Amid Caution and Crowds, Airports Struggle to Recover

Flying didn’t seem to get much easier for most U.S. travelers Saturday, with bomb scares, packed terminals, new security rules and spotty flight schedules plaguing efforts to return a sense of normality to air travel.

Airport security announcements about not leaving baggage unattended in terminals--an all but ignored staple of airport routine before Tuesday--produced hosts of sightings by passengers and ground crew members on the lookout for every stray suitcase and package. There were at least 25 responses by security at Los Angeles International Airport alone.

In one instance, the LAX bomb squad was called after nervous workers unloading baggage from an American Eagle flight from Bakersfield spotted a square football-size package that turned out to be a light generator.

“Everybody is on high alert here,” said airport spokesman Paul A. Haney. “There are always a certain number of unattended parcels and bags, and that is continuing as the airport ramps up.”

Hundreds of people were evacuated from the Virgin Atlantic terminal in the middle of the afternoon after an unattended purse was spotted.

“It makes me feel very vulnerable and more uneasy,” said Margaret Aston, who was trying to get back home to England, after the rapid evacuation. “But at the same time, I feel more confident that [police] are keeping their eyes open.”

And despite warnings to passengers not to carry sharp items, security workers Saturday confiscated and destroyed many nail files, small knives and scissors.

“We need to get the word out to people,” Haney said, “to not bring sharp instruments of any kind, length or size to the airport. They will be confiscated and destroyed.”

The elimination of private auto traffic within the airport’s terminal loop added to the difficulties for many passengers. Parking Lot B at LAX had the look of a refugee station, with tents, folding chairs and portable toilets for passengers to use while waiting to board shuttle buses.

Still, authorities saw improvement over the previous two days. Delays boarding buses were 15 to 20 minutes, compared to an hour the day before, as those without tickets or confirmations were turned away.

“We are starting to figure out how to make this work long term,” Haney said. “This may drive people to make a lot more use of public transportation to get to and from the airport, and that has been a goal of ours for a long time.”

Flight operations at LAX were running at about 45% of normal Saturday, with about 900 planes taking off. By midweek, airport officials expect operations to climb to about 1,700 departures daily, 80% of what they had been before the hijackings.

Many passengers still were failing to heed warnings not to show up at terminals without reservations and tickets in hand. Once inside the terminal--something of a logistical feat itself--would-be travelers waited in lines for as long as an hour, but most took it in stride.

“If people stop flying and live life afraid, [the terrorists] have won,” said 58-year-old Aylene Kovary of Los Angeles. She was at the lot waiting to meet her daughter Ilona, stranded in Seattle since Tuesday.

But USC student Jeff Cho, 20, who was seeing off a friend from Seattle, said the airport scene had convinced him to curtail air travel, at least for a while.

“It’s a difficult thing to decide,” Cho said, “but for me, I think I’m not going to travel as much.”

LAX passenger Candace Harris, catching an America West flight home to Pennsylvania, worried about losing sight of her luggage on the shuttle bus from the parking lot.

“It seemed less secure,” Harris said. “I wasn’t standing next to my luggage. When I was dropped off, I kept my luggage in my own hands all the way.”

At one Northwest Airlines checkpoint in LAX, a young Aviation Safeguards Private Security employee kept one eye on the X-ray machines and passengers and another on her open math book.

The scene at LAX was played out at airports across the California and the nation. At Orange County’s John Wayne Airport, about 37% of the flights were operating as scheduled. Some passengers there complained that security did not measure up to their expectations.

Admitting they were “paranoid” and might “sound like crazies,” Therese Robinson, 44, of Seattle, and her sister Cathy Haralson, 49, of Plano, Texas, had brought their own food--corned beef sandwiches--a precaution against poisoned airline meals.

“At this point,” Robinson said, “you’ve got to think the most wicked way of thinking.”

Neither was happy with the way luggage was checked: “It was like they just said, ‘I don’t see a gun there. I don’t see a bomb,’ ” Haralson said. “It doesn’t make me feel more secure.”

At Boston’s Logan International Airport, where two of the hijacked flights originated, only 250 incoming and outgoing flights were expected, compared to the normal Saturday schedule of 1,250. It was the first day the airport had been open after an extensive review of security.

“This is a new day in American aviation,” said Ted Frier, spokesperson for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates Logan airport. “We’re asking everybody to be very patient. The kinds of delays that go along with this kind of added security [will] be a part of [the] traveling experience, not just at Logan but across the country.”

Greyhound, which saw dramatically higher bus ridership earlier last week, experienced a tapering off Friday and Saturday, and spokeswoman Kristin Parsley said seats were available on eastbound buses.

But Union Station in downtown Los Angeles was doing business that was reminiscent of the heyday of rail travel. All eastbound trains were full, and travelers, some with air tickets in hand, struggled to navigate the nation’s rail system.

Ellie Robinson of Sherman Oaks sat impatiently, her leg thrown over the edge of one of Union Station’s Art Deco chairs, her foot tapping nervously in the air, waiting for her boyfriend to arrive from Philadelphia. The train was late.

“What do we have to do but wait?” she said. “At least we are alive.”

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Times staff writers Carla Rivera, Massie Ritsch, Carol Chambers, Tim Reiterman, Kimi Yoshino, Roy Rivenburg, Hilary E. MacGregor and Lynn Smith contributed to this report.