Flying Measures

A man smoking a cigarette is outside his house in Glendale, California talking to his lovely wife. Phillip, better known as Filipo, was born in Sicily, Italy, and came here to look for a better future for his family. He is a baker and now works whenever he has time, as his sixty years of existence carry him on his life journey. Filipo is a fun guy and loves to travel around with his family. He has been to Aruba, Barbados, Puerto Rico, as well as to St. Thomas, Sicily, and London. Over the last ten to twenty years, his traveling experience has changed due to the increasing of security in airports all around the globe. "If I want to travel," he says, "I want to be comfortable, very safe." He is happy that at least they are trying to make flights safer and secure, but has something to say about how this has changed his life.

I enjoy traveling by plane in vacation. I have noticed a lot of security. Before I used to just go right in, no security, no checking, nothing. Now, it's security; you can't even take a razor blade with you, nothing you know. I go through a metal detector and stuffs like that. I think security is very tight, personally. I think they are trying to do a very good job, you know, they are trying. I think fingerprint's a good idea to track down because the more they do, the safer it will be around. I think they should be even stricter in the airports. They should not lay off for a second, they should make sure the fly is safe, comfortable, more comfortable. I think they are doing a good job. You cannot bring nothing, no food, no water, even if it is a bottle of water you have, for security, they will make you throw it away. Well, I think it's for security 'cause you could say it's water, but it could be something else.

It's been happening, after you pass security, it's no water, it could be an explosive. You know. After you pass security, you can buy the water because that water has been secured. You can buy anything, you can bring anything to plane, the one you buy there after the security. But before the security, you can't bring no... nothing. Not even make-up, anymore. Even make-up, they make you throw it away. Yeah, because what happened in England last year, they caught some people with a....there was some liquid inside, something else and that's why they stopped the food.  

I think people are aware but they feel more comfortable once they get to the plane. For me it is safer, but you know I can't say for every other people. I think it is safer. They let you take one bag. In the bower, you can bring two bags up to fifty pounds. Inside, I think it is a handbag. Yes, it goes to a X-Ray. If it is something, a lighter, or anything they will catch it.

Few times, I see people scared. There was a couple of people, umm.....matter of fact, on this last trip we took to Boston. I think it was last year. Yeah, it was last year, May. We were going to Boston, there was two people who were very scared. They took them out of the plane. I don't know what happened , everybody was jumping, you know. They never made it back to the plane. Last year when I was coming from Italy, and we made a stop in Amsterdam. For some reason, the flight was stopped in Amsterdam and I was stuck there for nine hours. I had to wait for the next flight. You would see people who had lost their flight.

Another time in London something happened. A baggage was just sitting there or something. The security whistled. Within maybe a minute, the whole airport was shut down. You don't go in, you don't go out. We were stuck there for two and a half hours. You know, they thought there was a bomb or something. I had never seen something like it. I would never forget about. After that, they would just sit very tight. Yeah, we traveled from there that day two hours late. We were coming back here. We were coming back to L.A. I went with my wife, the kids. I was really amazed the way they shut down the airport. In maybe less than a minute, the stores were closed, you couldn't buy water. What happened? The elevators, halfway, they were shut down. Whistle, there was whistling all over the airport. It was just amazing they way they shut it down. Usually if there was nothing in there, they would get the bags and would re-open right away. We were two and a half hours delayed. The airport was shut down. There was no time to say oh they found the bomb. You would never find out. No, no, no.

I was in the line trying to get into the plane and everything was shut down. Everything was shut down. The only thing we heard was whistling, all the police was whistling. (whistling) Nobody moves, everybody silent, don't move. You stop what you were doing. First five minutes, nobody moved. Everybody was shocked the way everything happened. Shut down the......gates. They shut the gates to enter the stores. All the police around started whistling. It could have been a hundred police, I don't know. I was just amazed. I had never seen an airport shut down, so big. They took the people out of the plane. Whoever was in the plane had to come out. They had to check all the planes. No planes were coming in, no planes were taken out for two and a half hours. Yeah I went back to London, two times after that. Yeah every time I think about that. It could have been a horrible accident. Many people could have got hurt. It was two years ago, after 9/11. 

I wasn't working that morning[9/11]. We always think about it. Every time we get on a plane we think about it. Yes, airplane crashes are because of terrorists. What I really think, I don't know what to say, but these terrorists should stop bugging other people trying to take vacations. It's all the people taking vacations, we are going around to take a vacation, you can't just worry. Most of the time is innocent people getting hurt. There is no purpose for it. Sure they did plane 9/11 because they tried it many times before but weren't successful. So this was planned for years, it's not just one, two ,three. I think they were successful, they cause a lot of death. I think terrorists try this everyday. Sometimes they are successful. It happens in every part of the world. For some reason they get lucky, and they get successful. Terrorists try everyday to blow up places. For some reason. Why?

I don't know. No, I don't want to go back. I want to see security forward. If I want to travel, I want to be comfortable, very safe. I think they should com up with better machines because these terrorists, everyday they try to beat the system. The system is going to get upgraded. Terrorists would never stop...for some reason, I don't know why. But terrorists are the \earth devils. Between you and me, we'll never find out what these terrorists want. We want working, we take some vacations. One should not be scared of flying. Be able to fly without any worries because flying is a privilege.

Interviewed by Diego Castillo