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Kommer de europeiska valen att stärka enighet eller fördjupa dela av Erik Norland 21 februari 2017 Val i Nederländerna, Frankrike och Tyskland på överraskningens häger. En röstfördelning kan antingen stärka den europeiska enheten eller fördjupa klyftan. Säkra nästa explosion i högavkastningsskuldsatser av Erik Norland 16 februari 2017 När Fed växlar upp för räntehöjningar kan en eventuell acceleration i takt med penningsträngning öka risken för att krediter sprider ballong som i 2007. Effektiva amerikanska skalproducenter en utmaning för OPEC av Bluford Putnam 14 februari 2017 Kan OPEC: s senaste produktionsnedskärningar hålla oljepriserna överlapp Kostnadseffektiva skifferproducenter i USA kommer att spela en stor roll i marknadens riktning. Futures Options TradingLove och förlust När jag säger tomahawk säger du chop Tomahawk Samtalet och svaret på Atlanta Braves All Star Grill på Concourse D leds av barchef Saundra Cage, som har tjänat och övat spirits på flygplatsen i 15 år. Mellan häller vin, öl och frysta margaritas, säger hon shes lekte terapeut, bunden med stamgäster och väntade på stjärnor. Hulk Hogan, Jane Fonda och sena Whitney Houston är de första som kommer att komma ihåg. Om en resenär anländer som redan har haft för mycket att dricka, kan Cage kompisera den personen till en order av pommes frites. Om en militärtjänsteman tar sitt säte, vet hon att någon annan oundvikligen kommer att hämta fliken. Om en kund är oförskämd påminner hon sig om att alla har en historia. Cage trodde en gång en kvinna som flyger för att besöka sin sjuka mamma och tröstade henne igen när kvinnan kom tillbaka för att begrava henne. Då var den resenär som satt i närheten vid Kristus, bröt upp med sin flickvän via telefon och berättade en intet ont anande kund som hedde ger henne en gåva i utbyte mot en kram. En snabb kram senare, när mannen gick ut genom dörren, öppnade kunden en låda för att hitta ett par 5 000 Tiffany diamantörhängen. Cage ler, kom ihåg en annan två främlingar vars möte i baren blev till något mer. Mannen bjöd in kvinnan att gå med på en resa till Los Angeles, snarare än att fånga hennes flyg till New York. När hon sa ja, köpte han henne en biljett på plats. Allting är möjligt här, säger Cage. Ingen biljett att rida Mellan resenärer och arbetare är de människor som inte hör hemma till mdash speciellt efter midnatt när flygplatsen blir tyst. Polis och medics erbjuder medkänsla tillsammans med en fast hand. 12 m. Här kan vi hjälpa dem Under de ljusa ljusen i en glas-och-krom klocka, på en svart vadderad stol sover Mi Ja Choi, hennes två bitar av svart bagage framför henne. Atlanta polis Sgt. Vito Wallace väcker henne försiktigt. Ursäkta, mamma, säger han. Mi sitter uppskräckt. Shes bär en pinstriped kostym, röda klackar och rosa nagellack. Hon har ett svart öga och blåmärken på vänster sida av ansiktet. Var vänlig och håll dina väskor nära dig, säger Wallace och plockar upp hennes bär och glider den under hennes stol. Han vet inte hur Mi skadades, men officerare har sett henne på flygplatsen innan. Hon visade först för nästan tre veckor sedan, och det här är den andra natten i rad som sov i atriumet på den inhemska terminalen. Flygplatsen har strikta regler om andra än anställda eller passagerare som använder den för logi. På en gång hade flygplatsen blivit stadens näst största hemlösa bostad, säger officerare, med så många som 100 personer som sover här på en viss natt. Flygplatsen är lätt för de hemlösa att nå sitt på Atlantas MARTA transiteringssystem, det sista stoppet på sydlinjen. Men då började staden spricka ner på de hemlösa på flygplatsen. Befälhavare bär kopior av den relevanta stadskoden som skrivs in på plånbokstorlek. De delar ut det till personer som de ser som inte har affärer på flygplatsen. Logi, enligt lagen, betyder att du sover eller förblir under en tid i något av de offentliga områdena i flygplatsen för att sova. Men Wallace frågar inte Mi att lämna. Han vet att hon är i något slags problem. Hon bär ett sydkoreansk pass och en Georgia körkort. Hon tror att hon kan ha skadats i Concourse F, säger Wallace. Men hon säger också att hon kanske har drömt. Wallace säger att hon kan få demens. Skulle inte sparka ut henne, säger han. Om vi ​​gör ska vi bli offer. Officer som Wallace patrullerar flygplatsen med vaksamhet. Bland resenärer och arbetare finns de på samhällets kant som uppstår av andra skäl: att hitta skydd för natten, fly från en grov situation eller försök att stjäla bagage. APD-veteranen har sett några galna saker i sina tre år som tillsynsman på flygplatsen. Gilla den hemlösa mannen som var borta från sin meds och sprang nakna genom bagageanspråk. Eller en annan som försvann i atriumet. Hes har också sett saker som tar ner honom, även efter två decennier på polisstyrkan. Han kan inte stå för att se mammor ta med små barn här med ingen annanstans att gå. Det verkar som de reser, med sitt bagage och allt, säger han. Men det är de inte. För att vara ärlig, Id snarare kommer de hit. Åtminstone här kan vi hjälpa dem. 12:30 m. En varning och en 5 räkning Vid ca 12:30, Sgt. Vito Wallace leder över för att möta officerare Jeanet Franklin och hennes partner, officer Willie Arnold, som patrullerar de offentliga områdena på flygplatsen under de fina timmarna på sina T3-elektriska bilar. Atlanta polis har cirka 18 av dem på flygplatsen, tillsammans med gammaldags cyklar. Han finner Arnold och Franklin av US Airways biljetträknare i Nord Terminal. Dess 12:45 när Franklins radio knäcker. Jag har en 54, säger hon. Det är koden för en misstänkt person. Polisen tror att det är en lång vit man som arbetar som bagage tjuv. Det är inte så ovanligt. Det finns professionella tjuvar som svävar runt ankomstområdet och väntar på att göra av med passagerarkassar. Snart kommer ett meddelande om bagagekarusellerna att stängas om fem minuter. Franklin och Wallace går mot North Terminal bagage krav område. Franklin ser en man som ser disheveled och disoriented. Flygplatserna som vill gå och sova, berättar Franklin för honom. Vad heter du? Du har ett MARTA-kort OK. Tja, få dig en där inne. Wallace tar ut sin plånbok och händer Suleiman en 5 bill. Det sista jag vill ha är att han ska stanna här, säger Wallace. Därmed eskaleras Suleiman till MARTA-plattformen för det nordvästra tåget. Hes på väg till Bankhead stationen, på tunnelbanans system northwestväst. Jag har en rolig känsla att han kommer att komma tillbaka, säger Wallace. Poliserna går ut till kanten och letar efter den misstänkta bagagediefen. Under dagen stannar bilar stötfångare till stötfångare, men nu är det inte ett enda parkerat fordon. Det är en gata sopare himlen. Vid 1:05 leds Franklin en misstänkt tillbaka till flygplatsområdet. Hed hängde i bagage på fyra nätter och hade ändrat sin berättelse om varför han var på flygplatsen. Detta är bara en varning, hon berättar mannen efter att ha tagit sin rånskott och slår in sin information i ett tjockt vitt tre-ringsband som är en parad av liknande misstänkta. Hon berättar att han kommer att arresteras nästa gång han hämtade sig så här. Då följer polisen honom tillbaka till MARTA-stationen. Tecknet på dörren är en indikation om att flygplatsen kommer att gå in i avstängningsläge. Det sista tåget avgår klockan 1:18. En man som bara ger sitt namn som Suleiman sveper ett MARTA-kort och leder till det nordvästra tåget. Officer Jeanet Franklin förklarar bindemedlen som håller reda på personer som har fått varningar för brottsligt intrång. 1:54 p. m. Stulna bilar mdash eller bara saknas Flygplatsen är inte platsen för alltför många brott, och de som uppstår är lika våldsamma som de som polisen ser downtown. Ibland krossar allvarlig brottslighet i mdash som tiden i mars när en skytten kapade en flygbuss och skjuts upp vid polisen. Vanligtvis ser det ut som att listan över händelsedetektiver granskas idag vid sitt veckovisa möte: En grill rippade av en Buick 1986, en stulen mobiltelefon, en saknad tablett, solglasögon tagna från en ryggsäck, en Kate Spade-handväska ryckte från inuti en resväska. Den här veckan har vi en ny fråga med automatisk stöld, säger Maj Lane Lane Hagin, som leder till flygplatsområdet för Atlanta Police Department. Rymnet av ett passande MARTA-tåg raser sitt kontor i den inhemska terminalen. Hittills har sex bilar rapporterats stulna från en hyresanläggning på flygplatsen. Kombinera det med en som rapporterats förra veckan, och det ser inte bra ut. Det är fortfarande oklart, detektorer säger, om någon stjäl bilarna eller det är ett problem med uthyrningsföretag, som måste hålla reda på hundratals bilar varje dag. Detektiverna säger att de sätter upp möten för att räkna ut det. Jag uppskattar att Hagin berättar för dem. Även med hjälp av cirka 1800 säkerhetskameror är det inte ett lätt jobb för officerare att patrullera en flygplats där 58 000 personer arbetar och i genomsnitt 250 000 passagerare reser dagligen. Det är en stad där ute, säger Hagin. En gång sökte polisen efter en kvinnas saknade katt på flygplatsen i ett par veckor. Så småningom fann de katten Sgt. Azie Horne säger, någonstans ner i bagageanspråk. 8:15 m. Det blir upptagen efter frukost Winston Bowers har svårt på jobbet på Fire Rescue Station 32. Han har en stekpanna med ägg, bönor, paprika, lök och markalkalkon. I en kastrull brandstorlek storlek han har grits. Du kommer inte svälta med mig, säger han. Det handlar om när vi äter. Efter det blir det upptaget. Snart gör Bowers sitt meddelande över högtalarna: Callin all hawgs till tråget. Ett dussin hungriga män får sin fyllning av sina läckra frukostburritor, tvättas med sirapaktig tranbärsjuice. Paramedikerna har inte haft tid att rensa bordet när samtalet kommer in vid 8:51. Det är en ögonskada. Medic 3 mdash en 10-årig ambulansmdash drar ut ur stationen. Lt. Jimmy Garner, 41, och hans besättning Sgt. Yappett Scott, 38, och brandman Daniel Johnson, 34 vindar runt banorna när de leder till norra terminalen. När ambulansen drar upp till kanten, hoppar paramedicinerna ut med en sträckare och hustrar över till polisområdet. Atlanta polis Sgt. Vito Wallace berättar för dem att han har en koreansk kvinna som klagar på en riktigt dålig huvudvärk. Hennes namn är Mi Ja Choi, och hon har ett svart öga. Scott försöker ställa frågor till henne. Hes sa att hon inte talar engelska bra men att hon vill gå till ett sjukhus. Paramedikerna kontrollerar hennes hjärtslag, hennes blodtryck. Shes varit här en stund, säger Wallace. Hon är 62 år gammal. Wallace hade sett henne sova bredvid sitt bagage i atriumet vid midnatt. Det är inte första gången shes tillbringade natten på flygplatsen. Är hon en Georgien bosatt Garner frågar. Hon har Georgia uppgifter. Hon har andra familjemedlemmar här men hon ger oss inte den informationen. Hon vill inte att vi ska kontakta dem. Hon berättade för tolk att hon drabbades av en bil. Men jag tvivlar på att det kom från en bil, säger Wallace om blåmärkena på hennes ansikte. Garner bestämmer sig för att ta henne till Atlanta Medical South i den närbelägna staden East Point. Dess närmaste sjukhus. Det är också där han föddes. Upprepade försök att nå Mi eller hennes familj har misslyckats. Klockan 10:45 Medicin eller socialt arbete Efter ett stopp på sjukhuset återgår besättningen på Medic 3 till Brandstation 32, som ligger bredvid asfalten nära Concourse A. Men klockan 10:45 är paramedikerna ute igen. En anställd på en taxibås har bröstsmärtor. Ibland måste besättningen behandla människor som känner sig sjuka på grund av flygens ångest. Ibland kan någon till och med ha en hjärtinfarkt. Flygmedicinen ser högre än normala fall av trombos i blodet (blodproppar i venerna) och lungemboli (blockering av artärer i lungorna) som är kopplade till långa flygningar. Och de måste också svara på de snyggaste sakerna med saker som får resenärer att arbeta upp. Om de klibbar ett finger eller stubbar en tå tror de, åh, vi kan ringa medicsna, säger Sgt. Yappett Scott. En gång i veckan utmanar någon rulltrappan. Rulltrappen förblir obesegrad. En person ringde till och med på grund av våta fötter. Det är frustrerande, säger Lt Jimmy Garner. Killarna på besättningen befinner sig ofta som socialarbetare och kundtjänstagenter. En passagerare blir sjuk. Garner måste behandla honom och boka sedan honom på nästa flygning eller få honom ett flygbolag eller hotellkupong. Eller ibland måste Garner övertala en patient att bedriva vård. Många människor vill avstå från behandling så att de kan fortsätta med nästa steg på resan, så de saknar en flygning. Ändå är det ett jobbigt jobb, särskilt på flygplatsen, där den tydliga möjligheten till flygkrasch hänger tungt varje dag. Från deras station sitter Garner och hans besättning praktiskt taget på landningsbanan och tittar på att jets tar av och landar hela dagen. När en tragedi som en flygkrasch händer någonstans, är det så mycket svårare att hålla fokus. I maj kraschade en buss buss och skadade 16 personer. Det var som att försöka organisera en tallrik spaghetti, säger Garner. Scott avslutar sin tanke. Men du kan inte låta scenen överväldiga dig. Atlanta Fire Rescue Department Lt Jimmy Garner går på asfalten. Det är deras stad 12:19 p. m. Han måste vara på sitt spel Ron Levitz gränser in i korridoren utanför AirTran flygsalong. En trimman med uppbyggnad av distanslöpare och en snittig klippning, utstrålar Levitz energi. AirTran-piloten arbetade en gång vid olika kontor jobb. Jag hatade det, säger han. Flyga är hans första kärlek. När han var en pojke fick han faktiskt gåsabunter första gången han såg ett plan att ta av sig. Men att översätta sin kärlek till en karriär tog år. Tävlingen om ett pilotsjobb på ett större flygbolag är hård. Flygplanet och fördelarna är bra, säger Levitz, och en pilot kan göra upp till 200 000 per år. Theres också den rena roliga med att flyga. Bra piloter kan inte leva i det ögonblick som de måste förutse vad som kan hända om fem minuter eller 10. Theres ingen flygning är detsamma, säger han. Varje gång jag kommer i flygplanet får det mig att tänka. Det gör mig att utvärdera. Det håller mig på tårna. Du är aldrig uttråkad. Varje gång du går till jobbet utmanar du dig. Har han någonsin mött ett nära samtal. Har varit nervös i cockpiten. Absolut, säger han. Theres inte en pilot som skulle berätta något annat. Det finns tillfällen när du har en situation i cockpiten när något störs eller det är väderrelaterade förseningar, som snö eller dimma. Du måste verkligen vara på ditt spel. Piloter måste passa lika bra. De måste passera rigorösa medicinska tentor var sjätte månad och genomföra omfattande flygsimulatortest varje år. Levitz började flyga på 19 och har inga planer på att stanna. De flesta piloterna där ute har en passion för sitt jobb, säger han. Om du inte älskar det, kunde du inte göra det här jobbet, för att du är hemma mycket och det finns så många saker du måste lägga upp med. Han skulle inte ha det på något annat sätt. Det finns några dagar när jag flyger som jag bara tittar ut ur fönstret och jag känner mig som Im den lyckligaste killen i världen. 