Heightened Airport Insecurity

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Since British Arrests, Delays, Diversions and False Alarms
A suspicious bottle of water, a child overheard saying he had a bomb, a telephoned threat, locked lavatory doors.

Since British officials said they foiled a terrorist plot to blow up planes over the Atlantic Ocean, hyper-vigilance aboard U.S. airliners has prompted a rash of emergency landings based on threats that turned out to pose no danger. The incidents suggest that pilots, flight attendants and passengers are ready to err on the side of extreme caution in a period of heightened anxiety in air travel.

With Labor Day travel this weekend and the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks around the corner, security consultants and psychologists said passengers should expect more airline diversions, delays and airport evacuations. The hair-trigger responses to perceived threats are an unavoidable condition of the times, they said.

"If you are looking for suspicious behavior, you are going to notice things and classify them as suspicious that otherwise you wouldn't be paying attention to if you weren't on alert," said David Carbonell, a psychologist in the Chicago area who works with people who are afraid to fly. "We have the whole population of civilian fliers sort of on a war footing, the way we expect soldiers on the front to be in. That is not generally a healthy thing."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/01/AR2006090101529.html