Extra security means long waits at airports
Guards armed with rifles stood watch in several airports, and the governors of California, New York and Massachusetts said they were sending National Guard troops to bolster security.
The hours-old ban on all liquids and gels from carry-on luggage left little option but to throw away juice boxes, bags full of makeup, perfume and bottles of liquor and wine. Baby formula and medicines were exempt but had to be inspected.
“They’re ridiculous, but that’s part of the price you pay for travelling during a time like this,” Julius Ibraheem, 26, from Chicago, said as he stared at the long lines leading toward the checkpoints at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.
At Baltimore/Washington Airport, security workers opened every carry-on bag that passed through one terminal, and all the morning flights there were delayed.
Lines were longer than usual at San Francisco International Airport, and red plastic bins were quickly filling up with cups of coffee and water bottles.
Kathy McMahon, 49, of Mill Valley, California, was helping her daughter stuff sunscreen, makeup, contact lens solution and other liquids into every corner of her half-dozen suitcases to be checked in as she headed off to college.
At Kennedy Airport in New York, Sonia Gomes De Mesquita, 40, waited nervously to board a British Airways flight home to London. Her family had urged her not to fly.
“You wake up and what are you going to do?” she said. “The flight is today.”
At Newark Airport in New Jersey, the security checkpoint line for Terminal B, home to most international flights, stretched the entire length of the terminal — roughly six football fields — and was barely moving.
Phil Orlandella, spokesman for Boston’s Logan International Airport said rather than packing toiletries in carry-ons, airport officials asked passengers to put them in checked baggage, which is screened by equipment that can detect explosives.
Chicago aviation commissioner Nuria Fernandez said the tighter restriction will remain in place for at least 12 to 72 hours.
Bill Poland, 61, was flying from San Francisco to New York with his wife and son. He held up a tube of lip balm and shouted to a security officer who told him he couldn’t bring it on the plane. He said he recently had a cancerous growth removed from his lip and the anti-bacterial ointment was necessary treatment.
“In an hour or two my lips are going to start burning and turning purple. And I’ve got five to six hours on a plane without this,” he said.
AIRLINES across Europe cancelled flights bound for Heathrow Airport yesterday, while some airports offered to take on diverted traffic after British authorities said they had thwarted a terror attack aimed at aircraft flying from Britain to the US.
The block on incoming traffic at Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, applied to flights of three hours or less — effectively stopping most flights from Europe.
At Schiphol airport, KLM spokesman Hugo Baas said the airline had cancelled five flights to Heathrow.
“The backlog for people travelling to and through London is in the hours. That’s going to create a ripple effect throughout the day, and increase as long as the airport remains closed,” he said.
He said KLM was diverting to other London airports, and substituting larger planes where possible to increase the number of people reaching their destination.
Frankfurt International airport, Europe’s second-busiest, said it was prepared to take any flights diverted from Heathrow, but none had landed by mid-afternoon. The airport already has more than 1,400 planes landing and taking off daily, spokesman Wolfgang Schwalm said.
Schwalm said security measures had been increased but that no ban on hand luggage had been put into place at Frankfurt.
Austrian Airlines said a Heathrow-bound flight from Vienna was diverted to Brussels and that two other afternoon flights would be cancelled if Heathrow remained closed.
A nine-year-old girl at Warsaw’s airport told Polish television that she was not sure if she would be able to get to London to see her mother.
“My mom is waiting for me there,” the girl, who only gave her first name, Klaudia, told Poland’s TVN24. “I am very worried because my mom does not know about that yet.”
In Berlin, EasyJet, British Airways, AirBerlin and Ryanair cancelled their London-bound flights.
Air France cancelled all morning flights to Heathrow because the airport was “saturated”, an Air France spokeswoman said.
Lufthansa said its morning and early afternoon flights to Heathrow were cancelled. No other Lufthansa flights were affected.
All flights from Athens to airports in the London area were cancelled.
Spain’s Iberia cancelled four flights to Heathrow, and Italian carrier Alitalia stopped six flights through London — four linking the city with Rome and two with Milan.
SAS, the flagship carrier for Sweden, Norway and Denmark, cancelled its flights to Heathrow from Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo.
France’s prime minister and interior minister convened urgent security meetings.
Air France security said they were following regular protocol, though a number of military vehicles were seen arriving at airports.
Meanwhile, the Eurostar train that passes under the English Channel saw 2,500 extra bookings yesterday, said spokeswoman Leslie Rettalack. The added reservations came from Eurostar terminals in Paris, London and Brussels.
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