9:30 m. Det tar T till tango Med en hand i sina mammor och den andra som klämmer i handtaget på sin rosa Barbie-resväska, går en liten tjej av tåget mot T-portarna, parroting vad shes precis hört. T som i tango, säger hon och hoppar sedan. T som i tango. Meddelanden om flygplanets tågsticka med resande som visste från stopp för att sluta. För vissa, inklusive tre unga kvinnor, sparkar de giggles. De senaste högskoleexamen kan inte innehålla sig efter att ha hört: Nästa stopp är för B-grindar. B som i bravo. B som i bootylicious de squeal som svar. En kvinna viskar till mannen bredvid henne, E som i eko, som hon lutar in för en kyss. En ung pojke crinkles pannan i pussel innan han säger, F som i foxtrot Att vara rösten på flygplatsens tunnelbanan, kallad Plane Train, kan vara surrealistisk. Fråga bara Sharon Feingold, som nu bor i Asheville, North Carolina, men hör själv när hon reser genom hennes hemstad flygplats. Hon kan höras på Plane Train samt SkyTrain, som reser utanför flygplatsen till hotell, en hyrbil och ett kongresscenter. Feingold, som i hennes mitten av 30-talet, var en student av den sena Paul Armbruster, vars röst hotar med sig att släpa folkens bilar utanför Delta-bagageanspråk. Plane Train gig, mer än några shes hade, tjänar hennes uppmärksamhet på osannolika platser. Jag var på en geekkonvention, säger hon, och folk bad om autografer på grund av detta tåg. 2:00 I bagageanspråk, stolthet och precision, sträcker William Talton på ett vakuum som ser ut som ryggsäcken Bill Murray hade i Ghostbusters. Vem du ska ringa, han skämt, påkallar den berömda raden. Referensen är lämplig, bagageutrymmesområdet ser ut som en spökstad. Dess 2 a. m. och flygplatsen är nästan öde utom för nattrengöringsbesättningen. En kvinna dammar bakom flygbolaget biljetträknare och en tvåpersoners besättning byter glödlampor i armaturer som hänger 20 meter över huvudet. Talton ansvarar för att 19 bagagekaruseller hålls rena. Han använder en mejsel för att frigöra bagageförpackningar, godisförpackningar och annat skräp fast i karusellbladet. Han sprutar en flytande graffitiavlägsnare på varje blad och använder en mopp för att städa upp. Citrusluften genomtränger det stora bagageutrymmet. Talton detaljer Carousel No. 3 med precisionen hos en fin guldsmedare. Varje torsdag utförs flygplatsens tjänstemän en inspektion. Hes misslyckades aldrig en. Jag brukade arbeta som kundservicedirektör på Sprint, du vet, säger han. De har outsourcat mitt jobb till Indien. Det var för fem år sedan, då lågkonjunkturen tog fart. Talton förlorade sitt hus, hans bil. Han tog flygplatsen för att undvika hemlöshet. Det gjorde jag av desperation. Han säger att han gör 7,70 en timme. Det var vad han gjorde som en 14-årig pojke. Jag hade inte råd att låta stolthet komma i vägen, säger han och går tillbaka till sin mopping. Den första flygningen anländer om två timmar. 560 anställda arbetar för att hålla flygplatsen rena 57.75 ton skräp samlas i genomsnitt varje dag. Källa: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Kelley Gregory tar en paus från att rengöra golv före soluppgången. 2:13 m. Konstnären på jobbet Southwest bagage claims area ser ut som ett övergiven filmuppsättning. Ingen ligger bakom biljetträknaren, och den yttre trafiken utanför har förångat sig. Whir av en golvbuffert bryter tystnaden. Bobby Williams trycker metodiskt en propanbrännare över linoleumgolvet nära ingången till atriet. Hans kropp är där, men hans sinne är på hans tro och drömmar. Williams vill vara någon annanstans fem år från nu. Han är en mjukt talad man med klumpiga kinder. Jag skulle vilja äga egen städservice, säger han. Jag har bara en passion för vad jag gör. Jag älskar att göra golv. Jag älskar att se dem lysa. Williams kallar sig en golveteknik, och han har bara varit på jobbet i sex månader. Hes är fortfarande van vid att sova under dagen och saknar tid med sin 15-årige son, Bobby Jr. Han ser sig som en konstnär, och flygplatsens golv är hans duk. Några besökare komplimangerar hans arbete andra går förbi när han är där och behandlar honom med likgiltighet. Williams tro bär honom genom mallen. På sina raster tittar han på kristna filmer på sin smartphone. Han deltar World Changers Church International, en megachurch i förorten Atlanta. Hes fan av kyrkans pastor, Creflo Dollar. Hes jordnära säger Williams om Dollar. Han slår hem med många saker jag behöver höra. När jag går är det som att han har en konversation med mig. Williams säger att hans tro uppmuntrar honom att tro på sin dröm. Det ger mig hopp om att allt kommer att bli till nytta och lär mig att tro på saker som är högre än mig själv, säger Williams. Om jag har en dålig dag säger jag bara att det blir bättre. Solen kommer att stiga imorgon, och allt kommer att passera. Och en dag kommer Williams att måla sin egen duk. Underhållsarbetare Frank Edmondson har de olika nycklarna som han behöver för att göra sitt jobb. 3:52 am Jag älskar bara att göra badrum Anita Daniel glider på ett par skyddsglasögon, griper med en vakuummaskinens slang och rullar den in i ett tomt badrum på Concourse T. Hon vrider omkopplaren och maskinen rinner till liv, som låter som en bogserbåt foghorn. Daniel har städat badrum på flygplatsen i sju år. Dess klockan 3:52 och shes djupt in i hennes 10:45 p. m. till 6:45 am shift. Jag älskar bara att göra badrum, säger hon. Jag gör verkligen. Dess fredliga. Jag är här själv. Även när hon omges av resenärer kan Daniel känna sig ensam. Män kommer ofta att ignorera hennes städningstecken och pråm in i badrummet medan shes där. De kan vara mycket respektlöst, säger hon. Jag är en dam. Och jag renar badrummen. Jag har inget val för att det är mitt jobb. De kommer att gå in på mig och se mig och gå in och använda badrummet. Ingen respekt. Och så ser de på dig som om du invaderar deras integritet. Hon har en ritual för att kanalisera sin ilska. Hon berättar de oförskämda männen vad hon tycker om dem efter att de lämnar badrummet. Jag gör det bara privat, säger hon. Jag mumlar bara till mig själv. Hon har inte dessa problem med kvinnor. Några av de trevligaste människorna är kvinnor, säger Daniel. De ska se mig jobba och berätta för mig hur trevligt ett jobb jag gör och tacka mig för att hålla allt rent. Det får dig att må bra, för någon att komplimera dig på ditt arbete. Daniels mor, Louise, arbetade också för städservice och lärde henne att göra sitt bästa. Det kan bli otäckt, säger hon, men jag brukade det. Jag brukade vara en svag mage, men när jag började städa badrum gick det bort. Arbetet får inte vara glamoröst, men Daniel säger att det finns värdighet i allt arbete. Jag förstår bara inte folk som inte arbetar, säger hon. Hur bor du som en människa och jobbar inte Ive har jobbat sedan jag var 18, och nu Im 52. Jag är en arbetande person. 3:15 p. m. Guds män gör rundorna Frank Colladay bär en neon gul och orange väst över sin tweed jacka. På baksidan står det Chaplain. Klockan 3:15 Han börjar en lång promenad till Concourse D. Här spelar han rollen som god samaritan, letar efter resenärer i nöd. Han måste bestämma när man ska fråga om någon behöver hjälp. Ibland är det ett hårt samtal. Han vill inte inkräkta. På denna dag närmar han sig en passagerare som ser sig vilse. Shes försöker räkna ut hur man kommer till port D23 för att fånga ett flyg till Charlotte, North Carolina och sedan till Rom. Kom igen, säger han, följ mig. Colladay är pensionerad från ministeriet, även om han fortfarande är en pastor emeritus vid Dahlonega Presbyterian Church, ca 90 minuter norr om flygplatsen. Varje onsdag kör han ner för att hjälpa till på flygplatsens chaplains kontor. Chefskappan, Chester Cook, säger att arbetet inte är så mycket om tro som det handlar om kundtjänst. För några veckor sedan hjälpte Cook till att köpa Greyhound-biljetter till fyra unga vänner vars bil sköts. En gång kom en läkare in för att träffa honom. Jag är en rik man, sade han till Cook, men min plånbok har stulits, och jag behöver 38 för att få min bil ut ur parkeringsplatsen. Andra har allvarligare problem. Kanske är de på väg till en begravning. Eller söker skydd på flygplatsen på grund av våld i hemmet. För de 58 000 flygplatsanställda är den lilla mellanstatliga kapellet i det inhemska atriumet deras kyrka. Precis som soldaterna känner sig bättre när de ser en kapell i foxhålet, finner flygans anställda och passagerare kapellet att vara tillflykt på ett ställe med gott om möjlighet till ångest. Jag såg en äldre kvinna framför en AirTran-räknare som grät en gång, säger Cook. Hon var rädd för flygningen. Tidigare på sommaren handlade han om en passagerares självmord i den internationella terminalen. Hans kontor ligger bredvid USO, och han talar ofta med soldater som lider av kampspänning. Skrapade bara ytan, men säger Cook. Hjälpte 10 eller 15 personer om dagen. Det finns 150 fler som vi inte hjälpte. Flygplatsen är så stor. I Colladays första skift på flygplatsen hjälpte han en kvinna som återvände till sitt inhemska Kina för att förnya sitt pass. Han var tvungen att navigera i byråkratier från amerikanska kinesiska och Delta Air Lines. Det var nog att göra den här kaplanen. 8:12 p. m. Hes förbannade sig Han berättar för folk att hålla ögonen på sitt bagage. Han näver dem om ombordstigningssekvensen. Han beställer dem att plocka upp sina trötta ben och schlep till en annan grind. Alla de irriterande sakerna, det vill säga jag, säger Tony Messano, av Alpharetta, Georgien, vars röst kan höras i Delta-terminaler över hela världen. Dess 8:12 p. m. och resenärer till Buenos Aires behandlas till ett portmeddelande av Messano. Flight 101 med service till Buenos Aires, hans inspelade röst berättar alla, är avgående samling E som i eko, grind 8. Messano har gjort röstarbete i 25 år. Hes inspelade nummer, namn på destinationer och grindbokstäver så att alla variationer kan styras samman på en dator för att göra nödvändiga meddelanden. Han säger att han förbannade sig när hans röst berättade för honom att flytta till en portbyte. Och han fick det stinka ögat från sin egen fru. De var på Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, satt i porten och hade en fin konversation, när hans röst höll ihop. Hon ger mig en bländning som Stopp avbryter mig, säger han. Och jag är väl, det är jag, men det är jag inte. Dessa dagar testas hans röst för användning med liknande teknik i New York City tunnelbanesystem. Om han landar det jobbet, säger han, jag föreställer mig att det kommer att innebära mycket förbanning och skrik på toppen av mina lungor i stället för den milda prodding jag gör för Delta. Messano är dock inte den enda som gör meddelanden i Delta-terminaler. Vid alternativa grindar adresserar en kvinnlig röst resenärer. Det hör till Susan Bennett i Sandy Springs, Georgia, som brukade vara Plane Trainets röst. Hon kom till arbetet på 1970-talet av misstag. Hon var en jingelsångare, visade sig för ett jobb, och talangtalan var en no-show. Bennett, som fortfarande sjunger och är i ett band, blev ombedd att fylla i. Nu kan hennes röst höras på Delta-grindar över hela världen. Hon kan också höras i reklamfilmer, på GPS-system och på företags telefonsystem. Bennetts största anspråk på berömmelse I Amerika är hon den ursprungliga rösten till Siri, den virtuella personliga assistenten för Apple iPhones. CNN avslöjade Bennetts alter ego tidigare i höst. Jag slutar prata med mig ganska mycket, säger hon. Skyller hon någonsin, Nej, svarar hon. Jag vill inte skada mina känslor. 