JWA remains closed

Paul Clinton

JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT -- While flights are expected to resume today on a

limited basis at the nation’s airports, it remained unclear late

Wednesday whether John Wayne would be among those open for business.

The airport resembled a ghost town again Wednesday, one day after

terrorist attacks in New York City and near Washington, D.C., shook the

country’s confidence and caused a shutdown of the nation’s air-travel

system for the first time ever.

As travelers waited Wednesday for the airport to reopen, officials

from John Wayne’s 10 commercial airlines, airport staff and security

busied themselves with preparations for the eventual return to normalcy.

Some flights did leave the airport Wednesday, mainly private charter

planes hired by the federal government to transport emergency personnel

to New York and Washington, D.C., to assist with rescue efforts.

Before John Wayne can reopen for commercial flights, it must comply

with an 11-point security directive issued by the Federal Aviation

Administration on Wednesday.

“We’re not going to be able to fly until we have met the security

measures we have been asked to implement,” airport spokeswoman Yolanda

Perez said. “It will be a very slow start-up process.”

Changes that must be implemented include:

* discontinuance of check-in services from the airport’s curb or at

other locations off airport property;

* implementation of thorough searches of all airplanes before

takeoff;

* restriction of only ticketed passengers to the boarding areas;

* a ban on any knife or cutting instrument on a flight;

* closer monitoring of vehicles near the airport terminal.

The FAA has not stated a day or time when it will fully drop the

“group stop” imposed at 6:49 a.m. Tuesday.

However, United Airlines, in a statement on the company’s Web site,

announced it was set to begin “limited scheduled operations” at 10 a.m.

Pacific time today after completing flights diverted Tuesday.

No diverted flights were on their way to John Wayne Airport on

Tuesday, which was witness to the worst terrorist attack ever on U.S.

soil. Four commercial planes were hijacked. Two were flown into New

York’s World Trade Center Twin Towers, which later collapsed, killing

still unknown numbers.

A third plane crashed into the Pentagon, just across the Potomac River

from the nation’s capital. Hundreds are believed dead there. The fourth

plane crashed in a rural part of Pennsylvania.

It is believed all four planes were hijacked by three to

fiveknife-wielding assailants.

About 250 flights arrive and depart at John Wayne on an average day.