First Lady Is ‘Not Afraid to Fly,’ Takes Regular Flight to Prove It

Barbara Bush arrived here on a commercial flight today, shunning her usual government plane, to show the American public “I’m not afraid to fly” and that air travel is still safe.

The First Lady said she and President Bush had discussed the fact that air travel is dramatically down, apparently due to concerns about possible terrorism since the start of the Persian Gulf War.

“It just seemed like an important thing to do,” she said of her decision to fly on a regularly scheduled commercial airliner.

Mrs. Bush, referring to talk of possible anti-U.S. terrorism, said “I’m not going to be held hostage by this at all. I’m not afraid to fly. You want people to have confidence. We want people to feel good about flying.”

The First Lady was visiting a veterans hospital in Indianapolis and an Air Force base in Peru, Ind.

She was accompanied by her normal retinue of security agents, and several other police officers dotted the terminal as she walked to the gate at Washington National Airport for the early morning flight. She sat in the front row of the coach section. The 128-passenger plane was about half full.

The First Lady’s usual government jet was flying to Indianapolis to bring her back to Washington.

“I almost passed out when I saw her there,” said passenger Suzanne Horne of Alexandria, Va., who was flying to Phoenix via Indianapolis. She said she had earlier decided against a trip to London, in part because of the possibility of terrorism. “But seeing Barbara makes it better,” she said.

Mrs. Bush also created a stir in the Indianapolis terminal as her entourage strolled through. Onlookers stopped, gaped and applauded as they recognized her. She was greeted by Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), who walked through the airport with her.

Before departing, she played with an electronic dictionary-thesaurus that she said was a Valentine’s Day gift from her husband. Mrs. Bush said the President had left the electronic gadget in the car along with a valentine message that said, “I love ya.”

Mrs. Bush’s trip was one of a series of morale-building visits to military installations to meet with families of service people.