9:45 p. m. Storebror vet var du parkerade Det är slutet på en lång dag för Laura Wilt ja, efternamnet är verkligen stavat som en döende blomma och nu shes i panik. Hon kan inte hitta sin parkeringsbiljett och har ingen aning om var hon lämnade sin bil tidigt i morse. Hennes mamma drabbades av en stroke och hon rusade ner till Tampa, Florida, för att prata med läkarna. Nu vill hon bara göra hem till Dallas i förorterna Paulding County. Wilt kontrollerar fickorna på sina kungliga blå mager jeans. Hon ser inuti sin plånbok. Kontrollerar avdelningarna på hennes fortsättning. Wilt blir orolig när hjälp kommer fram på en Segway. Föraren är Timothy J. Watkins, operationschef för artighet och skåpbilar. Han och två dussin anställda kryssar runt att hjälpa människor som har förlorat sina parkeringsstubbar. På en plats med mer än 30 000 utrymmen händer det ungefär 400 gånger i månaden. De ger också cirka 500 hopp-startar i månaden. Watkins har en volley av frågor för Wilt: När kom hon in Vilken motorväg tog hon? Vilken parti parkerade hon? Minns hon hennes bilmärkesnummer. Det finns en metod för den här galningen. Flygplatsen har ett system för styrbilar till den långsiktiga parkeringsplatsen A, B och C. Så att veta vilken dag Wilt anlände kan erbjuda en ledtråd. Så kan kamerorna som fotograferar märkskylten på varje bil som går in i partierna. Lastbilar med kameror kör också runt varje natt och fotograferar taggarna på parkerade bilar. Så om du har din registrering eller känner till ditt taggnummer kan din bil hittas i datorn. Wilt gör en mer genom hennes ägodelar. Hon dumper ut innehållet i två påsar. Åh, vänta, snap Wilt unzips en sidoficka i hennes väska och säkert nog, där är det: en rosa biljett. Bussförare Ron Dellingham tar henne rakt mot A lot. Hennes grå Sonata är parkerad i avsnitt 19A. Laura Wilt är på väg hem. Hopp och spänning 11:59 p. m. Ett tecken på kärlek John Mann slumpar bredvid en papperskorgen på baksidan av det roped-off ankomsterna, som fiddlar med sin mobiltelefon. Trafiken flödade bättre än väntat, och nu är han fast med tiden att döda och väntar med en ljus orange apelsinaffisch på hans knä. Välkommen Hem Susie, säger det, med jag hjärtan U scribbled i ett hörn. John träffade först Susie när de var 9 år och utövade sig i en skolproduktion av Alice in Wonderland. Hon var Alice. Han var Cheshire Cat. Decennier senare och en kontinent från varandra, återkopplades de på Facebook. De började prata varje natt, sedan besöka varandra på helgerna. Hon flyttade till Seattle, där han bodde. Han föreslog henne på Super Bowl Sunday i 2010, hängde ett tecken över eldstaden som sa att kommer du att gifta dig med mig Hon sa ja. Theyre gifta sig nu, och de har inte varit långt ifrån varandra. Susies varit borta från deras förorts Atlanta hem för bara några dagar och hjälper hennes mamma att flytta till Houston. Men John vet att det varit en tuff vecka, och han vill få henne att le. Den här typen av ögonblick spelar ut hela tiden på världens mest trafikerade flygplats. Mitt i brådska, kaoset, flödet av fottrafik, finns det förväntade återföreningar, fruktade farväl och mänskliga utbyten mdash stora och små mdash medan folk väntar. Susie hade alltid velat att någon skulle hålla ett tecken för henne på flygplatsen. Men John hade aldrig modet. Hon är utbildad sångare och skådespelerska, den som verkligen vet hur man ska skina på scenen. Han är en mjukvaruutvecklare mdash mer av en bakom kulisserna kille. Men igår bestämde John att han satte sig där ute. Ett kit med glitter och limpinnar och utskuren brev senare, här är han. Att göra det var lätt, säger han, men går genom flygplatsen med det var inte. Folk stirrar. Han undviker blicken och ser ner på sin telefon. Klockan 11:45 p. m. han checkar online och ser att Southwest Flight 51 har landat. Han springer i position, planterar sig på framsidan av ankomstområdet. Han rekviserar tecknet med ena handen och stirrar intensivt på rulltrapporna som tar dagbassänger av passagerare till bagage. Däremot är det nästan midnatt, och rulltrapporna som tidigare packats med människor rullar nu upp mestadels tomma. Theres en man i en kostym, ett par som ser förlorade, men inget tecken på Susie. John tittar på sin telefon igen och tittar sedan på avstånd, mot en tom presentaffär. Plötsligt ökar ett hav av människor upp rulltrapporna. Susie går av och vandrar till höger och skannar de spridda klumparna av människor framför henne. Hon ser inga kända ansikten, hon vänder sig till vänster och går några steg framåt. Den ljusa orangesignalen fångar ögat och hon stannar i sina spår. John ser på andra sidan. Men om några sekunder möts deras ögon. John blinkar ett Cheshire Cat grin. Han står upp och ser stolt ut. Hon går mot honom och strålar. Jag gjorde ditt tecken, säger han. Jag älskar dig. 5:49 p. m. Väntar på stil Efter att ha missat hennes anslutning till Omaha, Nebraska, går Joanne Ford av vad hon inte kan kontrollera och sänker sig i en spa-stol. Affärsresenären, som arbetar inom hälsovård IT, är på väg varje vecka. Den här dagen började klockan 8:30 i Rochester, New York, och hon har timmar att gå innan hon sover. Men som närliggande affärsman vars ansikte planteras i en massagestol lärde hon sig att göra det bästa av hennes ofta utökade layovers. Att få manikyr och pedikyr på XpresSpa är en del av borren. Det är inte som att hon har tid att skämma bort sig själv när hon är hemma i Honey Creek i Iowa. Varför inte göra det på flygplatsen Colin Lam, som har lämnat Ford's naglar, har arbetat på denna butik på Concourse A i mer än ett och ett halvt år. Han säger att han ofta spelar psykiater, pratar med kunder om alla möjliga problem jobben woes, relation snafus, du heter det. Lättare snällare, speciellt med tanke på att folket tittar på flygplatsens erbjudanden, blir ofta modkritiker. I just saw one today and said, Wow, says Ford, shaking her head at the memory of the traveler in 6-inch heels and a tight cougar-skin dress. Then she stood up and I said, Wow. And then she fell out and I said, Wow Another traveler, getting his feet rubbed one seat over, leans back and smiles. A woman fully reclined in a chair around the corner, getting her temples massaged, appears to be in a blissed-out slumber. People come in in a sour mood, and once they leave their whole disposition has changed, Lam says. We love bad weather. 7:45 p. m. Welcome home, Holly Planted in the arrivals lobby, a banner and loved ones await Holly Houston, 31. For a year and a half shes been in Brisbane, Australia, on a Christian mission with Operation Mobilization. Her mothers camera phone is poised, ready to capture the daughter shes missed as she comes up and off the escalator to see them. Next to her parents are friends from childhood, high school, church and college. All of them crane their necks and hold their breath, scanning the faces of travelers as they stream in. Finally, they release a collective squeal as she runs into their arms. 12:04 a. m. First-time jitters Kunyu Harun Henu is slumped over in a blue padded seat, 8,000 miles from home. He started flying 25 hours ago mdash and still has another day to go. The journey might unsettle any traveler. But for Henu, a 39-year-old pastor from Kiserian, Kenya, the problem is nerves. This is his first time flying. The planes trembling during takeoff is what first got him. The man sitting next to him sensed his fear. This is normal, he told Henu. Planes rattle during takeoff, and sometimes they hit turbulence in the air. After he explained, I was OK, Henu says. His plan was to fly from Nairobi to London, then Atlanta, then St. Louis before finally heading to Missouri State University to start his masters degree in religious studies. The whole trip was supposed to take about a day. But after a nine-hour layover in London, a problem with a passenger forced a two-hour delay on the tarmac. And that delay caused Henu to miss his connecting flight in Atlanta to St. Louis. Thats why he finds himself almost alone in the middle of the night in Atlantas massive new International Terminal. He cant fly to Missouri for another eight hours. Other travelers might have grown agitated by the snafus. Not Henu. No airline is immune to problems, he says. In life, people expect everything to be perfect. Thats human nature. When theres a problem, they want someone to blame. But things happen. Granted, Henu is exhausted and barely able to lift his eyelids. But he refuses to sleep. Who knows what could happen to his belongings mdash one big suitcase full of clothes and a smaller suitcase packed with books So the first-time flier sits and waits, making small talk with the occasional passer-by. 9:15 a. m. Happy any hour There are many ways to drive a person to drink at the airport mdash at any hour of the day. But under Georgia law, the person can only buy that drink after 9 a. m. Monday through Saturday, and after noon on Sundays. People are sitting here before 9 a. m. just waiting, says Atlanta Hawks Bar Grill bartender Brooke Hunnings. Its 9:15 a. m. and a man and his brother are having breakfast. Another man has already bellied up to the bar for a Bloody Mary. Sisters from Bogota, Colombia, wait for their connecting flight to visit family in Canada after spending three hours in customs. 10:20 a. m. Headed north, armed with tradition Chad Spicer is the kind of guy who thinks nothing of wearing cowboy boots, a hefty belt buckle and silver jewelry through airport security. I just take it all off and shove everything in a bag beforehand. But I usually need four to five trays to get everything through, he says, laughing. Hes also the kind of guy who looks completely at home sitting in a bank of empty chairs at gate C21, wearing a pair of dark aviator sunglasses while munching on a foil-wrapped Chick-fil-A breakfast sandwich. An artist and graphic designer, Spicer splits his time between New Orleans and a farm just over the state line in Mississippi, where several other artists live and work on their own projects. Each piece of art he wears has a story. His belt buckle bears a javelina in relief, recalling his childhood pastime of boar hunting. Its a family tradition on his fathers side, which includes Choctaw and Cherokee roots. An ex-girlfriend made him the silver ring with a druse meteorite stone. He lost it once at New Yorks LaGuardia airport, but someone turned it in. When he called to inquire about it, the person on the phone said he knew someone was going to want it back, and sent it to him free of charge. His older brother made the brown and white bracelet from carved wood and bird bones. Theyre close, and now that his brothers children have left for college he has more time to spend with Spicer, which is what brings him to Atlanta today. Hes connecting through Hartsfield-Jackson from New Orleans on his way to Minneapolis, where his brother lives. Theyve got a big hunting and fishing trip planned in northern Minnesota up toward Canada. Theyll use every scrap of whatever they kill, just the way they did growing up in rural Louisiana. 2:15 p. m. Flight-ready faces Its that time of the day when its relatively slow at the MAC cosmetics store in the new International Terminal, allowing employees a chance to try out new products and hone their skills. Today, theyre practicing layering effects with new eye shadow colors. Most of the time, people wander in to kill time without anything particular in mind, says the store manager, who declines to give her name, citing company policy. Other times, people pick up items they forgot. Do they get a lot of business Yes, she says. Youd be surprised. 6:15 p. m. Tending the flock Tim Ferrill, 33, gingerly navigates his way through the crowded gate at A29. Hes on crutches, his right leg in a brace. The torn ACL mdash courtesy of a soccer game played with his five brothers in Birmingham, Alabama, where his family was just visiting mdash makes this days journey more complicated, especially for his 28-year-old wife, Jodi. Theyre awaiting their second flight of the day, this one to Denver, and they are far from alone. In the area along the wall that the familys claimed, Jodis doling out single French fries to their five young children, with the fluidity and calm instincts of a mother bird. All under age 8, the two youngest sit in the bulky stroller, the one she loads up with all the stuff Tim cant carry. Small backpacks are scattered about, the responsibility of the older three kids, who are accustomed to pitching in. I know how to fold shirts, pants and shorts, boasts Seth, 4, before spinning around and squawking for another fry. With such a large brood, the Ferrills have a system. They face challenges one at a time, pack light and pray a lot, says Jodi. One thing that makes this easier is we home-school, adds Tim. The kids are used to being together. Theyve been on the road for nearly three weeks now. Once they arrive in Denver, theyll stay with friends for two days before road-tripping back home to Southern California. Weve got a 15-passenger van, Tim says. Room to grow. 2:20 a. m. For the love of a son Denise Sardinha wasnt supposed to be here, sitting all alone in front of gate F10 in the middle of the night. She should be asleep in her San Francisco home, getting ready to send her 7-year-old son, David, to his first day of school in the morning. Instead, she is 2,400 miles away, waiting to pick up her boy after a booking mishap sent her scrambling across the country. He was visiting his dad in the middle part of Brazil, says Sardinha, who is also Brazilian. Because hes 7, hes not supposed to have a connecting flight. Sardinha thought she had resolved that problem by paying a 100 unaccompanied minor fee, but after she booked she found out that Delta wont allow connecting flights for children under the age of 8 traveling alone. So she had to take two days off work from her housecleaning business and jump on a four-hour flight to Atlanta to meet her son and accompany him to San Francisco. David, meanwhile, had to miss his previously scheduled flight and wait another day. I wasnt happy at all. He starts school tomorrow, Sardinha says. Then I felt better flying with him to San Francisco because that made him feel more secure. Shes been sitting at the Atlanta airport for five hours, with another three hours to go until she sees her son. Before this trip, the longest shed gone without being with him is two days. Now, its been two months. She passes the time watching clips of the recent MTV Video Music Awards on her laptop. And behind the weary look on her face is the excitement of a mother who cant wait to embrace her little boy. 10:29 a. m. Father, son and an awkward bro-hug The middle-aged man wears a Columbia T-shirt, a shoutout to the university in New York. He looks at his son, whos heading off to college. The tall young man with the full head of curly hair wears a preppy collared shirt decidedly not like his dads. He looks at his father, a little unsure of what will come next. The father leans in and gives his son an awkward bro-hug. The young man turns bright red. Extended family stands around watching while his mother stands off to the side. Youll do well son, an older aunt says to him. We know you will, were proud of you, she calls after him as the young man snakes his way through the maze toward the security checkpoint. He tries not to look back. 7:35 p. m. The lure of those little noses Four grandsons await the arrival of Gayle and JB Franklin. A fifth grandbaby a girl is on the way. The Franklins son and daughter-in-law and their kids, all under 7, live in London. In a few hours, the couple from Lilburn, Georgia, and their six big honking suitcases, filled mostly with clothes for the children, will start their trip across the pond. Gayle and JB, who are in their late 50s, will visit with family in London, then fly to Italy, then head back to London before coming home. They figured three weeks straight would be too long to stay with their sons family. Like fish, wed start to stink, says Gayle. But right now, anticipation is building. She smiles broadly, thinking about their arrival and all those little noses pressed against the third-floor window. 