First Flight Since Katrina Brings Travelers Together

When the pilot of Northwest Airlines Flight 947 advised passengers Tuesday morning that they might be able to see the devastation of the Gulf Coast from the left side of the plane, Katie Swing jumped up and raced across the aisle.

She had her pick of windows. On the first commercial flight to land at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport since Hurricane Katrina -- and one of three inbound flights that day -- the plane carried only 25 passengers (it can seat 148) and a crew of five. The passengers had come from all over the United States, converging at Northwest’s Memphis, Tenn., hub for the leg into New Orleans.

“I’ve heard the military’s not letting residents into most of the city, but I had to get on this plane,” said Swing, 35, making her first trip home after fleeing to Texas on the eve of the storm.

“I don’t know what’s happened to my home, to my neighbors and friends,” Swing said. “I’m tired of watching TV, trying to find a picture of my street. If I have to sneak down there, I will. I’m dying to see what’s left.”

As New Orleans begins to inch its way toward recovery, the few passengers of Flight 947 underscored the burdens that this city’s residents will face now and in the months to come.

Military officers sat stoic and silent. Scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention waded through stacks of infectious disease reports. Building contractors wondered whether work conditions would be too horrendous at any price. Businesspeople, frantic about the health of their companies, worried about employees who were still missing.

Pressing her nose to the chilled glass, Swing, an obstetrician, scanned the landscape for any hint of her home. At first, as the plane approached from the west, all she could see were flooded streets and marshland littered with shredded trees. Then the first few buildings came into view. None of them had roofs.

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Flight 947 and the two other flights that landed Tuesday are a small fraction of the 180 commercial and cargo flights that had typically come through this Southern aviation hub each day.

But at least it was a start.

“I’m just happy to get on a plane,” said Jonathan Massey, 34, a Dallas-based architect. “It makes my job that much easier.”

His employer, Corgan Associates Inc., had been working with New Orleans aviation officials to figure out ways to expand the airport when Katrina hit Aug. 29.

On a whim, Massey perused a few websites to see whether any nearby airports had available seats. Flight 947 popped up.

“I called Northwest because I figured that the flight had to be full or it was a mistake,” he said.

He woke up Tuesday at 5 a.m. His plane left Dallas at 6:30 a.m. for Memphis.

Tina Napier, 39, also was on the flight, sitting a dozen seats away. As a regional director for retailer Big Lots Inc., she was going to check on the chain’s eight stores in New Orleans.

She planned to return home to Dallas by Friday, but this first trip to New Orleans could stretch out. All the area store managers had checked in, but more than 10% of the company’s hourly staff was missing.

Flight 947 was nearly empty, so the passengers could sit anywhere they wanted to, but they ended up clustered near one another. After the plane took off from Memphis, they struck up conversations, peering over headrests and leaning across the aisle to make eye contact.

“I’m heading to the Parc St. Charles Hotel. A contractor who’s a good client wants to see if we can help them rebuild it,” Ken Kerley, co-owner of a construction restoration company, told Sara Russell, a CDC epidemic intelligence service officer.

“I’m sure I can get a crew to come to New Orleans. I’m not sure if I can keep them there, what with all this talk about disease,” said Kerley, 44, who lives in Kansas City, Mo.

Russell, sitting a few rows behind him, nodded in understanding. “I’m heading there to help monitor for outbreaks of diseases,” said Russell, 30, who lives in Oklahoma City.

“I tried to get a bunch of vaccines yesterday before I left. My doctor had tetanus but not diphtheria,” Kerley said. “I went to the county health department, but they’d already closed. I even went to one of those doc-in-a-box places in the mall, but they don’t do vaccines. I’m worried.”

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All conversation stopped when, about 20 minutes before landing, the pilot suggested that the travelers move to the left side of the plane. What had been an informal, almost friendly setting grew instantly tense.

Thick gray clouds faded, giving glimpses of the landscape below. The deep-blue waters of Lake Pontchartrain came into view, and concrete pylons stuck out like tiny rotten teeth. Rivers and waterways crisscrossed the land. Debris covered the marsh in a blanket of green and brown.

“Doesn’t it look like it’s all flooded down there?” asked Tim Gajewski, 42, a construction project manager who was returning to New Orleans to pick up his equipment and head home to Brownsville, Tenn.

“You don’t normally see so many broken doors and torn-off roofs out in the swamp,” replied Pat Gerten, 52, who works for a New Orleans-area freight firm.

Gajewski looked at Gerten in surprise. “Have you been to the city yet? Have you seen how bad it is?” Gajewski asked.

Gerten shook his head: “I can’t imagine how bad downtown must be.”

Swing began to grow pale. She had taken the last flight out of New Orleans before the hurricane and packed enough clothes for the three days that she’d expected to stay with friends in Dallas. A family emergency delayed her return, as had concerns about military blockades and reports of looters in the neighborhood where she’s lived for seven years.

She’ll have a place to sleep at the East Jefferson General Hospital in Metairie, which is next to her practice. Besides her clothes, she’d packed 50 new sets of medical scrubs for the staff.

After the plane landed at 10:59 a.m., the pilot taxied past dozens of Air Force planes. Each gate sat empty, except A-1, where the ground crew waited for the flight. As soon as the plane stopped, Swing squeezed her way to the exit.

“Thanks for flying with us and good luck,” flight attendant Caroline Buffaloe said.

Swing tried to smile. Her blues eyes tearing, she left the plane and headed to baggage claim.