On December 25, 2024, there was a shooting at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport resulting in multiple injuries. On December 27, Daryl and I were lining up to board our flight, departing from Lambert St. Louis International airport to return to Sebring. Suddenly, blue lights started flashing everywhere, sirens were going off, and loudspeakers called for our immediate evacuation of the airport. The blasting of sirens, blue flashing lights and the words, “Evacuate Immediately, Evacuate Immediately,” continued. I looked around at the people about to board our flight. It was a full flight with over 200 people, and all, except for me, and women standing next to me, were ignoring the alarm and quite oblivious to the continued sirens and instructions to evacuate the airport immediately.
The day before, I watched the Bruce Willis movie, “Die Hard 2” where John McClane attempts to stop rogue military operatives from controlling Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. In the movie, nobody believed John McClane, or the alarms set off when a known terrorist went through a gate. John identified the terrorist and found a high-powered weapon only a terrorist would have, and kept telling the authorities, but no one would listen to him, and officials threw him out of the airport. Only a movie, and completely fictional, right? But I’m in a real airport, with real alarms, and everyone is acting like nothing was happening.
I know this alarm could be real or an accident and started looking over the area for airport personnel, security, or police, expecting someone of authority to appear in a true emergency to make us leave. Surely, if this were for real, people of authority would appear. Right? None of the men seemed concerned but the women around me were. I spoke to the woman next to me, and we talked uneasily, “What do you think? Should we leave the building or not? Is the alarm real or a mistake?” I mentioned, what if the people occupying the Twin Towers had ignored evacuation instructions like we were. That catastrophe was my first thought. Another lady told me about the shooting at the Phoenix airport, 2 days before, and we all know holidays bring out the crazies! So, what should we do?
Looking around our gate, two Southwest employees suddenly appeared at the counter and calmly paged the names of 2 travelers, while the sirens were blasting, and made no mention of us ignoring the sirens or ordering us to evacuate. And then, as if nothing had happened, people started boarding the plane. I always thought I had survivor instincts. I always look for exit signs. I usually follow the voice of authority. And yet, I stayed in a line, with everyone else, not wanting to miss the flight I had waited 5 hours to board. Have we all become too complacent? What would you have done?