11:15 a. m. Compassion mdash and a shared smoke Travel often brings people together in ways they wish they hadnt experienced. But at least Chiara James now knows that airline employees can be helpful. She had to miss her flight to find out. The single mother from Atlanta is traveling with her 7-month-old daughter and elderly mother. A necessary diaper change for the little one meant they arrived at gate D1A for an AirTran flight to Detroit moments after the door closed. And that door, despite her pleas, stayed closed. The gate agent whose job is to watch the plane push back from the jetway learned her story after he returned to the terminal. What he heard frustrated him. They pick and choose who they want to let on, says the agent, a contractor for Southwest and AirTran who didnt want his name used. It frustrates me because it happens all the time. He rebooked James and her family on the next flight to Detroit at 3:15 p. m. with assigned seats, not just on the standby list. Then, he escorted the family to Concourse C and joined James in the smoking lounge while her mother and daughter waited outside. Its just stressful, James says. But its good to know some people care and are willing to help you. 9:12 p. m. Three-shot friends Poor Brad. The guys been sitting in Buffalo Wild Wings Grill Bar for five hours. Five hours The New Yorker missed his connection to Indianapolis. With hours to kill, this spot in Concourse D seems as good as any. Earlier, it served as a makeshift office for a few hours, but he went off the clock. Thats when the boyfriend-girlfriend team of Zach Sperry and Kelsey Smith walked in. They came to grab a quick bite and a drink before heading off to Florida, but then Brad happened. Weve had three shots together Sperry announces from a corner of the bar. Thats what brings people together. Were new best friends Brad says, as they all laugh. Theyve only been here an hour and a half. Ive been taking attendance since Ive been here so long. 9:30 p. m. Heaven must wait As passengers pour off the escalators into the arrivals lobby during a busy night-time rush, Nar Lungali leans on an empty luggage cart, picks up his phone and starts dialing. She is not coming today, he says, talking with one family member after another. The case aide waiting with him from the International Rescue Committee just told him his older sisters flight from Chicago was canceled. The hot meal waiting for her in nearby Clarkston, known to some as the Ellis Island of Georgia because of the large number of refugees who land there, will have to wait. Fried chicken and rice. Delicious, spicy food, he says mdash the kind of meal that will make his sister feel at home, even more than 8,000 miles away from their native Bhutan. It was only two days ago that she called from Kathmandu and told him she was moving from Nepal to America with her husband and two sons. She was so excited, he says. He could hear it in her voice. Hes excited, too. He hasnt seen her in more than two years. He cant wait to talk to her about how old friends left behind in the Beldangi 2 camp in eastern Nepal are doing. Tens of thousands of Bhutanese refugees live in Nepalese camps. But nearly 80,000 have left in the past six years as part of a resettlement push to move them into better living conditions. Now mdash finally mdash his sister is among them. And hell come back to the airport tomorrow to welcome her. Standing here, watching passengers stream by, he remembers the day he first came to Atlanta more than two years ago on a flight from New York after leaving Nepal. The memory of the airport is still fresh in his mind. So many people, he says. He smiles, thinking of the way his life began to change that day, the way his sisters life will change now, too. For him, the difference between life in the United States and Nepal is clear. Its just like heaven, he says, and hell. How it works Theyre the invisible part of the airport, rarely seen but making it tick: They clear planes for takeoff, track storms, handle baggage, fuel aircraft and make sure that package you ordered online gets to your doorstep on time. Once you meet them, youll never look at an airport the same way again. 1:30 p. m. Feeding the beast Mike Ryan chomps on a stick of gum and clicks his pen as he keeps an eye on the Airbus A319 heading for Atlanta. Its Delta Flight 1767 arriving from Flint, Michigan. Ryan cant see the jet. Its just a blip on his screen in a dark, curved, windowless room 30 miles from the airport. Ryan is one of two dozen air traffic controllers at the Federal Aviation Administrations Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON. They sit at radar consoles, their faces bathed in an eerie green glow. The Airbus is one of more than a dozen planes Ryan is tracking. Controllers here handle planes that are 4 to 40 miles from the airport. Theyre part of an intricate network that keeps air traffic moving mdash and part of the huge behind-the-scenes effort that keeps Atlantas airport humming. From controllers and ground crews to baggage handlers and a cargo cowboy, not a single jet could get off the runway without their help. If the nearby Atlanta FAA Center, which handles the entire region, is the highway of the sky, then TRACON is the offramp, guiding traffic to the parking garage mdash the traffic control tower at the airport. At least thats how the controllers here describe it. Even within TRACON, the controllers have different roles. Today, Ryan is the feeder, slowing planes down, lowering their altitude and handing them off to another controller, known as the final mdash who hands them off to the airport tower. A self-described aviation junkie, Ryan saw a newspaper ad years ago about qualifying for air traffic control training. He took the civil service exam, which led to a 22-year career path from the Bay Area to Southern California to Cleveland and, five years ago, Atlanta. He says he fell into it mdash and fell in love with it. Within 30 seconds Ryan issues directions to five pilots flying hundreds of passengers. Delta 1767, descend and maintain 7,000, Ryan says in a clear monotone. Two seconds later, he calls another A319, this one flying in from Little Rock, Arkansas: Delta 1733, descend and maintain one-two-thousand. Next an Air Canada jet: AC 4940, descend and maintain 7,000. In no time, Ryan goes back to Delta 1767, to tell the pilot to use another frequency to reach the final, whos sitting at a radar screen next to Ryans. The final will guide the plane to within 4 miles of the runway before handing it off to the airport tower. Contact Approach 1-2-7-point-2-5, Ryan says. God dag. Inside the Federal Aviation Administrations Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON, Ken Hunihan monitors the systems that air traffic controllers use, including radar antennas and communication towers. 9:35 a. m. On top of the world Brian Wilante scans the room, then the horizon. A gentle wind is blowing from the northwest. Every few seconds a low rumble rises from below as an airliner throttles into the sky. Wilante is nearly 400 feet above the runway in The Cab mdash the top of the tallest air traffic control tower in North America. It offers a one-of-a-kind, 360-degree view of taxiways and runways laid out in sprawling ribbons. An 8-by-10 paper tacked to a console reads Todays forecast, followed by a big yellow smiley face. It feels to Wilante like this day will be on the light side, but its hazy. He can barely make out the white roof of the Georgia Dome, home of the Atlanta Falcons, 10 miles away. As a kid, Wilante cherished his Matchbox airport set and die-cast toy planes. Now, the veteran air traffic controller is surrounded by the beeping and humming tools of the profession. Hes one of more than a dozen men and women controlling the planes mdash and passengers safety mdash each shift. Theyre the chief guardians of all airspace within 4 miles of the airport, up to 4,000 feet off the ground. No shift here goes as planned. Every day includes five or six emergencies mdash from minor mechanical problems to in-flight heart attacks to infant births. Controllers here can quickly make a hole in the landing order, pushing a flight to the front while coordinating with paramedics on the runway or at the gate. At the center of it is supervisor Murray Storm, sporting a headset above his graying mustache as he hands out job assignments. What do you have Wilante asks. Storm issues Wilante his gig: directing takeoffs on Runway 1028, Atlantas newest. Stepping toward a console, Wilante puts on a headset and begins a carefully controlled procedure before taking over the runway. Wilante gets a briefing about which planes are about to depart, where theyre going and what commands the pilots have already gotten. After the handoff, the previous controller watches Wilante for two minutes to make sure he understands everything. Many of the pilots Wilante handles fly in and out of Atlanta frequently. They know his thick New York accent, if not his face. Theres a familiarity between the pilots and controllers, Wilante explains. Wilante radios his pilots on the airfield below mdash setting up for departure, guiding them on the runway and green-lighting each for takeoff. Wilante times the departures so the planes have a safe distance separating them after takeoff: 3 miles for most airliners, 5 for the larger ones. AirTran Flight 382, youre cleared for takeoff. Less than a minute later, the Boeing 717 is wheels up and headed to Baltimore. 4:40 a. m. Cans, tugs and dots Megan pulls into the FedEx facility amid the howl of aircraft engines and the tart smell of jet fuel. Megan is a plane. An MD-10, to be precise, FedEx Flight 1703 from Indianapolis. Every plane in the companys fleet is named after an employees child. Its a competitive process every time FedEx gets a new plane, employees can submit their childrens names. The winner is chosen by raffle. Megan may be distinctively named, but in other respects shes an average member of FedExs 670-strong fleet. And the system of unloading the plane is a well-practiced procedure. Even before the engines wind down, a giant lift makes its way up 30 feet to the airplanes cargo door. One by one, giant containers cans are rolled from the plane onto the lift, lowered to the ground and placed on a flatbed dolly pulled by a tug. From there the cans are rolled into FedExs 285,000-square-foot facility, their freight unloaded onto conveyor belts. (The floor is speckled with wheels and convex dots mdash ball bearings in the floor mdash making it easier to push around the cans, which can weigh 5,000 pounds.) From just looking, youd never know the variety of items on board. Its box after package after cardboard crate, each with an identifying label, heading to destinations all over Georgia. About 20 employees sort packages, load them into another set of containers and move those onto 18-wheel trucks mdash some headed just to the other side of the airport, others more than 100 miles away. From there, the containers are broken down again, their packages put on the familiar FedEx vans and sent out to offices, homes and businesses. By 5:20, the first trucks holding Megans freight pull out. 5:15 a. m. Move em on, head em out His name is Alfonzo Ward Jr. but everyone calls him Cowboy. Hes even listed that way in the FedEx directory: Alfonzo Ward Jr. (Cowboy). The name comes from his bowlegged stance. Every time a loaded truck pulls out of the FedEx facility, Cowboy hops in a cab and puts an empty trailer in its place. He does this 30 or 40 times a shift. If backing a trailer into a spot sounds hard, try doing it at a sharp angle in the rain. Cowboy has little forward space to work with, and so far this year Atlanta has gotten more than 50 inches of rain, well above average. But Cowboy knows how to do it hell celebrate his 30th anniversary with FedEx in November. You have to count on your own expertise in getting the trailers in the dock, he says. As soon as the driver pulls out, we have to get that trailer back in in a timely fashion so they load the next trailer. One key time is 6:24 a. m. Thats when all the freight has to be processed and the sorting lines shut down. Why not 6:25 What difference can one minute make A lot, says Kerry Mason, senior manager of ramp operations. After all, overnight packages are promised to arrive by 10:30 a. m. Say you got 800 carriers and they all leave a minute later, thats 800 customers who are going to be dissatisfied if they get it there by 10:31 instead of 10:30, he says. That one minute makes a big difference. At 6:24, the facility gets quiet. The hum of the conveyor belts has stopped. The chock-chock sound of cans rolling from place to place is diminished. Many employees have left. Of the four flights that landed this morning, only Megan is heading right back out: Shes being loaded with cans full of mail. (Yes, the U. S. Postal Service subcontracts to FedEx.) She takes off for Memphis at 7:30. The rest of the planes will sit on the tarmac until nightfall. Thats when trucks will arrive from all over Atlanta full of tomorrows packages mdash which will be sorted, loaded onto planes and sent into the air, ready for the whole process to begin again. 