Security tight at John Wayne Airport

Deepa Bharath

Local public safety officials are on a heightened state of alert

following the “orange” alert issued by the Homeland Security

Department last week.

John Wayne Airport will implement several road closures beginning

at 4:30 a.m. today, including the Michelson Drive entrance to the

airport and the direct access road from the San Diego Freeway,

airport officials announced on Tuesday.

The closures were mandated by the Transportation Security

Administration, which hands out all directives to John Wayne Airport

as it does to other airports and agencies all over the country, said

John Wayne Airport spokesman Justin McCusker.

“We get very specific instructions about what to do with airport

security when the alert levels are raised,” he said. “The directives

we get, for example, would be different from what LAX gets because

they are several times bigger than us.”

As of today, passengers can enter the terminal roadway system from

Campus Drive to the south or the dedicated Costa Mesa Freeway offramp

from the north.

Vehicles entering the airport roadway as well as those entering

the parking structures will be subject to random inspections.

The airport has also increased staffing levels and “instituted

additional safety procedures,” said Airport Director Alan Murphy.

“While some of the increased security measures in place are

visible to the public, more sensitive procedures are not,” he said.

McCusker said passengers who are traveling during the holidays

should expect delays and plan on coming to the airport ahead of time.

“They should arrive two and a half hours prior to their scheduled

flight to allow time for parking check-in and the security screening

process,” he said.

Local public safety officials also said they were on a heightened

alert, but weren’t doing anything much different than what they have

been doing since Sept. 11, 2001.

Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol officials in Newport Beach

said they continue to look for suspicious activity in the harbor and

make sure they keep staffing levels high.

Police officers “continue to remain vigilant,” said Costa Mesa

police Lt. Dale Birney.

“But we don’t take any drastic steps till we go to the very high

or red level,” he said.