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CNN Live Today
America Under Attack: First International Airline Travelers Land in United States
Aired September 13, 2001 - 13:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: We want to switch you quickly live to Los Angeles International Airport. These people are the first to arrive back in the United States.
Our affiliate KCAL is interviewing people. Let's listen.
REPORTER: ... getting on board the plane.
If we can move up to this gentleman.
Mr. Piazza (ph), can we -- were you a little nervous getting on this plane.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not at all.
REPORTER: Why not?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Security is the very tight all over the world, I guess, or North America.
REPORTER: Was there a lot of security encountering?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, there was. Yes, there was.
REPORTER: What were your thoughts when -- you didn't know why you were being diverted, correct?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not at first. Not until we landed.
REPORTER: (OFF-MIKE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't believe it quite. Yes. Hard to believe.
REPORTER: (OFF-MIKE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me see. Going through -- landed -- going through customs. They made us go through customs. Yes, the volunteers were letting us know.
REPORTER: Are you happy that it worked out that way. Do you think that that was a good plan as to what happened?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To divert the flights, yes, sure. To protect the airways. Protect the airways
REPORTER: What is your name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name's Sam Piazza (ph).
REPORTER: People having different reactions, and certainly not nervous about....
ALLEN: This, of course, live coverage. We will continue to listen as this reporter at the gate where people are coming off this Alitalia jet are talking to reporters about their experience. They have been in Canada for two days. As you heard that passenger say, they were told that the plane was being diverted two days ago. They didn't know why until they landed. And he could not believe it when he landed and was told what was happening in the United States.
Thousands more passengers will be arriving back today. In the next few day, as the airspace opens in this country, 150 flights had been diverted from Los Angeles International. They are due back over the next few days. We don't know how many people exactly will be coming back at that airport.
And we still don't know if planes are outbound there at Los Angeles International. Miles O'Brien, our correspondent who's been checking on airports that are reopening today, was saying that planes had not begun to take off there. You see the airplane that has arrived from Calgary today, an Alitalia plane bringing very relieved Americans back home, the two we heard interviewed saying they were not afraid at all to fly, that they were just relieved to be back home.
And we'll still be checking other airports, to see which ones will be opening today and which ones will be staying closed.
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