Calmness Prevails on First Flight Out of Dulles

by Monte Reel

Friday, September 14, 2001

Ian Jardine stepped onto the tarmac at Dulles International Airport early yesterday afternoon and noted the quiet. No planes taxied near the terminals; none flew overhead. Only Jardine and 13 fellow passengers were in motion, walking toward a Cincinnati-bound Comair CL65, the first airplane readied for takeoff since hijackers from this airport had crashed a jet into the Pentagon on Tuesday.

Jardine turned to Jackie Tice, a 47-year-old computer technician from Arkansas, and told her to be prepared for one more adventure in a week that had taught him to take nothing for granted.

"Hopefully this is the end of the adventure," said Tice, who hoped to catch a connecting flight in Cincinnati to Memphis. "Hopefully we'll all be home soon, and things will start to get more normal."

"Absolutely," said Jardine, 35, of Colorado Springs. "I just don't know how I feel about being one of the first to fly out of here."

The Cincinnati flight was one of just a few to depart or arrive in the Washington area yesterday as air travel slowly resumed across the country. Reagan National Airport was shut down indefinitely. At Baltimore-Washington International Airport, there were only a dozen flights yesterday, and they didn't start until late afternoon.

Across the region, as stranded travelers negotiated for seats on homebound flights, some complained of the enormous hassle, while some confessed to the jitters.

At Dulles, spokeswoman Tara Hamilton said there were a limited number of takeoffs and landings -- far fewer than the 50 the airport had hoped for, she added, but she could not estimate how many.

Few passengers -- aside from Jardine -- openly voiced concern about being on the first flight out. Instead, they opted for reassuring words about the increased safety measures: new scrutiny for carry-on luggage, new rules prohibiting curbside baggage check-in and a new police presence throughout the airport.

All passengers had emptied their pockets before walking through two metal detectors. They held out their arms as security personnel frisked them with hand-held detectors.

Their bags were searched and, in a few cases, redirected to the cargo hold.

"I feel very safe," said Giovanni Vachelli, whose final destination was Atlanta. "But my family is very nervous about this. I have relatives in Italy who've been calling me for two days."

One of the passengers was stopped before stepping onto the tarmac and asked to empty his pockets for yet another frisking.

"They told us we had to do this to at least one person on every flight," a crew member explained.

Once the passengers climbed the steps of the plane, the Cincinnati-based flight crew conformed strictly to standard procedure. Flight attendant Sharon Steadman greeted each passenger with a smile. When the passengers were seated, she recited the safety instructions she knew by heart. Several passengers took her advice and consulted the laminated safety cards located in the seat pockets in front of them. Those in window seats gazed at the air-traffic control tower and the huge American flag draped beneath its windows.

Shortly after the plane took off at 1:50 p.m., Steadman told the passengers that they were free to use electronic devices, but no one did. Instead, most leaned toward windows and watched the Washington region recede. Within minutes, many cracked open paperbacks; peanuts and pretzels were on the way. It could have been any flight on any day.

Kevin Parker, 22, of Calhoun, Ga., was in the front row, closest to the cockpit. He confessed to being slightly on edge but calmed himself by making small talk with Steadman.

Once in Cincinnati, Parker would try to catch a flight to Tennessee. But if none was available, he'd try to rent a car. He was anxious to get home after spending two extra days in Washington after a business meeting.

"This has all been so strange," he said. "It's almost like living in a foreign country. Now you're conscious about every little noise you hear."

Fortunately, the 65-minute flight to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport was extraordinarily quiet. Few words were spoken. But when the plane neared Cincinnati, the landing gear dropped with a thud, jolting many in their seats.

"It's okay," Steadman said immediately. "But I know -- it's kind of loud."

The plane flew over the Ohio River and landed smoothly on the runway. The passengers walked across the tarmac into a sparsely populated airport -- and into more uncertainty as they hustled to find connecting flights.

Jardine discovered that he was in time for a flight to Denver. When he got to the appropriate gate, the passengers and the pilots were ready, but no one could find the flight attendants.

"Who knows when I'll get home," he said.

Parker wasn't able to find a flight that would get him any closer to home, so he rented a car and prepared for a six-hour drive.

"It's a relief to be on the ground. And it'll be nice to get home," he said. "Now I'll have some time just to think about everything that's happened in the last few days. Maybe I'll be able to start coming to terms with it -- and then start getting over it."

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