Mike Wolcott says his first reaction to hearing about the plot to blow up U.S.-bound airliners over the Atlantic was "oh, phooey, here we go again." Wolcott says he was driving to work near London at 8:30 Thursday morning when he heard the news on the radio.
He is a former chief engineer for Jacobs Media Corp., parent company of WDUN-AM (News/Talk 550), WGGA-AM (Sports Radio The Ticket), WMJE-FM (Majic 1029) and AccessNorthGa.com.
Wolcott has been traveling the world for Scientific Atlanta for more than 20 years and says "the fun has gone out of flying a long time ago." He says, however, he has no reservations about continuing his travels "but you just have to grin and bear it and pack a lot of patience with you."
Wolcott says his flight home Saturday was delayed four hours as authorities in both the U.S. and London "scrubbed " the passenger manifest. "And, once they had done that and both agreed that everybody was who they said they were, then we were permitted to depart."
Wolcott says the security restrictions at checkpoints at Gatwick airport in London as he was departing Saturday were much more stringent than in the states. He says no carry on bags were permitted and no books, magazines , etc. could be taken onto the plane unless they had been bought inside the secure area of the airport.
While many of the restrictions put into place in the U.S. and in England last week have been relaxed the past few days, Wolcott says 9/11 and events such as last week's are only going to make air travel more trying.
"The question I keep hearing is 'when will we return to normal?' and I'm afraid the answer is 'this is normal.'"
http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/8/105671