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Massport chief pledges accountability By Walter Robinson, Globe Staff, 9/16/2001 Virginia Buckingham, Massport's executive director, yesterday acknowledged that the authority's top officials would be held accountable if Logan's security procedures are found to have been more exploitable than those of other airports. ''The ongoing investigation is going to point out insufficiencies in the system at all airports, including Logan. If there are specific flaws that are unique to Logan, people here, including myself, will accept responsibility and whatever consequences there are,'' Buckingham said. She said she has not focused on whether her ''personal future'' is at stake, saying that her only priority is to return Logan to full operation under tighter security. Buckingham said it remains to be seen whether Logan's shortcomings were more serious than anywhere else. ''We do not yet know if there were security lapses unique to Logan, or something broader that affected every major airport, or whether it is possible there were no security lapses here at all. It is my belief that what happened here could have happened at any airport.'' Whatever the investigation uncovers, she said, she believes the hijackers selected Logan for other obvious reasons. ''Logan was picked because it is a large East Coast airport that had proximity to the targets and had loaded weapons in the form of full-fueled large aircraft ready to go early in the morning,'' she said. Asked whether she believes Massport is a victim of a search for scapegoats, she said, ''No. It is simply that everyone is trying to deal with and understand a tragedy of extraordinary proportions.'' This story ran on page A17 of the Boston Globe on 9/16/2001. © Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.