Chapter 1 The Storm

Airport

ARTHUR HAILEY

Level 5

Retold by Rosalie Kerr

Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

Introduction

Although much of his adult life was spent in North America,

Arthur Hailey was born in Luton, England, in 1920, the only

child of working-class parents. After leaving school at fourteen,

he had a number of jobs before joining the Royal Air Force

(RAF) when war broke out in 1939. His pilot training took him

to the United States, and these early "insider" experiences of

aviation proved useful later on in his writing. When he left the

RAF in 1947 he decided to go and live in Canada where, a few

years later, he became a Canadian citizen, settling in Toronto.

There he worked for various magazines, but when he sold his

first television play Flight in Danger in 1956, he felt confident that

he could give up working for others and become a full-time

writer. His first marriage, to Joan Fishwick in 1944, ended in

divorce. It is since his second marriage to Sheila Dunlop in 1951

that he has written all his best-known works.

After the early success of Flight in Danger, Hailey continued to

write well-received screenplays for television and film, and it was

not until 1959 that he wrote his first full-length book, The Final

Diagnosis. Hailey's strength as a storyteller is that he is concerned

to present the particular worlds he deals with in his books in as

realistic and detailed a manner as possible. In High Places (1962) is

set in the world of government; Hotel (1965) looks behind the

scenes at life in a grand hotel; air travel is the context for Airport;

he looks at the car industry in Wheels (1971), at the financial

world in The Moneychangers (1975) and at the medical world in

The Final Diagnosis and Strong Medicine (1984).

Hailey has always believed in making sure that he has a

thorough understanding of the background to each book, and

there is no doubt that the level of detail included in his stories

brings them to life in a special way. The reader is taken inside the

characters, sees situations through their eyes, shares their concerns

and experiences their hopes and fears. The story is carefully

planned and fast-moving, and there is always a long and varied

list of characters whose daily personal lives run alongside the

larger emergency situation on which the story hangs. These

features of Hailey's writing have made him a best-selling writer

and his books are popular with readers all over the world.

He spent three years planning and writing Airport, one of his

best works. He visited airports in North America and Europe,

becoming particularly familiar with daily life at Chicago's

O'Hare International Airport, one of the world's busiest air traffic

centres. He spoke to all types and levels of airport employee,

watched them at their work, and finally understood the special

problems and responsibilities that each of them faced.

At the time the book appeared, air traffic was increasing

sharply. For many people the world of aviation was still a strange

and exciting one. People were discussing the subjects mentioned

in the book: the problems with noise suffered by those living

near airports; dangers connected with bombs; overcrowded

airports and, in particular, plane crashes. In 1962, 93 people were

killed in a plane crash in New York and 30 died in Kansas when

their plane hit a house. Three years later 133 people died when a

plane crashed in Tokyo Bay. Real-life emergencies such as these

serve to heighten the tension of the story as the reader

sympathizes with the ordinary characters caught up in events: the

pilots and air hostesses, the airport managers and air traffic

controllers, the ticket salespeople and maintenance workers. All

have their personal and professional pressures and their own ways

of dealing with them.

The action of the book is centred round Lincoln International

Airport in Chicago, during one of the worst snowstorms to hit

the city in years. The man with the responsibility for keeping the

airport open is the Airport General Manager, Mel Bakersfeld.

Mel's problems are not restricted to the airport: his home life and

relationship with his wife, Cindy, are also becoming extremely

difficult. Fortunately he can depend on the support of some of

the other people working with him, including the attractive

Passenger Relations Agent, Tanya Livingston, and the strong and

courageous Joe Patroni; Joe is responsible for moving a plane

which is blocking the longest runway, a job that becomes more

and more important as the story unfolds.

Back in Air Traffic Control, Mel's brother Keith is also facing

problems. At the same time Vernon Demerest, a proud and

unlikeable pilot, is doing his best to make life difficult for Mel,

but is himself about to have an unpleasant surprise. People living

in the Meadowood area of the city are planning a protest about

the noise from the airport, encouraged by the lawyer Elliott

Freemantle, who has reasons of his own for getting involved in

the case. And in a cheap and dirty apartment on the south side of

the city, a sad and lonely man is beginning to make plans for an

event that he hopes will bring comfort to the wife he loves but

can no longer support.

Chapter 1 The Storm

At half past six on a Friday evening in January, Lincoln

International Airport was open, but it was having serious

problems.

The airport, together with the whole of the Midwestern

United States, had been hit by the worst storm in years. It had

already lasted for three days. Now troubles, like spots on a sick,

weakened body, were beginning to break out everywhere.

A truck carrying 200 dinners was lost in the snow somewhere

on an airport service road, and so far the search for it had been

unsuccessful.

At least a hundred flights were delayed, some by many hours.

Out on the airfield, runway three zero was out of use. It was

blocked by an Aéreo-Mexican plane which lay sideways across it.

