Sept. 12--Massport's decision to hold a fire training exercise that produced a black plume of smoke over Logan International Airport on the 9/11 anniversary yesterday stunned state officials, victims' families and the online world alike, prompting a flood of anger.
"We see the bumper stickers, we see the flags flying, and we see the T-shirts and the banners that say 'Never forget.' Clearly someone with Massport forgot," said Christie Coombs, who lost her husband, Jeff, in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "What gives them the idea it's a good idea to light a fuselage on fire as a training drill on 9/11 makes no sense. ... The fact that they thought it was OK is crazy -- and a little disturbing."
"Just dumb," Gov. Deval Patrick told reporters as he left for a 9/11 commemoration. "The timing could not be worse."
Officials posted a notification on Logan's Facebook page, warning of "smoke on the airfield" just hours after writing in a single-word status commemorating the anniversary: "Remembers."
"Obviously," one commenter wrote, "you don't."
"Hope you remember to fire the idiot who thought today was a good day for a fire drill," another posted.
Two of the flights hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, flew out of Logan. Massport later apologized in an online statement, acknowledging it "may have offended many of those touched by the events of 9/11."
A Massport spokesman refused to answer questions on the training drill, including whose decision it was to hold it yesterday, and declined to make Massport director CEO Thomas Glynn available.
State Rep. Hank Naughton, co-chairman of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, said Massport needs to "put the entire process in context," calling the "significance of this pretty startling."
"We've seen these (kinds of) situations before, and more information is better than less," Naughton said. "I would like to see what was the planning and procedure here and why this wasn't picked up on. ... The insensitivity ... is very obvious."
Marie Szaniszlo con-tributed to this report.
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