Six weeks after hijackers commandeered two jet airliners after takeoff from Logan Airport and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the attacks have yielded their highest political casualty in Massachusetts: Massport director Virginia Buckingham (though her reported $180,000 severance package makes the move anything but a hardship). Her resignation — helped along by Governor Jane Swift, who had to fight intense pressure from the Massport chief’s benefactors — was a timely and classy move. Hats off. But the departure of Buckingham, who held only symbolic responsibility for airport security, is not nearly enough to ensure safety at Logan.

Let’s face it. Buckingham’s job was politics, not security. More specifically, the Republican establishment charged her with winning community and political support for a third runway at Logan — a goal much cherished by Boston’s business community. Buckingham reportedly performed that job ably, even testifying in favor of the runway before the House Subcommittee on Aviation. At her side that day was Thomas Kinton, who, as Logan’s aviation director, has responsibility for airport operations. Kinton will take over as acting Massport director when Buckingham leaves on November 15.

The conventional wisdom holds that Kinton, the only Massport official with aviation experience, is an asset the airport can ill afford to lose. Yet if we accept the premise that Kinton was Massport’s only real aviation expert in the days leading up to September 11, that means accepting something else as well: that he may have been the person within the Massport bureaucracy who had ultimate responsibility for security that day. We don’t know. But this may be fruitful ground for the Carter Commission, which Governor Swift charged with studying reform at Massport.

As it happens, Massport’s board — no bastion of security experts itself — recently voted to lay off some 180 employees. Roughly half have already been notified. But these layoffs are not based on security concerns; rather, the downsizing is directed at those functions most affected by the economic downturn. Laid-off workers have included parking-garage attendants and ground-transportation workers, according to Massport spokesperson Barbara Platt. Apart from the demotion of former public-safety director Joseph Lawless, Massport has not yet taken special action on employees with authority over security at Logan.

That, of course, puts even greater pressure on the Carter Commission. As the commission completes its inquiry, it will be interesting to see whether the independent body can summon the will to give Massport the thorough evaluation it needs. Our safety could depend on it.

Issue Date: November 1 - 8, 2001