McCarran opening delayed indefinitely

Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2001 | 10:56 a.m.

Federal officials, who originally said they expected the nation's airports to be opened by 9 a.m. PDT, said there would be an indefinite delay.

McCarran officials completed a security sweep of all terminals Tuesday night -- something that hadn't been completed at other airports this morning.

The FAA is trying to coordinate all airport openings nationwide.

Airport spokesman Bill Keller said federal and local aviation authorities still haven't solved some logistical problems this morning.

For example, airlines are formulating a plan to move passengers to their destinations with the fewest possible aircraft.

That means some passengers destined for Los Angeles on United Airlines, for example, might be placed on a Southwest Airlines plane instead.

"This is not a time for petty bickering or profit motive," Keller said. "The airlines know they are all in this together, and this is an opportunity for them to shine in a time when the country has been threatened with what has been called 'an act of war.' "

Keller said it could take days for airlines to resume a normal schedule and several hours before the first flights get off the ground once the airport is opened.

"Just because we get the order to resume does not mean there will be a full slate of flights right away," Hilarie Grey, a spokeswoman for McCarran, said. "We recommend that people call the airlines in advance to be sure. Don't come here at 9 in the morning expecting things to be business as usual."

Another logistical nightmare for McCarran is a federal mandate to establish a 300-foot perimeter for parked vehicles as a security precaution.

Since the airport short-term parking garage is part of the terminal structure, local airport officials are considering parking alternatives.

Once operations begin, security measures will be at their highest levels, meaning passengers can expect major delays in boarding their flights, she said.

Late Tuesday McCarran officials were awaiting a "security amendment" from the FAA spelling out new security procedures. Airline personnel were awaiting an explanation of those rules to warn passengers in advance.

Grey said it's expected that the new procedures would be similar to those implemented in the wake of the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s and the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

"We'll open at the highest level of security, and those protocols are time-intensive," Grey said.

That means Metro Police and possibly federal marshals will conduct hand searches of some bags at security checkpoints. Grey said passengers would be encouraged to bring fewer carry-on bags on planes.

Vehicles also will no longer be allowed to stop at the airport's departure curbs. Only ticketed customers, not people meeting arriving passengers, will be allowed to pass through security checkpoints to the gates.

When the highest security procedures were in place in previous years, it was recommended that passengers arrive at the airport 90 minutes to two hours in advance of flight times.

While activity is expected to intensify at McCarran today, Tuesday's shutdown was nearly as surreal as the dark images that were broadcast worldwide from the site of the World Trade Center catastrophe.

After the Federal Aviation Administration's grounding order took effect at 6:25 a.m. PDT, 74 planes -- 64 passenger airliners and 10 cargo carriers -- parked at McCarran. Airport officials did not have figures on how many planes normally park overnight in Las Vegas.

McCarran, the seventh busiest American airport in August with 450 arrivals and 450 departures every day, is normally swirling with activity at its counters and gates by late morning. But by noon Tuesday, the airport, which serves an average 110,000 passengers a day, was eerily quiet, and incoming planes were parked in clusters all over the tarmac.

Aircraft of all varieties were scattered around the airport, and passenger loading bridges normally hugging plane doors were parked several feet away from the jets so they couldn't be boarded.

Late Tuesday the airport was closed and the few passengers who stayed in the terminal were asked to leave until planes began flying again.

Grey said about 80 percent of the flights destined for Las Vegas when the grounding order took effect made it to McCarran Tuesday.