Comparing foot traffic
Like other CAR reporters across the country, I turned to the FAA enforcement data in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to see what I could find about our local airport.
Going back five years, I found that the Lehigh Valley International Airport had seen relatively little action. That smelled right, considering that it's a relatively small airport in a quiet corner of Pennsylvania.
However, two incidents stood out. In two separate tests conducted within three months of each other in 1999, FAA inspectors sneaked contraband through a passenger-security checkpoint. The entries for the smuggled objects were obscure, but others on the NICAR list had already decoded them as a fake bomb and a fake hand grenade.
Those incidents alone made for an interesting story, but before I started writing I had to put them into context by looking at similar lapses at other airports.
Those incidents alone made for an interesting story, but before I started writing I had to put them into context by looking at similar lapses at other airports. Because the Lehigh Valley International Airport is pretty small, I didn't think it fair to compare it to larger nearby airports in Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey. But I didn't have a clue about how to choose similar airports.
We all know how helpful the FAA has been in working with reporters lately, so needless to say, my call to flaks there for guidance went unanswered.
Enplanement data
I turned again to the NICAR mailing list, where some discussion of airport enplanement data caught my interest. I sent out a message asking for help and I soon had 1999 Department of Transportation enplanement data for all airports in the United States showing the number of passengers boarding planes and passing through.
I used Excel to sort the airports by the enplanement numbers. I eyeballed where our airport fell as compared to others and decided that a spread of 20,000 enplanements below and above our airport would be fair for a rough comparison. Others used different approaches.
Jeff Thomas of The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.) chose airports with enplanements from 50 to 150 percent of his local airport, giving him a range of 37 airports, plenty for a fair comparison. Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette, chose a 25 percent range above and below his airport. He ran the results by an airport administrator, who confirmed that he had a good set of airports comparable to his. David Washburn, of The San Diego Union-Tribune, grabbed the largest 30 airports, of which his ranked 28th.
Comparing airports
My method left me with 20 airports. I used the Internet to look at information on each and eliminated a handful that obviously served a very different purpose than our airport, such as one in Nevada that appeared to be used exclusively by tourists into the Grand Canyon area.
Finally, I did the shoe-leather reporting necessary to fill in the gaps. I went out to the local airport to talk to personnel and get a better feel for exactly where the incidents occurred. I also called on security experts to give me some perspective about how the FAA conducts the tests.
On Sept. 21, we ran a front-page story that came as a shock to many readers, not to mention other reporters and editors, who were stunned that FAA inspectors were able to smuggle contraband into airports on such a regular basis.
James Wilkerson can be reached by e-mail at james.wilkerson@mcall.com