Fighting the airport
By Alan Judd and Maurice Tamman, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ben DeCosta runs the world's busiest airport, Atlanta's Hartsfield International. So on Sept. 26, when The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Hartsfield's history of security breaches, DeCosta was not happy.
In DeCosta's view, the story, based on the Federal Aviation Administration's database of security violations, did nothing more than confirm the worst fears of air travelers days after terrorists hijacked four planes to attack New York and Washington.
What's more, he said, "they have no right to have their worst fears confirmed."
DeCosta's comment typified the official reaction to unsettling post-Sept. 11 revelations about the safety of the nation's air travel system. After the Journal-Constitution and many other newspapers wrote stories off the database of violations, the FAA quickly pulled it from its Web site.
(This shouldn't have been surprising; a few years ago, after several stories appeared on the alarming rate at which airport security screeners failed to detect fake bombs and other weapons planted by the FAA, the government declared the information to be "security sensitive" and restricted public access.)
Aviation focus changed
Before Sept. 11, reporting on commercial aviation often focused on matters of convenience: flight delays and limits on carry-on baggage.
After Sept. 11, when news organizations began examining the far more important issues of safety and security, the new scrutiny made the people who run the air travel system more than a little uncomfortable.
In Atlanta, DeCosta virtually accused a reporter of being unpatriotic for reporting on the security breaches.
Noting that passenger loads on airliners had dropped by 40 percent the week after air travel resumed, DeCosta said: "What the public needs is more than your newspaper gives them. You have a special responsibility not to exaggerate and exacerbate an already bad situation. Get people to focus, instead of scaring the hell out of them."
Not that officials were going to make our reporting on anything at the airport easy.
Barricades to reporters
Reporting about the airport required access to concourses and terminals, but airport officials would not allow the press access beyond the security gates leading to the terminal trains and gates.
In the week after the attack, we attempted to document how little business was being done at what we routinely describe as the world's busiest airport. That required getting behind the security checkpoint.
We solved the problem by purchasing unrestricted full fare tickets. The reporters, however, had to be careful. The reporters needed to order the ticket online for a flight within a few hours of the period they would be working behind the lines.
The reporters did not check in, but presented a printout of the Web page ticket confirmation page. In one case, the ticket cost $987.
After that, it was through the metal detectors, past the security guards and out to the terminals.
It's quite remarkable that reporters were considered such a security risk that they were not allowed out to the terminals. Meanwhile, any shlub with a home computer and a printer could re-create a confirmation Web page, print it out and have complete, unfettered access to the terminals.
After passing in and out of the terminals at will, the reporters had to get in line at a ticket counter, before their flight was scheduled to depart, and get a refund.
Airline employees
With passengers jittery about flight in the days that followed the reopening of airports, it was clear airline employees were worried. While airport officials were useless, airline employees were polite, friendly, even plaintive.
In one case, a Delta employee behind one counter pleaded with a reporter not to cancel his round trip ticket to Orlando.
He asked several questions about why the reporter was not flying.
Do you know flying is safe? Do you know there are no delays? Yes it was expensive, but why not go?
Then he squinted suspiciously at the black-haired, bearded reporter. He waited a few seconds, before pressing a key on his keyboard. A receipt printed out.
"You will receive your credit within 30 days," he said.
Maurice Tamman can be reached by e-mail at mtamman@ajc.com.
Alan Judd can be reached by e-mail at ajudd@ajc.com