There are some times when a fire drill is a bad idea. The Massachusetts Port Authority held a fire drill at Boston Logan Airport on Wednesday, September 11. The drill, which involved using real smoke and fire on the runway, has some angered.
The drill was created to make an aircraft appear that it was on fire. Fire drills are not rare, but some were upset over the choice of the timing on the 12th anniversary of the September 11th attacks in which terrorists hijacked planes and used them as weapons. The two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center took off from Logan Airport in 2001. The airport tried to let people know that it was a drill by taking to Twitter, CBS reports.
"It seems rather insensitive and inappropriate to me," Lynn Ellison from Beverly told CBS. She was waiting for her daughter's flight to land when the drill took place.
Some were so outraged that they left messages on Twitter and Boston Logan Airport's Facebook page
Several people also took to Twitter and Boston Logan Airport's Facebook page to complain about the poor timing.
"That is ridiculous. Have some respect. People died 12 years ago on flights originating out of your airport. How dare you," one person wrote.
Some asked how authorities could hold a drill on the anniversary of the attacks especially when travelers were already feeling uneasy.
"As we were landing and pulling into the gate I saw this big huge plume of smoke," Jeremy Berdman, who was on a flight from New York City to Boston when he saw the drill from his airplane window. "Initially I thought the plane had crashed."
"With the occurrences that happened here on September 11 and the flight that took off from here, I agree, it's probably not the most appropriate thing to do," Rick Jaslowski said as he waited for his baggage to arrive from Detroit.
The airport released an apology over the incident of their Facebook and Twitter pages in the afternoon, saying, "Massport apologizes for conducting the fire training exercise and understands that it may have offended many of those touched by the events of Sept. 11. Safety and security is our top priority and constant vigilance and readiness is critical, but the exercise should not have taken place on the anniversary of 9/11. The airport community recognizes the day with moments of silence, a service in the chapel, and a wreath at the 9/11 memorial."
Gov. Deval Patrick agreed that the move wasn't very smart. "It's just dumb. I mean the timing could not be worse," Patrick told reporters.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
