Eugene’s airport appeared to run without problems over the weekend, in spite of employing new security measures designed to keep airplanes from being bombed.
“Airlines and our security company have had to react and put on additional manpower,” Eugene Airport operations director Mike Coontz said.
Congress passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act on Nov. 19 in response to the events of Sept. 11, mandating new security measures that, at the time, even Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta publicly said would be hard to meet.
But the Eugene Airport saw no significant delays this weekend, apart from the occasional bottleneck at security.
“The line goes from real short to real long, real fast,” Horizon Air employee David Wilcoxen said. Employees such as Wilcoxen are responsible for checking passenger identification and requesting help from airport security screeners so they can randomly check bags for bombs. While he doesn’t personally take part in any of the security screenings, Wilcoxen has memorized the rules already.
“If you don’t get on the plane, your bag doesn’t go,” he stated.
Don Dove, an airport security screener hired three months ago, said security has followed stricter procedures for some time.
“It’s no different than yesterday,” Dove said Friday morning. He doesn’t search every bag, but when he does, he rummages through it, taking out all the clothing and looking for illegal and banned materials.
“This airport ain’t that big,” Dove said. Right now, he only examines bags when the airline computer tells him to.
Passengers were aware of the new regulations Friday and already had started packing differently.
“My packing doesn’t get quite as personal,” traveler Marian Hill said. Several minutes after checking her baggage, Hill walked through security and waited at least five minutes while officials went through her purse, examining her wallet and taking everything out before letting her proceed.
“It’s not that the regulations aren’t necessary, I just don’t know how effective they’ll be,” she said.
Margaret Murphy, a Monday morning passenger on her way to California to look for a job, had seen security screeners go much further.
In California, “they made me take off my tennis shoes and checked the soles for gunpowder,” Murphy said. She isn’t packing any differently, but she said that new regulations have made her aware how important it is to examine what’s taken on a plane.
Screeners at the Eugene Airport weren’t examining any shoes, and Coontz stressed that the airport is trying to make the transition as easy as possible.
“Even though there’s more security required, we want to make it an easy experience going through the airport,” Coontz said.