num_pages: 304
description: As news coverage raises serious questions about aircraft safety and airport security James Kaplan offers a timely behind-the-scenes account of John F. Kennedy International Airport. The Airport: Planes People Triumphs and Disasters at John F. Kennedy International achieves the impossible-it goes inside the sprawling J.F.K. to expose the lifeblood of a major metropolitan airport. Kaplan spoke with many of the key players within Kennedy's city of 44000 around-the-clock workers including administrators technicians crime investigators pilots and skycaps. He interviewed people who hold such bizarre posts as Kennedy's notorious Birdman who patrols the runways for laughing seagulls; the leader of the Beagle Brigade who uses beagles to track the illegal entry of unwanted materials; and one of the airport's medical team who must contend with airport mules men and women who smuggle drugs by ingesting large quantities of drug packets into their bodies.The Airport assesses the crucial role that deregulation has played in shaping today's airline industry producing lower fares that allow more people to fly but in a manner that feels progressively more inconvenient. Kaplan suggests that deregulation may have contributed to dangerous declines in maintenance and safety standards. In addition he examines all the other elements affecting airline safety--traffic control weather runway maintenance radar and other sensing equipment pilot and flight attendant training and disaster crews.In The Airport James Kaplan presents a panoramic intimately detailed and highly personal view of the world of flying and of a fabled airport's inner life which even the most seasoned travelers never get to see.
language: English
title: The Airport
publisher: Harper Perennial