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Nation's transportation comes to a halt
All airports close for first time in U.S. history

By Raju Chebium and Larry Bivins / Gannett News Service

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   WASHINGTON -- Planes will remain grounded until at least noon Wednesday after the country came under terrorist attack Tuesday from the skies.
   The Federal Aviation Administration's order grounding all air traffic stranded hundreds of thousands of passengers and thousands of tons of cargo at domestic and overseas airports. The order was in response to the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.
   Terrorists launched a coordinated air attack on the World Trade Center towers in New York City and the Pentagon across the Potomac River from Washington, ramming hijacked jetliners into both buildings, according to U.S. officials.
   The precise death toll remains unclear. American Airlines and United Airlines each lost two jets.
   Never before in U.S. history has all air traffic been grounded.
   On any given weekday, 4,000 planes fly in U.S. airspace. Nearly 2 million people fly on any one day. Last year, 650 million people took to the skies in the United States, according to the Aviation Safety Alliance.
   "It's unprecedented. But I think the administrator of the FAA took the only step that is prudent," said Bob Vandel of the Flight Safety Foundation. "You're going to have a psychological impact on travelers. You're going to have an impact on commerce. You have so much of commerce that's being done only by air."
   Takeoffs were blocked at 9:25 a.m. Tuesday at every U.S. airport. All international flights were diverted to Canada. Only law enforcement and military aircraft are allowed in the air space around New York and Washington.
   Domestic hijackings are rare.
   Three years ago, someone tried an unsuccessful hijacking in the West, said Terry Trippler, an airlines consultant with OneTravel.com. Two years ago, a German jetliner was hijacked to New York.
   "Four planes are hijacked and our intelligence community has no hint? That blows my mind," Trippler said. "The people hijacking had to be pilots. ... I just cannot believe that you can hold a gun to the head of any (commercial) pilot and force him to fly into the World Trade Center."
   Airlines and airports have increased the number of security guards since the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings in the 1990s. But a guard's pay is barely more than minimum wage, which means the more qualified people don't apply, Trippler said.
   Surveys show passengers are willing to pay a few extra bucks per ticket for better security, he said.
   "When you pay $6 or $7 an hour, you get $6- or-$7-an-hour security," Trippler said. "I hope the good that comes out this is we elevate airport security to airport police status."
   Amtrak, the nation's only passenger rail service, suspended nationwide service soon after the attacks, which occurred around 9 a.m.
   By mid-afternoon, Amtrak had resumed limited service. Trains between Washington and New York were departing on the hour, Amtrak officials said. No word on when regular service would resume.
   In New York, all bridges and tunnels were closed, causing unprecedented traffic tie-ups as hundreds of thousands of people tried to find a way out of Manhattan.
   In the nation's capital, traffic was snarled as thousands of workers left jobs early after official Washington was shut down.
   Justin McNaull, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said he was at a staff meeting in the District of Columbia when word spread of the terrorist attack, forcing an evacuation of the building.
   "In any big city, if you have half of the employees trying to leave work at the same time, you're going to have gridlock," McNaull said. "It's akin to having a blizzard happen with no advance warning."