Unease And Confidence Among Travelers On 9/11
SANTA ANA (AP) — It's early in the morning on the 10th anniversary of the nation's worst terrorist attacks, and John Wayne Airport starts to hum with the mundane rituals of airline travel.
Passengers occupy themselves with smartphones, laptops and fast-food breakfast. Travelers in line for security whip out driver's licenses and boarding passes. Flight attendants call out names of passengers to check in at the podium. Someone left a belt at the X-ray. Could you please claim it?
Yet the date's significance is palpable, here and at other airports around the world.
In Los Angeles, Kim Pinney, who operates her own daycare center in Virginia, booked the latest flight home possible from a friend's wedding in the belief that would minimize her chances of falling victim to a terrorist attack.
"If something was going to happen, it would happen during the day and then it would be over," said Pinney, 39. Since her flight is at 11 p.m. Sunday, she added, "Technically, I'm flying for an hour on 9/11 because it will be 9/12" for most of the flight.
The attacks altered the landscape of air travel, introducing an era of body scans and 3-ounce restrictions on carry-on liquids. But Americans from coast to coast were flying Sunday, some because they had no choice, others with an air of defiance and a determination to appear unfazed by the threat of terrorism.
John Hollenbeck, 49, of Canyon Lake, Calif., was flying for business exactly 10 years ago, but his flight was canceled by the attacks. He was flying again Sunday.
"I have no concerns over terrorism. Not that I have no concerns over terrorism -- I have no concern that security's inadequate," he said.
It's hard to know exactly how many people were traveling Sunday because airlines don't release information on how many passengers travel on a given day, and none offered any information on Sept. 11 traffic trends when asked by The Associated Press.
But George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com, said major U.S. airlines have traditionally run one-day-only sales on the anniversary of the attacks, indicating they expect fewer passengers to fly. Those sales haven't been offered this year, perhaps because Sunday is typically the busiest day of the week to fly, he said.
Dr. Pam O'Hara, a pediatric oncologist whose husband is a retired New York firefighter who responded to the attacks on the World Trade Center, was returning to Hazlet, N.J., with her daughter, daughter-in-law and granddaughter from a nursing conference in Anaheim. She said she was apprehensive enough about flying on the anniversary that she avoided any flights from the Los Angeles airport and Kennedy Airport, figuring that they would be more desirable targets for terrorists.
"I would have preferred probably to fly tomorrow," O'Hara said, but she said her husband reassured her.
(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
