines on Monday to fly to her parents' home in Maryland for Rosh Hashana. But yesterday, she instead opted for a seven-hour Amtrak train ride to Baltimore from South Station.
''Everyone told me it's probably the safest time to fly,'' Silberg said. ''But I imagined myself sitting on that plane and I couldn't do it.''
Globe Staff Correspondent Joanna Massey contributed to this report.
This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 9/16/2001.
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