9:25 a. m. Building a brick wall Its not even 9:30 in the morning and already the sweat is beading up on Scott Lottis shaved head. Lotti, 40, is a ramp agent for Southwest Airlines, hoisting bags onto a conveyor belt that sends them into the belly of a plane headed for Austin, Texas. Another ramp man in kneepads scrambles inside to stack and secure them. Its a game of Tetris every day, says Lotti, wearing shorts, a gray T-shirt and an orange reflector vest. You got to kind of think of it like building a brick wall. Once a plane pulls up to a gate, Southwests ramp agents have about 30 minutes to unload and reload it before the plane heads off again mdash forcing them to work with brisk precision. The best parts of the day are being outdoors and enjoying the easy camaraderie with crew members. The worst parts are the sudden, unexpected dangers. Lotti says one co-worker was killed when he drove a cart into a planes propeller. Another was struck down by lightning. Then there are the superheavy bags, the obese, leaden kind that one man can barely lift without help. Lotti has seen bags tipping the scales at more than 100 pounds mdash twice the weight most airlines will tolerate before punishing passengers with extra fees. Southwest ramp agents must be able to lift 70 pounds. During the hiring process, theyre asked to lift a heavy bag if they cant, they dont get the job. Sometimes you wonder what people pack in these bags. You really do, he says. The worst offenders College students. Theyve got all those books in there. Lotti, not pictured, is a burly man and played football in high school, but like a lot of ramp agents he wears a back brace at work. He strained a disc in his back earlier this year. Other ramp agents have injured wrists, shoulders, knees. Its an unforgiving job if you do it wrong, he says. Ramp agents are acutely aware that they work under the watchful gaze of passengers peering out from windows or gates. We live in a fishbowl, Lotti says. Were surrounded by eyes. It keeps you on your task. 8:45 a. m. My first responsibility Michael J. Maier winds his way beneath the Boeing 777. As the co-pilot on Delta flight 110 to Los Angeles, its up to him to do an extra preflight safety check in addition to the one done by a mechanic to make sure everything is up to snuff. The captain is in the plane already, programming the flight computers and briefing the crew. Maier, the first officer, will soon join him. He looks at the engines to confirm that there are no oil leaks or nicks on the blades. He stands before the nose-gear well and examines the landing gear. The tires look good. The hydraulic lines are leak-free. The lights are in working order. Maier began his career as an Air Force pilot in 1982. He flew A-10s during the Cold War and was there when the Berlin Wall came down. After leaving active duty, he joined the Reserve before retiring from the Air Force. Hes been flying for Delta since 1991 and has been piloting the Boeing 777 for the last seven years. On his tie is a small commemorative pin, issued by the Air Line Pilots Association. It says, In Memory 9-11-01. God Bless America. He says he never flies without it. It reminds me that my first responsibility is the safety and security of the passengers and flight crew. 9:38 a. m. Cheers for a nervous newbie Sirprena Spearman is at the wheel of a tug. She only learned to drive it a week ago mdash now shes getting ready to push a plane back from the gate for the first time. Spearman is a ramp worker for Southwest. She started running bags for AirTran in 2005, but with the Southwest merger, all ramp workers are now required to handle every job. I was so excited to learn new stuff, she says. The pilots know shes a trainee and are patient as she rolls them back, a trainer at her side. It takes her a few minutes longer than an experienced driver, but she gets the Boeing 737 onto the taxiway by 9:43 a. m. mdash ready for the pilots to turn on the engines and move under the aircrafts own power. Soon it will be in the air bound for Seattle. As Spearman climbs out of the tug, shes greeted by cheers and applause from a dozen co-workers. I was so nervous, yall she says, happily accepting their hugs. 11 a. m. Boxes dont talk A thousand arrivals and departures. 640 workers. 500,000 square feet of space. 250 live animal shipments a day. 437 million pounds of cargo a year. To say Deltas cargo facility stays busy is an understatement. The airline handled 32 of the airports total 2012 load of 646,481 metric tons of cargo, making Delta the airports largest cargo carrier. Nothing stays in place for long 60 forklifts are always in motion, sorting pallets by destination: Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Paris. Sometimes, though, a shipment doesnt make it. Thats where Shantay Small comes in. Her job is to figure out what went wrong mdash and where. It requires a lot of detail work. I go back and see what happened mdash if it was returned back to the shipper, or if it was something that needs to be rescreened, if there was no space on the aircraft so we had to rebook it I find out exactly what happened to get it moving, she explains. Small started as a passenger gate agent and moved to baggage service before coming to cargo. She prefers the freight side of things, she says: Its a little more flexible, a little less demanding, and not as, ah, contentious. I like to tell people, Boxes dont talk. 4:30 p. m. Keeping his eye on the blob Its a warm, sunny afternoon in Atlanta, but theres a problem on Fred Brennans screens: A blob of showers is affecting airports in Boston, New York, Washington and other cities across the Northeast. For all the sun here, that blob has been giving pilots headaches since early morning. Its really bogged us down, says Brennan, a meteorologist for Delta. Even though the rain is dissipating, were still trying to recover from it. While Brennan keeps an eye on the Northeast, his cubicle neighbor, Bill Thull, watches Atlanta and the Midwest. The two contribute regularly to Deltas five-day weather outlook, released every morning. Updates come every six hours and include red flags for flight paths around the world. Their forecasts are highly detailed, predicting exactly when and where storms will occur, down to the hour. Just a few feet away, dispatchers use the forecasts to tweak flight schedules, fuel orders and routes to avoid the upcoming weather. Delta says its the only U. S. airline that has a meteorology staff to create its own forecasts. Like a virus, flight delays due to the Northeastern blob spread across airports, including Atlanta. Passengers miss their connections, and when the weather clears, the resulting traffic surge in the Northeast will create extra work at their destinations later. Meteorologist Bill Thull follows developing weather in Atlanta and the Midwest. 8:32 p. m. Ups and downs An hour ago, Toney Frank was reminding his crew this is Founders Day mdash UPSs 106th birthday. In two days, if all goes well, his team will hit another milestone mdash 30,000 safe workdays mdash which will call for a party. Frank asks his crew members what theyd like to grill. Steak, they reply in unison mdash before bursting into laughter. The Atlanta air division manager shakes his head. What is steak he asks. Chopped beef. If they hit their goal, they plan to celebrate with burgers. For now, theres work to be done. His starting call is the cue: Dozens of workers in yellow vests begin to zip between planes. Semis arrive. Armored vehicles pull up to the jets with high-value cargo, better known as cash. Most nights, four UPS planes fly out of Atlanta three to Louisville, Kentucky, and one to Philadelphia. Its a small operation compared to the hub in Kentucky, but the pressure is real. Sometimes they carry something special, like live whales or terra-cotta figures most nights its mail, flowers, floor samples, lobsters whatever comes in from Atlantas workday and has to be somewhere fast. Packages are tagged, secured, weighed and collected in massive containers designed for the 757s, A300 and monster MD-11 that UPS is flying tonight. It takes this team 45 minutes to load an A300 scheduled to depart at 9:56 p. m. But with less than an hour to go, some packages arent on site yet. This is why you get this right here, Frank says, rubbing his bald head. This is pushing it, but hey, thats what we do. Some of the containers are being hoisted onto the empty jet. One by one, theyre locked into place. At 9:39 p. m. the final topside container heads up. A crew pushes it over the jets rolling-ball floor, and for the first time, the yellow vests glowing on the dark ramp halt. At 9:41, the container comes back out. Something is wrong. At 9:42 p. m. it sinks back down, away from the plane. At 9:46, the cargo door closes without the last container aboard. Glitches are real, says night manager Mark Ballman, but theres always a backup plan. In this case, the bottom of the container popped out just enough that it couldnt be locked into place. If its not secure, it wont fly. The crew couldve swapped containers or tried to fix this one, but they mightve missed their flight time. He had to make the call, and he decided this container could catch a later flight. So at 9:50, the captains paperwork is validated, and the door is shut. The plane pushes back at 9:52, four minutes early. But soon it returns. The captain realizes paperwork needs to be revalidated. This 9:56 flight is finally in the air by 10:15. One down, three to go. At 10:31, the second flight pushes back, and a little brown truck from somewhere in Atlanta whips into the facility. Theyre not done yet. 3:36 a. m. The Plane Train takes a nap This is one of the few hours when the sweltering tunnel is relatively quiet. Usually its a nonstop blur. As many as 11 trains mdash each consisting of four 18-ton cars mdash shuttle about 235,000 passengers a day from terminals to concourses to baggage claim and back in a matter of minutes. For now, the Plane Train is down for its nightly inspection. Thats when workers scour 4 miles of track for loose fixtures, faulty doors or the occasional cell phones, Barbie dolls or car keys dropped between platforms and trains. One woman left 5,000 of camera gear on the train, says Steve Poerschmann, the citys director of automated people mover systems. We have a very close relationship with airport lost and found. One crew inspects switches and valves that send the trains in different directions. Twenty-seven switches like this are inspected daily, Poerschmann says, gushing over the system like a proud father. Its more than just a horizontal elevator. Meanwhile, another worker shoves wooden objects between train doors mdash first a square stick, then a cylindrical rod. Hes testing various objects to make sure the proper sensors react in case anything say, an arm mdash gets stuck in a door. Still, Poerschmann says, the train has a reliability rate of more than 99. Pity the traveler who tries to walk from ticketing to Concourse F. The journey can take more than 30 minutes. The Plane Train isnt just a passenger convenience. It means the airlines get their flights out on time, too. Airlines schedule their connections based on the transit time between connections, Poerschmann says. The airport couldnt operate without the Plane Train. Echoes of war Sniffing and seizing 12 a. m. Light em up, up, up At the worlds busiest airport, people whose jobs involve searching, sniffing and seizing are at work every hour of the day. Some sift baggage for contraband others use dogs to find explosives. And out on the airfield, folks like Geoffrey Gaskin check for burned-out lights, dangerous debris and too much rubber on the runway. Its midnight. Gaskin talks into his two-way radio: Tower, this is Airport Whiskey 4-5. Please step the runway lights to step four. In a flash, Runway 8L26R lights up like a Christmas tree. Huge X signs lit by bright white lights flash on at each end of the runway, a warning to pilots that it is closed. And Gaskin, a senior airside operations supervisor, begins his slow drive down 9,000 feet nearly two miles. He inspects the center line of lights first, then makes another loop to eyeball the lights on the edges of the runway. Every light out here means something, he says. Two-thirds of the way down the runway, the lights change from white to red and white mdash a signal to pilots that theyre about to run out of landing space. With 2,000 feet remaining, the lights change again, to cautionary amber. Across the airfield, a total of 17,466 lights ensure safe takeoffs and landings. Gaskin and his colleagues consider this the big leagues after all, these runways are the premier field in the aviation game. Tonight his inspection reveals just two lights out, which he notes on his clipboard. The Federal Aviation Administration allows no more than 10 of each light system to be out. The agency requires U. S. airports to inspect airfields before the first flight of the day. Since the air traffic only slows down but never really stops in Atlanta, lights are inspected just after midnight and a search for junk on the runway (Foreign Object Debris or FOD, as its called at the airport) is done at first light. In between, Michael Giambrone arrives at Runway 8L in a yellow Saab hatchback transformed into a rubber friction-testing machine. With airplanes landing at speeds about 160 mph and then braking, the arrival runways collect a good amount of rubber. And too much rubber can keep aircraft wheels from properly gripping the pavement. The friction test must be done every other week, but removal is required only when two 500-foot sections drop below the required friction levels. Thats about every four to six months. Chemical treatments and broom-equipped trucks used for snow removal get the job done. 6:22 a. m. The longest (and wildest) flight The sky is still dark as Delta Flight 201 taxis toward gate F8. This Boeing 777, the second-largest plane in Deltas fleet, has just arrived from Johannesburg, completing the longest nonstop flight in the airlines global network. Large cans filled with priority bags are the first to come off, followed by the rest of the baggage and cargo. At the back of the plane, items checked at the last minute mdash bags and strollers, mostly mdash ride down a conveyor belt with pets that traveled as cargo. Dazed-looking dogs stare from behind carrier crate bars. Then come the guns. Its hunting season in South Africa, and judging by the number of high-powered rifles moving down the conveyor belt, quite a few passengers aboard this flight were on the prowl. Timothy Square is one of the men unloading the weapons, and he explains that they will be driven to customs and, for security purposes, put in the glass room off the international baggage claim lobby. Serial numbers will be checked to ensure they match passengers customs declarations. Then hunters will be called inside to claim their guns. You should see them. They look into the glass room