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Travelers apply patience to airport delays By MELISSA MARTIN of the Mail Tribune When Rogue Valley resident Teresa Thorstein saw a picture of American Airlines Flight 77 crashing into the Pentagon on Tuesday morning, she was worried about her husband, who recently started a new job in Washington, D.C. "I grabbed a map and tried to find out how far the Treasury Department is from the Pentagon," she said. Thankfully, he was alive and well in his office that offers a view of the White House, but was 15 miles away from the crash site. On Friday, Thorstein flew out of Medford to join her husband in their new home on the East Coast. The former manager of Crater Animal Hospital in Central Point was among a steady stream of passengers at the Medford airport on the first morning since the Federal Aviation Administration lifted its 21/2-day ban on passenger flights. But not everyone in the Medford terminal had success reuniting with families. After a 10-day tour of the Pacific Northwest, Nobuo and Hirocho Tsezaki were anxious to return to their son in Japan. They could have easily flown north Friday morning, but there was no guarantee of getting a flight home from Seattle. "We are stuck between a rock and a hard place," said their Seattle host, Joe Seagraves. Another Medford passenger was trying to fly to Japan. Grants Pass High School graduate Melvin Shaw, who teaches English at Aomori Public College, was anxious to return to his wife, Yoko, who had flown home before Tuesday's terrorists attacks. "With security as tight as it is, we can't let anyone fly standby," United customer service representative Lee Fliegel told him. The earliest flight she could get him was Sept. 22. "We can't re-issue you a ticket for a different city or re-route you through another airline. We're limited to what we can do." Passengers heading to Portland or Seattle who didn't need Denver connections had a better chance of getting on board Friday. That's because only shuttles were flying to and from Medford this weekend - no jets until Monday, said Kelly Rasmussen of Jackson Travel. The airlines were only flying half their fleets, limiting the number of cross-country flights, especially to New York and Washington, D.C. Neither could passengers fly to Los Angeles this weekend. Alice Hudson had been vacationing in Shady Cove and had a return flight booked Friday. But that was before the terrorist attacks that completely suspended air travel for the first time in the nation's history. When she found no planes flying south, she rented a car. "We got up at 3 a.m. to get to the airport to catch our flight and then found out it was canceled," Hudson said. "So we'll just drive home. This is a terrible time for everyone." Despite the bad news most passengers received at the airline counter, most walked away patiently without displaying anger. One customer thanked the ticket agent for her smile. "I have nothing but good to say about the ticket agents here," said JoAnn Seagraves of Grants Pass. "They are doing the best they can." Dressed in an Army officer's uniform, Blake Moser from Ashland patiently waited Friday morning to pick up an Army captain who was flying in for a funeral at the Eagle Point National Cemetery. The airplane arrived late and without the captain, who apparently missed the flight. Also disappointed on Friday was Julia Smith, La Jara, Colo. Her friends left Klamath Falls at 6 a.m. Friday to drive her to the airport, only to discover that she couldn't get a flight to Denver until Monday. "I'll have to call the hospital where I work and tell them I won't be back until Tuesday," she said. But things were different for Maria Marthey, who works for the Enterprise car rental agency in Medford. She missed the rehearsal dinner for her friend's wedding in Ohio because of Wednesday's canceled flights. But on Friday, she was eager to board the shuttle that would take her to Seattle to catch a connecting flight to Detroit and then to Columbus, Ohio, just in time to change into her bridesmaid dress. "I just talked to my friend, the bride, and she's surprised I got a flight," Marthey said. World travelers Liz Vesecky and Herschel King easily got booked on a shuttle headed to Idaho Falls, Idaho, where they planned to visit grandchildren. And they didn't mind having to show their picture ID several times or searches with hand-held detectors. "We're glad they increased security," King said. And Vesecky added, "We've traveled to countries where the security guard looks you right in the eye and asks, "'What do you have in your bag?' In some airports, we've seen guards with machine guns." At least one passenger in the terminal Friday morning had been land-locked since Tuesday's suicide missions shut down the country's aviation system. Steve Kelley, who works for National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Denver, was working in Medford and couldn't get a flight out. But that didn't keep him from doing his job. "When you have a computer and a modem, you can work almost anywhere," he said. Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.