The front wheels were stuck in the deep mud which lay under

the snow near the edge of the runway. Aéreo-Mexican had tried

hard for two hours to move it, but without any success. Now

they were asking TWA to help them.

The loss of runway three zero made the work of Air Traffic

Control even more difficult than usual. With 20 planes waiting to

land, they were delaying take-offs. The airfield seemed to be full

of waiting planes. Inside the main passenger terminal, too, there

were crowds of impatient people waiting beside their piles of

luggage. Even the large notice on the roof of the terminal

- LINCOLN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - was hidden

by the snow.

Mel Bakersfeld was surprised that the airport was still open.

Mel was the Airport General Manager. He was a tall, powerful

man. At the moment, he was standing by the Snow Control

Desk, high in the control tower. Usually you could see the whole

airport from here. Only Air Traffic Control had a better view.

Tonight you could see only a few lights. This was an unusually

hard winter. The storm had started five days ago in the Colorado

Mountains, and then swept across a large part of the United

States. It brought strong winds, freezing cold and heavy snow.

Maintenance men with snowploughs were clearing the snow

as it fell, but by now many of them were terribly tired. The storm

seemed to be winning.

Danny Farrow was at the Snow Control Desk, talking to the

Maintenance Snow Centre by radio phone.

'We're losing ground. I need six more snowploughs out there.'

'Oh sure, sure,' an angry voice replied. 'Six more snowploughs!

And where do you think they're going to come from? Any more

stupid ideas?'

'We sent four ploughs out to find that truck,' Danny said. 'If

they haven't found it yet, they'll just have to try harder.'

An explosion of anger came over the radio phone in reply.

Mel knew how easily tempers were lost under these

conditions. These men were highly trained, and they were

working as hard as they could.

The maintenance man's voice came on the phone again.

'We're worried about that truck too, Danny. The driver could

freeze to death. He won't die of hunger, though, if he has any sense!'

'This search will block the service roads,' Danny told Mel.

'You'll get plenty of complaints about that.'

'I know,' Mel said. Airport managers were used to complaints.

The most important thing was to save the life of the driver. For a

moment, he wished that he could sit down and help Danny. Mel

needed action. The cold weather was making his bad foot - an

old war wound from Korea — ache. Then he realized that Danny

could work better on his own.

He telephoned Air Traffic Control.

'Any progress on the Aéreo-Mexican plane?'

'Not yet, Mr Bakersfeld.'

'Is the runway still blocked?'

'Yes.'

This airport needs more runways, Mel thought. This proves it.

The trouble was, there were plenty of people who disagreed with

him, and they were more powerful than he was.

'And another thing,' he was told. 'As runway three zero is

blocked, planes are taking off over Meadowood. The complaints

have started coming in already.'

'Oh no!' Mel said. He was tired of hearing complaints from

the people who lived in Meadowood. The airport had been built

long before their houses, but they never seemed to stop

complaining about the noise. As a result, the runway nearest to

Meadowood was used only under special conditions. On the

occasions when it had to be used, pilots were told to reduce the

noise made by the engines on take-off. It was possible to do this,

but most pilots considered it to be foolish and dangerous and

hated being told to do it. In any case, it had not stopped the

complaints from Meadowood.

'How many complaints have there been?' Mel asked.

'At least 50.'

'Don't they know there's a storm and we have a runway out of

use?'

'We try to tell them, but they don't want to listen. I hear

they're holding a meeting tonight to decide what to do next.'

More trouble, Mel thought.

He asked:'Is my brother on duty tonight?'

'Yes.'

Mel's brother, Keith, worked in Air Traffic Control.

'Is he all right? Does he seem nervous?'

The other man paused before he replied. 'Yes, he does. More

than usual. I wish I could tell him to rest, but we're short of men

already'

'I know, I know.' Recently Mel had been very worried about

Keith.

He put the phone down, and thought again about a note he

had received 15 minutes before. It was from Tanya Livingston.

She worked for Trans America as the Passenger Relations Agent,

and was a special friend of Mel's.

The note warned him that the Airlines Snow Committee, led

by Captain Vernon Demerest, was going to blame Mel for the

many flight delays. They were going to attack him for what they

believed was bad management.

Captain Vernon Demerest was one of Trans America's most

experienced pilots. He was married to Mel's sister, Sarah. The

Bakersfelds were a real "aviation family", but even with this

family connection Mel and Vernon were not friendly with one

another. Recently they had exchanged angry words at an

important meeting, and Mel felt that the critical report was a

direct result of this.

He was not really worried, because he knew that he was doing

everything he could to run the airport well. It was unpleasant to

be criticized, but his conscience was clear.

Tanya ended her note by inviting him to have a cup of coffee

with her, when he had time. Mel decided he had time now. He

always enjoyed talking to Tanya.

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