Dallas Love Field shooting: Delays, cancellations affected 30,000

DALLAS — Aviation planners mentioned it would take no less than 24 hours for airways to catch up after a taking pictures close to ticket counters at Dallas Love Field pressured them to cancel and delay dozens of flights.

Southwest Airlines mentioned it canceled 69 flights on Tuesday in or out of its house airport. 

FlightAware reported 125 delays between Southwest, Delta Airlines and Alaska Airlines at Love Field.

In all, an estimated 30,000 passengers have been impacted ultimately when a 37-year-old girl, Portia Odufuwa, mentioned to have psychological well being points opened fireplace into the airport ceiling close to a Southwest Airlines ticketing counter.

The taking pictures occurred at 10:59 a.m. on Monday, in line with Dallas police. 

Investigators didn’t instantly announce a motive. 

A Dallas police officer returned fireplace and shot the girl within the stomach. She was taken to Parkland Hospital to be handled.

The girl opened fireplace on the far nook of Love Field’s new first-floor ticketing space – the farthest space away from the TSA checkpoints.

Even although the gunfire occurred outdoors the secured space of the airport, all screened passengers needed to come out of the gate space to be rescreened. 

Mark Duebner, Dallas’ director of aviation, mentioned about 5,000 individuals have been within the terminal and the method took a pair hours to finish.

TSA had all however one checkpoint open, Duebner added, and screening brokers stayed time beyond regulation to get everybody again via shortly.

“I was frightened in making sure none of the passengers or employees were injured but I wasn’t that surprised,” Duebner mentioned. “It is a common thing at airports across the country. We’ve learned a lot of lessons from other airports that have had active shooters. Unfortunately, it has become part of our reality.”

When passengers have been pressured out to be rescreened, all of them flooded into the airport foyer and overflowed into the skybridge that results in parking storage A. 

Most everybody remained inside. The forecasted excessive temperature in the present day was 105.

Duebner mentioned though the airport employees had ready for emergencies like this, there are nonetheless enhancements to be made.

“On a nice day moving people out to the sidewalk works really well or even out onto the aircraft ramp area. But a day like today, we just can’t run that risk of putting people outside,” he mentioned. “I think operationally we’ve got some ideas on how we can get passengers out of the heat without putting them all in the lobby.”

Mike Boyd, a veteran aviation planning advisor who runs The Boyd Group International, complimented quick-acting police however mentioned that safety wants to begin getting ready for conditions like this in order to not interrupt air journey throughout the nation.

“Remember security is not just protecting us from idiots with a .45,” he mentioned. “It’s also protecting our system. So, if we’re shut down for three to four hours because of one incident at the ticket counter that means we have a security problem that needs to be addressed.”

The taking pictures occurred in a public space earlier than anybody will get screened for firearms. Preventing such an act will probably be difficult, mentioned Jeff Price, an aviation safety skilled, who manages a agency referred to as Leading Edge Technologies.

“We can’t get ridiculous with this and be screening, all the way out to the interstates,” he mentioned, “so at some point you’re going to have a public area. So, really the best defense is what we saw – a good offense. An immediate response to the shooter and visible law enforcement are really our best defenses and then each individual taking their own responsibility to run to hide to fly to whatever they need to do during an active shooter incident.”

Despite an estimated 30,000 individuals impacted by the taking pictures, the suspect was the one particular person injured.