BOSTON – As Logan International Airport officials defended their
security system, investigators Wednesday began tracing the hijackers who boarded
two airliners at the airport and crashed them into New York's World Trade
Center.
Two suspects flew to Boston from the Portland, Maine, airport, Maine Gov.
Angus King said Wednesday. He said they left behind a rental car that has been
impounded, and police said cigarette butts found near the car will be tested for
DNA.
King said the men apparently used New Jersey driver's licenses but little
else was known about them.
"This information appears to open up a series of leads that I'm sure will
help to identify who the attackers," King said. The FBI chief in Maine, Jim
Osterrieder, declined to comment.
Shortly after noon, a heavily armed FBI team searching for suspects in the
terrorism attacks swept through a Boston hotel. No details were immediately
disclosed by authorities.
Law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity said they were
investigating whether a group of hijackers crossed the Canadian border at a
checkpoint and went to Boston's airport.
The officials also confirmed that a car believed to belong to the hijackers
was confiscated in Boston and contained an Arabic language flight manual.
The Boston Herald, quoting an anonymous source, reported that five Arab men
had been identified as suspects, including one who was a trained pilot. The
Herald said two of the men, including the pilot, were brothers with passports
traced to the United Arab Emirates.
The Boston Globe reported that one suspect's luggage contained a copy of the
Quran, an instructional video on flying commercial airliners and a fuel
consumption calculator.
Airport authorities said they received no unusual communications from
American Flight 11, which left Boston at 7:59 a.m. Tuesday with 92 people
aboard, or from United Flight 175, which took off 15 minutes later, with 65
people.
The 767s, both bound for Los Angeles, slammed into the twin towers 18 minutes
apart.
"Everything seemed normal when they left Logan," said Joseph Lawless, public
safety director of the Massachusetts Port Authority. "We don't know how the
hijackers accomplished what they did."
Lawless added: "We consider ourselves as secure, if not more secure, than any
other airport in the United States."
The airport remained closed Wednesday as the Federal Aviation Administration
continued its nationwide ban on flying.
Hijackers also crashed a plane out of Dulles International Airport near
Washington into the Pentagon and another hijacked commercial flight from Newark,
N.J., was crashed southeast of Pittsburgh.
Port authority officials said they planned security measures at least as
stringent as those last implemented during the Persian Gulf War, including
allowing only passengers past security checkpoints and eliminating curbside
check-ins.
"One could speculate ... we were chosen was because of our proximity to the
New York area and the fact that we have wide-bodied aircraft leaving our
airports fully loaded with fuel that participated in this tragic kamikaze-type
attack," Port Authority aviation director Thomas Kinton said.
Kinton said Wednesday that the FAA is requiring all U.S. airports to comply
with emergency safety measures including: banning the sale or use of knives,
even plastic ones, at the airport; evacuating and sweeping all terminals with
bomb-sniffing dog teams; increasing security personnel; increasing ID check and
discontinuing curbside check-in.
The FAA is also requiring airports to remove passenger vehicles parked within
300 feet of a terminal. The only measure above FAA requirements being done at
Logan that was publicly announced was to post state police officers at security
checkpoints.
In 1999, the major airlines at Logan and the Port Authority were fined a
total of $178,000 for at least 136 security violations over the previous two
years. In most incidents, screeners at terminal checkpoints failed to detect
test items, such as pipe bombs and guns.
Also in 1999, a teen-ager who said he wanted to impress the Israeli
intelligence agency allegedly sliced through a fence and settled into an empty
seat on a British Airways jet and flew to London.
– – –
Associated Press Writer John Solomon in Washington contributed to this
report.
AP-WS-09-12-01 1319EDT