Still happening, guy on loose. On news channels.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001

Answers

I recall Atlanta was one of the cities high on the list for potential problems.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001

Atlanta was mentioned as one of the probable targets on Sept 11. Or at least the airport was.

is that female senator around that area???

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001

http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/news/1116hartsfield.html

via Drudge report

UPDATED: 1:58 PM Breach of security grounds Hartsfield flights

By NANCY FONTI and ABBY G. BRUNKS Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writers

All flights out of Hartsfield International Airport have been grounded because a man breached the security checkpoint at Hartsfield, a Delta Air Lines spokesman said.

Airport police were pursuing the man. The Associated Press reports that he jumped onto a terminal train.

Meanwhile, no flights were allowed to leave and Atlanta bound flights from some cities, including Boston, New York, and Dallas, were not allowed to take off for Atlanta.

"It's still unfolding," the Delta spokesman said.

The entire terminal was being evacuated, creating a huge crowd in the parking areas adjacent to the building.

According to people who were at the airport when the incident began, lines at the security checkpoint began backing up shortly before noon.

At about noon, airport workers began verbally telling people in the main terminal to go outside. No explanation was given, except that a "code orange" had been declared.

The crowd was calm as it milled around the streets and parking decks outside, many people using cellphones.

"We were on our way to L.A. for a holiday party and I just had a bad feeling before I got here," said Heather Thackery, 26, of Kennesaw. "This doesn't surprise me at all."

Another woman, Beth Forbes, of Alpharetta, was on her way to Boston with her 4-year-old daughter. "I didnt have a premonition but I'm not surprised," she said.

New York resident Frank Pierson was on a day trip to Atlanta.

"This is a giant inconvenience. I just wish we could get some information about what's going on," he said.

Hartsfield is the world's busiest airport and a prolonged delay of takeoffs will have a ripple effect on airline operations nationwide.

Tad Hutcheson, marketing chief at AirTran Airways, said security workers were sweeping the terminal and concourses and passengers wouldn't be allowed back in until that was done.

He guessed that would take "a couple hours."

MARTA stopped rail service to the airport.

Harry Cooper of Peachtree City, a training officer for a security company, had just arrived at Hartsfield from Tampa when the evacuation began.

He spent 55 minutes waiting in the tunnel that leads to the different concourses moving outside along with hundreds of other travelers.

Then he couldn't get back inside to pick up his luggage.

The lockdown at Hartsfield International Airport put thousands of people in a holding pattern outside the terminal.

"It's pretty much distruting our system this afternoon," AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson told WSB-TV. "All we know is that there was a security breach and that they are sweeping the terminal right now."

He said 18 AirTran flights were evacuated and 12 in-bound flights were diverted. DEVELOPING STORY....

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001

Radio says airport is now open.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001