How were the Sept. 11 hijackers able to skip through security at Logan International Airport to commandeer not one, but two airplanes? That was one of the key questions Boston Globe reporters sought to answer following the horrific events that ended with the four planes crashed, the World Trade Center in ruins, and thousands dead. This much was known about Logan already: The Massachusetts Port Authority, the public agency that runs the airport, was a patronage haven, filled with former state officials, relatives and cronies.
Articles in the days following the crashes hammered that point home. The suspicion was that security at Logan was weak. There was anecdotal proof—passengers who walked onto planes while accidentally carrying along knives, scissors and corkscrews—but no hard numbers.