like deers themselves. Square laughs as he holds his hands up, as if theyre pressed against glass, and opens his eyes wide in imitation. But what if the traveling hunters actually killed something Where does that stuff go Square shrugs. It beats him. Another worker chimes in: Hes heard that people pay big bucks to put their trophies in cargo. We gawk at a stack of large wooden boxes, many marked fragile, and wonder whats inside. Customs officers check the serial numbers of weapons that arrived on a flight from Johannesburg. About 40 to 60 weapons are cleared by customs at Hartsfield-Jackson on a typical day. 6:36 a. m. A search goes bust A customs officer pulls a pair of white metal bottles from a Texas womans luggage. One look at the label tells him this could get interesting. A naked man is pictured embracing an equally naked woman, her breasts conveniently obscured by his cupped hands. Macho Potenciador Sexual the label says. Its a Colombian aphrodisiac, but customs officers suspect it might contain something even more stimulating mdash narcotics. Traveling back from a trip to Colombia on a ticket purchased recently with cash, the woman has drawn the officers attention as a possible drug smuggler. Shes relatively small, they note, but rather busty. They wonder if shes hiding drugs in her bra. The officer, who asks not to be identified, places a few ampules of the aphrodisiac in a plastic pouch, then crushes them. The substance comes back clean. Its nothing more than the sex aid the label claims, but officers still arent satisfied. The whole story doesnt add up, says Stephen Kremer, director of Customs and Border Protection for the Atlanta port. A female customs officer is summoned to take the passenger to a private area for a more thorough search. It turns up nothing. She really is just busty. They clear her on to Texas. A customs officer authenticates passenger passports and visas. A customs officer displays a close-up of a fraudulent U. S. visa. 11:06 a. m. Symphony of movement In the vast Delta cargo facility, Quatian Allen, who goes by Q, gives Zera a command in German. Shes a German shepherd, after all. The TSA officer is testing her bomb-sniffing colleague. Zera zooms ahead, spinning and jumping, as Allen calls out commands in a singsong voice. The dog zeroes in on a pallet of boxes, circling it again and again. Then she homes in, planting her rump on the floor, announcing shes found the bomb test device. Suddenly calm, intent, Zera waits for her reward a black chew toy. Just a few minutes earlier, another dog, Sandor, was bounding away with his own Kong toy mdash a reward from Officer Davarone Jackson mdash after the Belgian Malinois found the test material. It may seem chaotic to a viewer, Allen says, but its a symphony of exact movement to me. 7 a. m. Scavenger hunt on the runway Normally its the job of professionally trained airport operations teams to inspect the airfield every day for foreign objects. But once a year other employees are invited to grab a pair of gloves and a trash bag and walk one of the airports five runways. Its called the annual Foreign Object Debris, or FOD, removal walk. Kevin Fuzell, an airside operations supervisor at the airport, is out on Runway 1028 when the walk begins at 7 a. m. Aircraft are like large vacuum cleaners, he explains, and debris sucked into the engines can cause everything from minor to catastrophic damage. You find everything out here. Flashlights left in wheel wells. Bolts that come off carts. An aircraft ran over a fox on a runway once. He grimaces remembering the mess. The runways are mostly debris-free this morning. Fuzell spots a red-tailed hawk overhead. Theres a lot of grass out here, he says, which means theres a lot of wildlife here every day. The red-tailed hawks come in search of rabbits. Sometimes he spots Canada geese. He points to a red tube near the runway. Its a bird cannon that can be set to blare at intervals to scare the birds off. (Birds and aircraft engines arent a good combination.) The FOD walk ends with a small haul: a handful of pebble-sized rocks found on Runway 1028, and small pieces of metal mdash ball bearings, springs and washers mdash pulled from the pavement joints on the South Cargo Ramp. Participants stretch before the Foreign Object Debris walk. 7:40 a. m. Body scrub or body blast A suspicious jar is found in a black suitcase bound for Miami and beyond. Could it be an explosive If youve ever opened your bag after a trip and found a note from the TSA saying its been searched, the search happened in a room like this one in the basement of the North Terminal. With bright fluorescent lighting, stainless steel examination tables and workers wearing latex gloves, this TSA baggage-screening room has the feel of a laboratory. This morning, nine officers paw through bags containing items that raised a red flag out in the general screening area. Over and over, they slide the bags off conveyor belts and onto the stainless steel tables, zip them open and poke around. An X-ray screen shows them what to look for. Usually, its a bottle or jar of some substance mdash Pepto-Bismol, say, or mulberry juice. Damon Mason, a wiry man in his mid-30s, unzips the black bag on its way to the Cayman Islands via Miami. He pulls out the suspicious item in question mdash a jar labeled shea sugar body scrub mdash and swipes it with a small swab. He then feeds the swab into a tabletop machine, and it comes back as positive for a potential explosive. Mason calls in his supervisor, who summons TSA explosives specialist Carlos Serrano, a 22-year veteran of the Atlanta Police Departments bomb squad. Serrano brings a portable electronic scanner and checks the body scrubs ingredients against a database of known explosive materials. This time, the test is negative. The bag is repacked and sent on its way. Just looking at it, I knew it wasnt an explosive, Serrano says. But its always good to double-check. An explosives detection system in the baggage security facility. The machine scans every piece of checked luggage to ensure its not carrying explosive materials. About 13 million checked bags are screened by the TSA annually at Hartsfield-Jackson. 7:41 a. m. Seeds of doubt Customs Officer Arrisia Sims pours a pile of fragrant Indian jeera, or cumin seed, onto a piece of white paper. Shes looking for evidence of Federal Noxious Weeds mdash FNW, to those in the know. As she sorts the tiny brown seeds, she thinks of what she could cook with them. But her eyes are peeled for tiny interlopers. She immediately separates out two seeds that dont belong. The cumin is all thrown out, joining a pile of seized beef, a bag of red fruit that smells like a dirty diaper and a head of lettuce that gave up a micro-sized bug whose identity stumps even the customs inspectors. All of it was seized this morning all will go into a grinder for destruction. Customs officers will conduct 151 agriculture inspections on this day. Officers write up what theyve found and send it along to Customs and Border Protection in Washington and to Agriculture Department officials for analysis. Their observations could lead to warnings to other inspectors about what to look for, or even prompt new bans on agricultural products brought in on flights from around the world. Sims, who studied plant science and biotechnology at Fort Valley State University, never dreamed shed work for a law enforcement agency. But, she says, she loves the job now that shes here. It does have one big drawback: She knows too much now about nasty diseases and pests lurking in the food supply. Going to the grocery store isnt the same anymore. 9:04 a. m. Who let the dogs out Where are the dogs Andre Sims crew has been waiting all morning for the dogs to show up to sniff stacks of cardboard boxes bound for Las Vegas. Time is running short. Its 9:05 a. m. and the flight is supposed to leave in less than an hour. Time for Plan B. The humans at the Southwest Airlines cargo center will have to step in for the canines. So pause the Avengers DVD in the break room. Hold off on the lunchtime cookout. Sims team of five begins processing the boxes through a machine known as an Explosive Trace Detector. They swab the sides of each box, feed the rectangular swabs into the machine and await confirmation that everything checks out. In just 10 minutes, the boxes are on their way down an ergonomically designed conveyor belt. At the other end, they are loaded onto Cart No. 22, a high-speed tug piloted by Oliver J. Long. He heads for gate D5, which should take 17 minutes, give or take a minute or two to flash his badge or wait out a blast from a jet engine. Long pulls up, right on schedule, to a teal and white AirTran plane and hands the boxes over to a man in an orange vest. Sims watches closely as each box is carried onto the front of the plane and secured. By 9:40, the last package is onboard. By 9:44, the cloth door is fastened shut to hold the boxes in place. This cargo is good to go, with 11 minutes to spare. Suitcases and duffel bags are still chugging up the conveyor belt at the back of the Boeing 737-700. Can this flight possibly make it out by 9:55 Sims shrugs: The freight did. 10:19 a. m. Nigerian Versace Its a heaping pile of luxury. Items with the best brands: Hugo Boss. Kenneth Cole. Versace. Hermes. Suits and coats and jackets and purses collectively valued at many thousands of dollars. Its all counterfeit. A clutch of Customs and Border Protection officers stands around the clothing and accessories, which have been laid out on a crate in the main warehouse of Deltas expansive cargo facility next to the International Terminal. The swag came in from Lagos, Nigeria mdash an automatic tip-off, says one officer. They just dont make these items in Lagos. Customs is a regular visitor here. Each day, officers study manifests and follow leads, keeping track of the countless goods coming in to the United States. They maintain a handful of vans with X-ray equipment, not to mention a K-9 unit to sniff out various banned, illegal or unfamiliar substances. Although drug seizures and terrorist threats get the big headlines, some material simply violates intellectual property laws. Looking at the counterfeit clothes, its easy to joke about it as the sort of thing that ends up being sold on Manhattan street corners. But the damage goes far beyond a companys trademark mdash or the humiliation of a fashion victim whose stitching comes unraveled at the first drop of rain. After all, a Hugo Boss suit or a Hermes bag can fetch hundreds or thousands of dollars. That money ends up in some criminal pipelines, says customs Officer Gladys Summerville. Its one of the ways that terrorists are funding their organizations and their missions, Summerville says. 6:49 a. m. Please dont pet the customs officer The 297 people just off the long flight from Johannesburg are waiting for their luggage. And Vince is making his rounds. Vince, as in Vince Dooley, says his partner, customs Officer Christyne Scofield, referring to the legendary University of Georgia football coach. Vince is a beagle, and Scofield is his handler. This beagle is serving his country, but hes not a bomb dog. And hes not into drugs. Vinces niche is agriculture. He sniffs bags for hints of produce and other items banned from the United States. Vince is Snoopy-cute. Travelers want to pose with him for photos. He might be the most popular customs officer in the airport. No petting, Scofield warns. Hed just want to sit there all day, she says. Vince ambles up to a blue bag dangling from Tammy Birkmires hands. He sniffs, then again. Hes found something. Whats in the bag Scofield asks. Its a giraffe bone, says Birkmire, who is from Pennsylvania. Its art, she explains. Thats allowed, Scofield says. Birkmire and her giraffe bone are free to go. 11 a. m. Waiting for the worst The five officers on the Atlanta Police Departments Bomb Tech Squad are busy training the fire departments emergency personnel at an off-site location. What happens if an explosive device goes off How do you get the 95-pound Kevlar suit and 25-pound helmet off an injured bomb tech Its like fileting a fish, says Officer Michael Payne. Theres an art to it. Payne likes to use food analogies. He loves to cook and had thought seriously about becoming a chef before he won a football scholarship to the University of West Georgia. No regrets, though. His experience as an offensive lineman mdash learning plays and practicing them over and over again mdash is paying off in his current job. Payne, otherwise known as Goob mdash only his mother calls him Michael mdash looks like an offensive lineman: Hes 6-foot-5 and 270 pounds. He works out for an hour and a half a day at the gym on the first floor of the pyramid-shaped building the bomb squad occupies just outside the airport. He tries to elevate his heart rate to 170 beats a minute to condition it for the time he spends inside the bomb suit defusing a bomb. If youre used to performing at a higher heart rate, it helps control the anxiety, he says. Payne hasnt had to tackle a real bomb at the Atlanta airport mdash not yet, anyway. But he practices twice a week to keep up his skill level. The training bombs are inert, but Payne insists its very much like dealing with the real thing. He wont give details but says, you know when you mess up. His real salve is humor. Payne and his colleagues have known each other for years. They eat together, they blow up bombs together and they laugh together. You have to, Payne says. You need levity for such a heavy job. Asked to describe his work, he answers: I like to pick things up and put them down. So far today, there has been no need to call in the bomb squad, a good thing for everyone. But its only 11 a. m. The day is young. Payne guesses its a million-dollar loss every time the airport comes to a standstill. But he is prepared with 8,000 hours of training behind him. In June, the airport evacuated part of Concourse D after an electrical explosion near gate 21. The bomb squad rushed over to check it out. The Army green suit looks menacing but really, says Payne, if there is a powerful explosion, the suit basically keeps your body together for a funeral. Its just like any other policing tool, he says. It has limitations. So why do this job I believe in good versus evil. 12:06 p. m. The bug beat One of the better places to be at high noon on a hot, muggy August day in Atlanta is the U. S. Department of Agriculture inspection room in Deltas cargo facility next to the International Terminal. Cargo in the form of food or medicine arrives in temperature-controlled boxes called Envirotainers and gets special attention as it makes its way from a warehouse cooled by giant fans to the chilled inspection room. Once there, officers take samples, looking for pests, diseases and other organisms that could contaminate the U. S. food supply. On this day, officers are scrutinizing shipments of avocados and breadfruit from Jamaica, roses from Ecuador. The crops are ultimately headed for Newark, New Jersey. One officer occasionally squints through a microscope while another beats on the flowers to shake loose any insects. What if they set free some kind of horrific bug Could cargo turn into Contagion Parris Hawkins, chief of agriculture for Customs and Border Protection, brushes off such concerns. Its the potential, but its small, Hawkins says. A lot of bugs we get are like your Coleoptera, your Lepidoptera. That would be your beetles, your butterflies and your moths. 