Travelers at JFK Airport react to terror caution
A police woman tests a newly installed full-body scanner at Hamburg's airport in Germany. Credit: AP, 2010
No terror alert about European travel was going to keep Bill Sponable and his Elks Lodge friends from their long-planned Rhine river tour, the retiree said as he bided the hours before takeoff with a Heineken.
"Are we going to be alert? Probably," Sponable, 58, said over lunch at Kennedy Airport's Terminal 4, about the two-week tour of Germany, Amsterdam and more ahead of them. "I may not run around waving a New York Yankees sign."
Nevertheless, the U.S. State Department released an alert Sunday cautioning Americans already in or going to Europe that terrorists could attack public transit, aviation, maritime services and "tourist infrastructure."
"Current information suggests that al-Qaida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks" in Europe, according to the alert, posted on the State Department's website.
Sunday's alert is less severe than a warning, which would urge Americans to consider not visiting at all.
Regardless, Sponable was ready to take the $3,800-per-person vacation with his wife, DeBorah, and their friends Jo Anne Netzer and Cathy Unwin, all of the Albany area.
In another part of the terminal, Europeans interviewed as they awaited their return flights home from vacations worried that the advisory could stymie tourism to the continent.
"You should warn people if there is a risk, but is there really a risk?" said Carola Schierz, 29, of Germany, who had traveled the past few weeks, with stops in New York and New England. "There's as much a risk to go to Europe as there is to go to the United States."
From her perch working as a restaurant manager, Londoner Marian Fitzgerald said she hopes that the American advisory doesn't hurt European travel the way the 9/11 terrorist attacks did.
"It dropped dramatically," said Fitzgerald, 34, as she curled up on a bench waiting for her flight.
Asked about the advisory, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg noted the city has police posted around the world who monitor terrorism.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly added: "We can't just look at Europe alone; we change some of our tactics and strategies as we do on a regular basis - you know, we're vigilant."
Separately, British authorities cautioned citizens about a "high threat of terrorism" in Germany and France.
