European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 20, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes thursday August 20,1987 columns Andrew j. Glass Jet hopping kids alone and lost in the shuffle i be got six unaccompanied for the stewardess said to the Gate agent As the door of the big Jet swung open. In airline jargon she meant the hair dozen children who had boarded the Light from Atlanta to Washington with out an accompanying adult aboard. Earlier that Day. My homeward bound flight had been cancelled at the last moment in Daylong Beach. Since i was running hours behind Al ready i thought i would linger a bit longer to Sec How these kids made out. Five of them made out just Fine they were met by Loving relatives with warm embraces. That still left one 7-Ycar-old girl clutching a rag doll As she scanned the nearly deserted terminal at Dulles for her seemingly missing aunt. She did her Best to hold Back her tears. Finally an airline supervisor led her by the hand to a nearby office where no doubt phone Calls would be made and forms filled out. Each Day some 2,400 scheduled flights arrive and depart from Atlanta s Mansfield International Airport making it on most Days of the week the busiest Airport in the world. So it is hardly big news that one Little girl turned up lost after having taken off from there late at night. The real Story is the dramatic increase in the number of people including Small children who use the skies a their primary Mode of inter City travel. The airline transport association projects that this year . Domestic airlines will haul a combined total of 450 million passengers an 8 per cent increase over1986. Every sign suggests this trend will endure. Thirty years ago when 1 was a Yale undergraduate no one i knew Ever flew to Florida. During the Spring break we unfailingly drove there by pooling the Gas Money and the occasional tolls. Driving All night we could reach the beaches after 30 shared mind numbing hours be Hind the wheel. The first air planes i recall seeing were the German Stukas that dive bombed my native Warsaw in 1939. When we William Buckley jells Akk nol theresine twins off now fled it was by horse cart across Poland by train across the vast siberian Wilder Ness by ship across the Pacific and finally by train again across the american continent. It was 1953 before i flew and that was quite by Chance. I was cycling through Southeastern England on the Way to a Channel ferry slip when i spotted a dirt air strip that had served a decade ear Lier As a spitfire fighter base. The Man Ager offered to Fly me and the dismantled Bike in his Small plane to Ostend Bel Gium. The fare sounded reasonable. So i took off. Many years passed before at least for me flying again became a reasonable proposition. In the Early 1960s, when the jets took hold the then regulated airlines enjoyed what they must now View As the Golden age of elegant lying. Business travellers on expense accounts plus some Rich tourists boarded in style. The rest of us either took to the highways or else Rode the train. Next time you Fly Check out the number of smartly dressed people aboard. Deeply discounted fares and the breaking of old psychological barriers have extent d the right to Fly to All but the most impoverished segment of american society. That s Fine. Yet like All change it s rarely Cost free. Crowded skies often also Lead to maddening delays and outright cancellations. They raise the risk of Acci Dent and error. They can make harassed airline personnel drop their glazed smiles 30,000 feet above Georgia. As the right to Fly settles into the National psyche the airlines will inevitably carry even larger numbers of Young in accompanies. And inevitably when the system Breaks Down they will be caring for lost kids on the ground too. Cox news service Senate should have sunk Weicker s titanic Bill sen. Lowell Weicker i kid you not has gulled the Senate of the United states into passing a Bill the relevant Section of which reads notwithstanding any other provision of Law no object from the . Titanic May be imported into the customs territory of the United states for the purpose of commercial gain after the Date of enactment of this the French expedition that has been exploring the titanic for several weeks has fingered the ship s Strongbox which it is proceeding to remove. The French 54-Day, $2.5 million expedition is underwritten by something called the Ocean research organization a British corporation. There is also backing from an american television company. There is a lot of talk circulating some of it to the effect that artefacts taken from the titanic Are going into a French museum. There is one gathers the possibility of a televised opening of the Strongbox much As was done when the Safe of the Andrea Doria was opened under spectacular auspices giving the worldwide audience an intimate View of soggy 30-year-old Low denomination currency. Now one of Weicker s Points is that . Technology discovered the location of the titanic and that Robert Ballard the scientist who led the expedition that discovered the titanic in 1985, recommended that the ship be left undisturbed. But Why Eva Hart an 82-year-old survivor of the titanic disaster is quoted the grave should be left alone. They re simply going to do it As Fortune Hunters Vul Tures doing it Means we Are to suppose taking from the titanic such oddments As plates wine bottles jewelry Strong boxes that would otherwise re main within the vessel s Creaky carapace. One Doest quite know what to make of it and it does t help at All to read the remarks of sen. Weick or when he introduced his Bill. Sometimes on Reading Wicker and trying to understand him one wishes one had been assigned to decipher the Rosetla Stone. He told the Senate that it is Only a matter of time before the world is going to have to turn to these oceans for food and so so when the Earth does turn to the oceans for its food and its fuel do not forget it has to be a resource that lasts millions of years rather than just a decade or two to satisfy our most immediate Well if we Promise not to forget then what i mean what docs that have to do with the Case for leaving the titanic intact under the water sen. Wicker assured his colleagues that he spoke with special qualifications on the subject As a proud Lay member of that Community one who him self has spent Days on the Bottom of the Ocean and perhaps forgot sufficiently to decompress on the Way up. Here is what troubles who told Congress it has any right to Tell an american who wants a plate from the dining room of the titanic which an Independent Salvage operation pulls out and is willing to sell that he can t have it the plate contains no communicable germs. It is not a lethal instrument. It is not a threat to the separation of Church and stale. So who is Lowell Weicker to Tell the american collector that he can t be the willing buyer in dealing with a willing seller i have several times sailed Over the mortal re Mains of the Andrea Doria and record that there is no difference at All in the Quality of the sensation of sail ing Over it with its Safe still in place or not in place. The titanic is 2 Miles below the surface of the Ocean and any Yachtsman passing Over it will be aware that he is doing so Only by taking Micro measurements on his geographical positioning system. It is impossible to understand exactly Why he is supposed to feel filter Cut about the experience if the titanic is missing it full inventory of Kitchen equipment which reposes now in the living rooms of collectors. If the Weicker vow were to be Universal Zed would we need to return to the pyramids everything that has been taken from them some of the treasures from the pyramids reside in museums some arc in vally owned. Many that arc now in museums were once in private hands. I for one Admire the Enterprise of the consortium that is spending much of the summer retrieving from utter useless Ness artefacts that for some people exer Cise an alluring historical Appeal. Would t want on myself but then i Don t collect Stamps and my collection of Fatui ties by Lowell Wick or is so huge 1 pc run out of room