6:40 p. m. The daily grind Ginep. Mangosteen. Guava. Eggplant. Nance fruit. Ginger. Jocote. Grapefruit. Watermelon. These arent the offerings of some international supermarket. Theyre seized produce, destined for Customs and Border Protections grinding machine. Some items that need more inspection get sidelined to a nearby U. S. Department of Agriculture laboratory. Bigger items mdash beef, sugar cane or bags of food banned from coming into the United States mdash are hauled away. Everything else goes through an industrial kitchen grinder in a back room in the International Terminal. Tonight, agriculture specialist Lauren Lewis does the honors. Its 6:40 p. m. just past suppertime. Slipping on black gloves, she takes each piece mdash garlic, onions, rambutans, carrots and more mdash and feeds it into the whirring machine. With that, what might have been someones post-flight snack is reduced to mush. All in the name of safety. Life of one plane In hand: 12 boarding passes. The assignment: Fly AirTrans busiest plane from the busiest concourse out of the worlds busiest airport. One plane, six flights, four pilots, six flight attendants, 555 passengers, 1,864 nautical miles mdash and two reporters. As dawn breaks in Atlanta, an immigrant from Chile is arriving at the airport with her daughter to go see family in Memphis, Tennessee. A man in Minnesota is on his way for a vacation with a boyhood friend. A woman is headed to Florida to catch a flight for her sisters funeral in New Jersey. A young family prepares to spend the weekend at the National Sweetcorn Festival in Illinois. All of them will be transported on the same plane this day. They dont know each other, and their paths wont cross. But collectively, they tell the story of a global society on the move mdash and connections made in the sky. One jet, six legs 2:24 p. m. On board Name . Lillian Eversly Lillian Eversly was among the first passengers to board, but Eversly would prefer not to be making this journey. Right now, Im very emotional. Im going home to Trenton, New Jersey, to bury my sister. It was a sudden heart attack, so its not a pleasant trip for me. There were six brothers and sisters. Eleanor Culbreath, 69, was the second to pass. Lillian and Eleanor would take turns visiting each other. One year, Eleanor would come to Brunswick, Georgia, to stay with Lillian the next year, Lillian would visit her older sister in New York, where she lived. Their family home was in Trenton, where her sister will be buried. We were very, very close, she says. I feel a tremendous loss and void and hurt. The two didnt visit this past summer. When they last spoke by phone, they talked about their children and grandchildren. Eversly pauses, gathers her thoughts. I didnt expect to be going home for a funeral, but such is life. 2:24 p. m. On board Seats . 30A, 30C, 30D, 30F Names . Steven Spahn, Brittany Norris, Kyle English, Jessica Woodrum Ages . 23, 25, 27, 29 Brittany Norris is a bit jittery. I love flying. I just dont like the takeoff and landing portions. Shes surrounded by three friends, helping ease her anxiety. Theyre headed to Boston for a few days after finding cheap round-trip tickets. They met at a church near Floridas Atlantic coast, but theyre not exactly holy rollers, says Jessica Woodrum. Their main agenda: beer, baseball and lobster rolls. Thats all you need out of a vacation, right she says. Its not like were looking to go get wasted in the streets. Beer is wonderful Steven Spahn agrees. Yep, if we can end on that, thats perfect. Kyle English is looking forward to a game at Fenway Park. I finally get to unplug, he says. As the plane begins its final descent, Brittanys nerves kick in. A smiling Kyle motions that the jet is about to take a nosedive. A few minutes later, safely on the ground, the interior lights begin flashing for no apparent reason. Oh, my God, is this the Twilight Zone Brittany asks. 2:24 p. m. On board Job . Flight attendant Name . Shay Sanders Shay Sanders traded in a job at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan for flying in June 2004. Its been a life-changing experience, traveling and seeing the world. She had worked for United Airlines after high school for almost four years before moving to the insurance field, where she spent a decade. Once you work in the travel industry, she says, you get hooked. The travel industry makes you gravitate towards it. 4:22 p. m. Leg 5 6:30 p. m. On board Name . Linda Clemons A body language expert, Linda Clemons is headed to Palm Beach, Florida, for a black enterprise conference. She travels 20 days a month, and planes offer her opportunities for research. Ive got a world of people to be able to be my case studies, just to look at, and I love it in real time, Clemons says. When Im flying, Im just like a child at the holidays. Can a plane serve as a metaphor for our global society No matter where we are in the world, she says, the emotions are the same fear, surprise, happiness, sadness. But its so interesting to see how its displayed on a plane. Among her clientele are salespeople, lawyers, girlfriends, boyfriends or spouses trying to read their significant others. I have folks invite me over to be a human lie detector. Quick with a smile and a laugh, Clemons explains one of her tricks: I watch couples. I can always tell, if theyre sitting beside each other, if theyre in love because the way they sit will form a heart. If there is dissension or stress, I can see that. 6:30 p. m. On board Job . Flight attendant Name . Trina Holden Passengers tell her all the time she looks like Rihanna. Trina Holden has been a flight attendant for 14 years. She was aboard a Continental jet from Newark, New Jersey, to Los Angeles on September 11, 2001, when news of the terrorist attacks came. She was in the bathroom when her crew members knocked. I was like, Can I get a moment of peace They were told something had happened to planes in New York and that air traffic control was doing its best to find a place for their plane to land. They eventually touched down in Omaha, Nebraska. Ill never forget it, she says. Flying has definitely changed after that. It will never be the same. But at the end of the day it definitely beats sitting in an office doing a 9 to 5. I know that this is where I need to be. 6:30 p. m. On board Job . Flight attendant Name . Cherrie Providence A flight attendant for seven years, Cherrie Providence has been mesmerized by air travel ever since she was 10 and boarded a plane from Trinidad to New York City a stay that ended up being permanent. I wouldnt trade it for anything. Air travel, she says, brings us together. Because here it is, were in this tube and Im pretty sure if we were to do a survey, wed have people from all walks of life. Air travel has enabled the world to come together as one and to take you to different parts in such a short space of time. 11:20 a. m. How to greet a woman Vladimir Danaila holds a large bouquet of bright-colored flowers wrapped in red paper. He and his mother are waiting in the arrivals area for an old family friend theyve known for decades. The last time they saw her was six years ago in their home country of Moldova, more than 5,400 miles away. Where I come from, if you are meeting a woman, it doesnt matter if shes a girlfriend or not, you bring flowers, he says. Sometimes you dont even have money for the next meal. You always have to buy flowers. 5:36 p. m. The traveling pink box The bright pink signature box he carries makes Brian Setzler pop out against the muted backdrop of an empty Delta baggage claim carousel. The traveler has been getting attention for the loot all day. I walk through the airport and people are like, Oh, Voodoo Doughnuts he says of the hot spot in his hometown, Portland, Oregon. Inside the box are treats for the 20-year-old daughter hes come to visit, whos interning in a law office in Atlanta this summer. Lucky for her, the handmade doughnuts actually made it past salivating travelers. 8:32 p. m. Getting runway-ready Irene Atkins spends her time at ATL surrounded by bras, panties and body shapers. She works at the Spanx store on Concourse E. She likes to watch the wide eyes of travelers who gawk in the windows as they stroll by. But the shoppers who come in mdash her favorites being the older, seasoned set make her day. Her job is to help them feel good about themselves. She tells the story of one woman who strolled in, having never tried on Spanx before, and insisted on diving into the heavy-duty equipment, the super-slimming items worn by Hollywood stars mdash which can be a struggle to put on. Atkins knew this wouldnt go well, but the customer needed to find out for herself. I hear her in the dressing room saying, Help Help Atkins remembers. And she came out crying, Why do we women do this to ourselves Atkins says she was standing ready, armed with words of comfort and an age-friendly, less intense, body-shaping answer. 3:25 a. m. Finding peace and sleep Anna Rebmann arrived hours earlier with a mission: to find sleep. The atrium didnt work it was too noisy. A sign for the surely quiet Interfaith Chapel one floor up gave her hope, but it was closed. Then she spotted a security guard dozing on a bench by an elevator. If that area was good enough for him, it would be good enough for her. With the bike lock she always brings with her, she tied her two pieces of luggage and a guitar together so they would be hard to swipe. And then she settled in. Her wait is long. The Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, native arrived from Baltimore at 9:20 p. m. Her flight to London via Toronto doesnt leave until 11:30 a. m. So shes made herself comfy, a square cotton pillow beneath her head and a magenta cloak draped over her like a blanket. She couldve booked a hotel room, but she didnt want to bother. Whats a night in the airport when youre heading off to Europe for four months 1:40 a. m. Free parkings worth it A burst of people pours out of the MARTA station. Ollie Locklear Jr. and his wife, Lori, have come from Cedartown, Georgia, about 75 miles northwest of the airport. Locklear used to work for MARTA, and among the perks of retirement are free rides and parking at stations. So the couple always drive to the closest MARTA station to their house and take the train to the airport. Never mind that they had to catch one of the last trains of the night, putting them at the airport a full four hours ahead of their flight. Were going to see our new grandbaby, Lori Locklear says of their 5:45 a. m. US Airways flight to San Diego. So all this is worth it. 8:47 p. m. One more glimpse and a prayer A woman stands behind the main security checkpoint in the Domestic Terminal, craning her neck. She wants to watch her daughter and grandchildren for as long as she can. Theyre flying home to Richmond, Virginia, and that makes her nervous. You cant never be too cautious nowadays, says Ann, 65. So I sent them a prayer. Ann is heading back to Richmond, too. But shell travel by bus. Shes made the trip that way many times. I aint never thought about flying. Its faster, I guess. But I like sightseeing, she says. I guess I just feel more comfortable on the ground. Past the ropes, the TSA desks, the conveyor belts and body scanners, she can still see her daughter and grandchildren. They step onto the escalator and disappear. Only then does she walk away, stealing one more glimpse over her shoulder. 5:13 p. m. Mothers mdash and fathers mdash little helper As boarding announcements for a flight to Paris begin in the International Terminal, a mother serves up spoonfuls of pink syrup to her kids and her friends kids. Its Nausicalm, an over-the-counter drug to prevent motion sickness that like Dramamine can also cause drowsiness. Her husband laughs, admitting that they might be doing this more for themselves than for the four children. We were just discussing how much medicine to give the kids so they sleep on the plane, Jean-Marc Alfassa says, his French accent thick. As the two families make their way to the gate for their long flight home, Alfassas 4-year-old daughter, Camille, and her 3-year-old friend, Manon, bounce along. They hold hands and giggle not yet feeling what will soon hit them. Manon and her brother Tom, 5, pass out before takeoff. Camille soon follows. But Alfassas son Louis, 6, has other plans. Unfortunately, I have to say that the onboard entertainment was stronger than the syrup, Alfassa says later. Next time Louis will be treated to a double dose. 10:55 p. m. The price of perks The upside of working for a Delta Air Lines subsidiary like DAL Global Services Free flights. The downside Flying standby means Trevor Joseph, 27, is in for a long, long night. He arrived from Belize City nearly six hours ago. And itll be another eight hours before he can catch a flight to New Yorks LaGuardia airport. So with his red in-flight Delta blanket draped over him, he hunkers down, splayed uncomfortably across a bunch of seats at gate A19. Im not mad. I had an option to buy a ticket, he says, brushing his dreadlocks from his face. Ill just talk on the phone till I get sleepy. He pops in his earbuds and settles in. He doesnt have a lot of company, but hes certainly not alone. A family has claimed a corner several gates down, the children already sound asleep. 