posted by Conor on Feb 17
Travel Date: February 17, 2008
Origin: Phoenix, AZ (PHX)
Destination: Los Angeles (LAX)
Airline: US Airways
Flight: USAirways 29
I was (un)fortunate enough to add a new experience to my flying adventures today on a trip back from Phoenix. After spending a nice weekend with my father playing golf and touring Scottsdale, my girlfriend and I flew back on a US Airways flight that I knew would be trouble before the weekend even began. But first we had to get to Scottsdale.
Unfortunately, on the Friday morning of our outbound flight, Katie woke up with a sinus infection after having a cold the previous week. While she was troubled by the pressure in the morning, as an experienced sinus infection traveler, I knew the pain in store for her that evening and set about immediately to try prevent as much of it as possible. The pain of a serious sinus infection on a flight could bring the toughest of men to their knees and would be enough for me to consider cancelling any trip. Fortunately, Katie is a trooper (and had also not experienced such a flight before), so she insisted we continue on.
After a morning at the pharmacy, we sat on the runway for 30 minutes while Phoenix underwent “flow control”. Apparently this is initiated in Phoenix when there is more than one cloud in the sky. The ascent to 35k feet (I know, quite high for such a short flight, right?) seemed almost too easy. Only our knees were in pain from the 31″ length economy boxes we were forced into. But then came the drop below the cloud cover and it wasn’t until 15k feet before Katie’s ears popped again, saving her from what would have been sure tears had the pressure built up from another 5-10k foot drop.
Hoping that would be the extent of the pain we fed her meds all weekend and cleared up the pressure. It seemed almost too good. But on the flight from Phoenix to LA, the decent again proved painful. This time, although the sinus pressure was not as bad, her ears did not clear until we were actually walking off the plane into Terminal 1 in LAX. Yes! Her ears were clear and we made it off the flight. As long as our golf bag was there, we would be free.
Of course, Terminal 1 turned out to be the unanticipated roadblock of the trip. We were about half way out the terminal when we noticed a massive throng of people heading our way. After trying to walk through them briefly, someone mentioned we couldn’t get out the exit and that we had to turn around. Eventually we noticed the security and police ushering everyone back towards us and realized there would be no immediate exit from Terminal 1. We turned back, found a place to stand, and waited for more info.
Of course, the LAX security is about as organized as the baseball steroids scandal: the general public does not know anything, those who do keep quiet, and everyone (including people on the other end of cell phones) and their mom have to offer their opinion on what is happening and what should be done. Seeing as there are several thousand intercom announcements daily in the airport, one would think that they could use the intercom to help explain what was going on past the police line holding us back. Or even perhaps just a bullhorn or yelling. But no, we were offered very little information while we were stuck there for over an hour.
From all the rumors, chatter, questions, and phone calls, eventually we figured out that there was a “threat” outside of the security gate that consisted of a security breach. We had noticed that the flights were on “Orange” threat level earlier that day, so I imagine that the threat was taken very seriously. The security breach required shutting down Terminal 1 security line, which barricaded off us from exiting the terminal. Apparently Terminal 1 is seen as the primary entry/exit point, so all other terminals had to be secured and shut down as well.
What the “threat” was, we never found out. However, when we were finally released from our captivity and grabbed my golf back from baggage (thank god it was still there), we stumbled onto hundreds of police cars still outside. Police were everywhere, lines were miles long out the door and nobody was moving anywhere. We saw snipers on the roof of the opposing parking garages as well. It was pretty intense.
In the end, I was not worried about any sort of security threat. Maybe this was the point of them not telling us anything all along. Or, perhaps that is what is happening with the extreme-emphasized protection put in since 9/11 that is now calling for a “boy who cried wolf scenario”. We have seen so many threats now that the public is unfortunately frustrated when they are kept at bay, rather than accepting this fate in a post 9/11 world. Fortunately, there has not been much public outcry against these frustrations. While I was not worried about the security threat today, I was also not nearly ready to complain to anyone about being held at bay, away from any potential “threat” or security breach while we are at “Orange” threat level.
