Attacks Halt Passenger, Cargo Flights

U.S. air travel came to an abrupt halt today after unprecedented terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, clogging airports nationwide and stranding the more than 1.5 million people who ride commercial and chartered jetliners each day.

Aircraft flown by the U.S. Postal Service and cargo carriers, which daily move the nation’s mail and billions of dollars worth of goods around the country, also were grounded after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered U.S. skies cleared and airports closed as a precaution.

Federal authorities also quickly diverted international flights bound for the U.S. to other airports, mainly in Canada.

The astonishing shutdown provided one of the most tangible ways Americans across the country felt a direct ripple effect of the attacks on the East Coast. Depending on how long the shutdown lasts, it also could have a damaging impact on the economy as goods, services and business and leisure travel that are all dependent on the air-travel system are suspended.

The airline industry and the airports--notably Los Angeles International Airport--quickly became a focal point, owing to the terrorists’ apparent use of four commercial jetliners to carry out the suicide missions. All the planes were carrying passengers to California.

American Airlines, the nation’s largest airline, confirmed that two of its flights were seized and used in the attacks. One was Flight 11, a Boeing 767 flying from Boston to Los Angeles. There were unconfirmed reports that this flight was one of the two that hit the World Trade Center in New York. The other was Flight 77, a Boeing 757 flying from Washington’s Dulles International Airport to Los Angeles.

United Airlines also lost two jetliners, including Flight 175 from Boston’s Logan International Airport to Los Angeles, a Boeing 767. That jet might have been the one that crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, although that could not be immediately confirmed.

United Flight 93, a Boeing 757 jumbo jet en route to San Francisco from Newark, N.J., crashed 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

“We are horrified by these tragic events,” said American Airlines Chairman Donald Carty.

Stifling LAX’s operations alone, even for a short while, has a huge impact on Southern California. It’s the world’s third-busiest airport in terms of passengers handled--more than 200,000 people a day--and its annual economic impact on the region amounts to more than $60 billion.

Mary Jersin, a spokeswoman for Hong Kong-based carrier Cathay Pacific Airways, said all international flights to LAX and elsewhere in the United States were canceled. Those Cathay Pacific flights already in the air were diverted to Canada or their closest “tech stop,” which in the case of a Hong Kong-New York flight would be Anchorage.

American Airlines pilot Larry McCalley, 58, of Mission Viejo arrived at Orange County’s John Wayne Airport expecting to work. But he, like other pilots, was sent home. McCalley said that until about 10 months ago, the ill-fated American Flight 11 was his flight.

“It just seems a shame that the world has to come to this . . . all the victims,” McCalley said, visibly stunned. “You think about it, but you look at the probability of something like this happening [and] you don’t really expect it.”

John Wayne Airport officials closed that facility about 9 a.m., although few passengers were there at the time. No flights had taken off, and about 20 jets sat empty and silent at their gates or on the tarmac.

Yolanda Perez, a spokeswoman for the airport, said the facility’s secured areas had been evacuated about 7 a.m.--when the first flights leave John Wayne--and cars were barred from parking curbside. Security was increased, with Irvine police adding to the usual Orange County Sheriff’s Department contingent assigned to the airport.

Perez said the airport normally handles about 270 departures and arrivals involving about 6,000 passengers a day.

Xavier Jorquiera, 41, of Rancho Santa Margarita had already boarded an American Airlines flight to Mexico City about 6 a.m. when the order came to evacuate the plane. He wasn’t told the reason until passengers were back in the terminal.

“It’s horrible. It’s a tragedy,” he said.

Travel and airline experts said the tragic events could result in devastating short-term losses for major U.S. carriers and may lead to higher ticket prices as the companies pass on the costs of tightened security measures to consumers.

Several experts said many airlines’ contracts require them to offer full refunds to travelers afraid to fly in the wake of the terrorist attacks, and predicted the airlines would see a drop-off in ticket sales amounting to of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The tragedy today is known as a force majeure incident out of the airlines’ control; they can include such events as government orders, bad weather or a hijacking. In such cases, travelers are entitled to a refund or to accept alternate flights the airlines offer, said Terry Trippler, president of the consulting firm Trippler & Associates in Minneapolis.

“Our phone calls are down 80% to 90%” this morning,” said Tom Parsons, chief executive of Bestfares.com. “And the calls the airlines are getting are, ‘How can I not fly?’ ”

Southwest Airlines, the low-fare carrier based in Dallas, said all of its flights were safe and on the ground as of 8:05 a.m. PDT today. The airline said it will not operate its scheduled flights for the rest of the day.

Parsons said the attacks could lead to a wholesale review of security measures, particularly those for domestic travelers.

“I think in America, we’ve never had the true fear of travel like you do in Tel Aviv,” he said. “Look at El Al [the Israeli airline]. They may inspect your bag three times before it gets on the plane. You go to Europe, you see the dogs and the guns in the airports. I think high security we’ve talked about, we’ve had opportunities to bring in good equipment, but we’ve never spent the money on it, not on the domestic side.”

But he noted that the terrorists who attacked key targets today evidently didn’t need to smuggle bombs aboard planes in order to inflict unimaginable damage.

A multi-ton airliner is “better than any weapon I can think of,” Parsons said. “With these planes and their fuel tanks full, you had a flying bomb.”

Travel experts suggested a permanent increase in airline security has been long overdue.

“In the past, passengers have agreed in surveys that they would pay more for security,” Trippler said. “How much more remains to be seen. They’ve never been told how much more. Will they pay $10 a ticket? Five dollars a ticket? We as consumers have done a lot of complaining on airline lines, but we may have to go back to where everyone is checked in” in person without such timesavers as e-ticketing.

“I’ve never seen anything like this, where we shut down everything,” Trippler said. “It’s going to be worse than any blizzard we’ve ever had or any storm we’ve ever had. People are going to have to be patient. Patient as hell.”

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Staff writers Evelyn Iritani in Los Angeles and Kimi Yoshino in Orange County contributed to this story.

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This story was published this afternoon as part of a special 8-page extra edition wrap focusing on today’s tragic events. Entitled “Terrorism Hits the U.S.,” the wrap focused on the most important events of the day, the history of World Trade Center, terrorism and other safety concerns. It wrapped today’s second daily and was distributed to major single copy retailers and high traffic commuter areas by early afternoon.

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