2:15 p. m. Off to DragonCon Young newlyweds Richard and Kristen Faith stand near the North Terminal baggage carousel looking travel-weary but relieved to be reunited with their bags. After all, you cant pick up a battle axe just anywhere. Theyve flown in from Albuquerque, New Mexico, via Houston on Southwest Airlines so they can attend DragonCon, the annual gathering of geek culture. Their luggage is full of costumes including a replica of an axe wielded by a character from Fray, the Joss Whedon-penned comic book which explains the six checked bags, plus two carry-on backpacks. Armed with what they need, the couple steer their laden cart toward the curb, a taxi and anticipated DragonCon glory. 8:06 a. m. Carrying faith home A pack of clean-cut and strapping young men dressed in ties and black suits is hard to miss. As soon as you catch a glimpse of the nametags pinned to their jackets each begins with the word Elder mdash theres no mistaking who they are: Mormon missionaries. For two years theyve dedicated their lives and energies to serving The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a rite of passage in their community. Now the men are on their way home to Utah. Some were in Salta, Argentina, the others in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Understandably, theyre excited but anxious about returning home. You wonder things like, is Facebook still cool anymore I asked my sister and she said, No, not really, says Elder Parker Jared Harmon, 21. Keeping up with family in the Internet age hasnt been too hard, but otherwise theyve been in their own worlds. Being a missionary is tough at first, but you get the hang of it after a few weeks, says Elder Greg Santi, 21. Before long, youre hitting your goal of six baptisms a week. Before they board, they graciously pose for a picture and offer to share some information about their faith. 9:50 a. m. Dressed for comfort Shauna Byrnes and her friend Ginger Cassidy both claim theyre dressed for comfort for their flight to the Dominican Republic resort town of Punta Cana. Laid-back and casual, Cassidy is wearing sweat pants and sandals from Target. With her dyed red hair, nose-ring and tattoos snaking up her neck and down her arms, Byrnes shops from a different aisle. Im kind of a shoe freak, so this is pretty standard, she says of her tall flowered platform wedges from Target, which reveal the dragon peeking out from her red pants. And yes, she swears theyre comfortable. 10:50 a. m. High-heeled essentials Sabrina Wilder marches to the beat of her own drum. A tattoo on her arm, Me against the mother-fking world, confirms that philosophy. Luckily, she works in a profession that values individualism, she says, laughing, as she rides the escalator to the Concourse C smoking lounge. The hairstylist from Chicago is on her way to visit friends in Montgomery, Alabama, in her first trip to the South. Shes sporting a pair of studded strappy lime-green heels with orange platforms that she bought during a trip to New York City earlier this year. Even when shes home, Wilder wears heels. I clack, clack all around the house. She feels naked without them. 5:15 a. m. Eating local, sort of Whatll ya have, whatll ya have Monique Wheeler hollers the signature catchphrase of The Varsity, an 85-year-old Atlanta fast-food institution, as bleary-eyed passengers whove just cleared security trickle up the escalators to Concourse C. Wheeler, 24, wakes up at 2:30 a. m. to make her morning shift here. Like passengers, she too has to go through security every day. None of the stores in the airport is independently owned local institutions like The Varsity or Sweetwater Brewery simply license their names to the concessionaires that run the restaurants. The Varsity splits a kitchen with Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A. Loretta Evans, on the Chick-fil-A end of the kitchen, doesnt have to ask her customers what theyll have. Shes busy making biscuits for the breakfast rush the store sells about a thousand a day. 7:30 a. m. How do you say over easy in Chinese The third order of the morning at P. F. Changs is Kung Pao chicken. Chinese for breakfast It might not be as strange as it sounds who knows what time zone a customer is coming from This outpost on Concourse A, which opened only the day before in an old Chilis space, is the first P. F. Changs in the country to test a breakfast menu. But the full menu is also available during all operating hours. Its an all-day affair, says Nico Roldan, regional chef for the Southeast. Theres not the normal after-lunch lull typical of nonairport restaurants, he says. Once were busy, we never stop. 10:47 p. m. Last call A customer finishes his drink just before closing time at the Atlanta Hawks Bar Grill on Concourse A. A delayed flight does more than strand passengers. It keeps employees on the job. Concessionaires are bound by contract to remain open until the last departing flight leaves the concourse. 8:15 a. m. Her first flight of the day Hi. Glad to have you aboard. Hola. Guten tag. God morgon. Flight attendant Chasiti Anderson has five greetings for passengers, and this morning shes working them as people board AirTran Flight 10 to Memphis at Atlantas gate C12. Her broad, engaging smile provides an air of comfort. The job has allowed her to see the world, and the flexible schedule lets her be active in charities to help at-risk youth. I love everything about flying, she says. This is the first of three flights for Anderson and her crewmates today on board N982AT, a Boeing 717-200 with 117 seats. Among her passengers is Roc Howard, 51, seated in 29F. Born in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, Howard is the 10th of 14 children. He picked cotton as a boy in the Mississippi Delta, worked in finance at the White House and now works in finance at the Department of Homeland Security. The day of this flight is the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr. s I Have a Dream speech, and thats not lost on him. Ive been lucky in that Ive seen both worlds, Howard says. Working at Homeland Security and the White House, its a different, different world than what I grew up in. Hes headed home for a family reunion in Mound Bayou. He flies into Memphis and will drive the rest of the way. He hopes to get some golf in before eating up barbecue and tall tales with family. Itll be the first time hes seen most everyone since his mother died last year at 82. My mother raised us all on her own, he says. Even today, I dont know how she did it. 11:55 a. m. Life of a rocker Jim and Julieanne Goodwin can hardly contain their excitement about this trip. Everything seems less painful than usual, says Jim. Theyre on AirTran Flight 425 from Memphis to Atlanta, but their final destination is Denver, where theyll see their 22-year-old son, John, at the University of Colorado. Theyll be joined by their 23-year-old daughter, Anne, for a full family affair in the Rockies. The couple are from Tupelo, Mississippi. You know, Elvis is, too, says Julieanne. What would a flight out of Memphis be if someone didnt invoke the name of the King of Rock n Roll Flight attendant Tyk Phillips, 64, used to live the life of a rocker. From 1963 to 1973, Phillips played in a band that traveled the nation. After that, he promoted concerts for nearly a decade and then worked special effects lighting for rock bands for two more decades. Had a ball, he says. We did The Who tours. Neil Diamond. Barry Manilow. Journey. Rod Stewart. ZZ Top. You name them, weve done them. He started for AirTran in management before trading it in six years ago to do something fun. Now, he likes studying people on planes, striking up conversations and hearing their stories. As the flight arrives in Atlanta at 11:55 a. m. flight attendant Selina Menowski tells a young toddler that hes a cutie pie. He pouts and stomps off: Im not a cutie pie. She laughs. 12:42 p. m. Some things you just leave alone Dexter Kluttz, 60, is in seat 28F as AirTran Flight 163 heads to Jacksonville from Atlanta. He started his day at his home in St. Paul, Minneapolis, and now hes flying to Florida to meet up with a boyhood friend. Ever since they were 20, the two have traveled to fish and party. Their mancation delegation used to number six, but deaths have cut the group to two. Kluttz and his friend will drive to the Carolinas. The plan: deep-sea fishing off Cape Hatteras or Myrtle Beach. Theyve been plotting the trip for a year and a half. The thing about it is, the fish dont matter, he says. Its just basically about getting together again. It becomes more important as you get older. Their best mancation was in Germany when all six were still alive. What made that trip special Kluttz bristles, chuckles and mentions the unwritten rule of mancationing: What happens on the road stays on the road. Some things you just leave alone, he says. Lets just say it was a good time. As the jet reaches a cruising altitude of 27,000 feet, Keith Walker, 47, rests in seat 21F. Based out of Austin, Texas, Walker travels frequently for work. I fly 35 to 40 times a year, so you have to enjoy it, he says. The people I meet are enjoyable. You cant allow the frustrations of flying to be an issue. That just is what it is. Walker works for a nonprofit agency that helps put veterans with disabilities back to work. His life changed in 2009 when he met an Iraq War veteran whose carotid artery was severed by an IED explosion. The loss of blood left him with mid-term memory loss. For Walker, that meeting put everything into perspective in the blink of an eye. He left a job with a large defense contractor and moved to his current company, which employs 1,400 people, including more than 900 with a wide range of physical and mental disabilities. Our company mission is to create a job opportunity for every type of disability. 2:24 p. m. The saddest trip Lillian Eversly would prefer not to be making this journey. Right now, Im very emotional. Im going home to Trenton, New Jersey, to bury my sister, said Eversly, 61. It was a sudden heart attack, so its not a pleasant trip for me. There were six brothers and sisters. Eleanor Culbreath, 69, was the second to pass. Lillian and Eleanor would take turns visiting each other. One year, Eleanor would come to Brunswick, Georgia, to stay with Lillian the next year, Lillian would visit her older sister in New York, where she lived. Their family home was in Trenton, where her sister will be buried. We were very, very close, she says. I feel a tremendous loss and void and hurt. The two didnt visit this past summer. When they last spoke by phone, they talked about their children and grandchildren. Eversly pauses, gathers her thoughts. I didnt expect to be going home for a funeral, but such is life. At 2:24 p. m. AirTran Flight 339 departs Jacksonville for Atlanta, where Eversly will change planes for the long trip home. 4:20 p. m. The toddler express Immediately, something becomes obvious on AirTran Flight 164 to Indianapolis, scheduled to leave Atlanta at 4:20 p. m. There are at least a dozen kids under the age of 3, seemingly all over the place. This can strike fear in even the most experienced traveler: Will a screaming kid be sitting next to me All 117 seats fill up, too, the most full this 717-200 has been all day. Flight attendant Trina Holden mdash passengers tell her all the time she looks like Rihanna mdash takes it all in stride. Shes been a flight attendant for 14 years and was aboard a Continental jet from Newark, New Jersey, to Los Angeles on September 11, 2001, when news of the terrorist attacks came. She was in the bathroom when her crew members knocked. I was like, Can I get a moment of peace They were told that something had happened to planes in New York and that air traffic control was doing its best to find a place for their plane to land. They eventually touched down in Omaha, Nebraska. Ill never forget it, she says. Flying has definitely changed after that. It will never be the same. But at the end of the day, it definitely beats sitting in an office doing a 9 to 5. I know that this is where I need to be. 5:38 a. m. Name that town Louiza Goulart is overwhelmed. Its her first time in the United States. She and her husband, Silvanio Pereira Santos, have traveled 4,100 miles from their home in rural Goias, in Brazils highlands, to live close to their son in Austin, Texas. A retired couple, they are drawn to the United States not by the promise of work, or safety from oppression, but by the lure of travel, children and grandchildren. Everything is so big, Louiza says in Portuguese. She and Silvanio are looking forward to settling in Texas and exploring the United States. What do they want to see most Louiza scrunches up her face as she tries to remember a citys name. A pause, but she remembers. Boston, she finally says with a smile. 12:03 p. m. Seizing the spinach Korean Airlines Flight 35 arrives from Seoul, and David Pline and his Customs and Border Protection colleagues are about to have their hands full: suitcases brimming with exotic produce. Is this pepper Pline asks a Virginia resident who has just returned from his native Vietnam. The man isnt sure. Then Pline notices a bag inside a bag that seems particularly heavy. Is there anything in there Again, the man doesnt know, saying he didnt pack everything himself. Pline slices the bag open with a small knife. He finds clothes lots and lots of clothes tightly packed inside. And while theres plenty of food here, too, Pline doesnt find much else of concern. The only thing he takes is a single package of water spinach. The man walks away smiling, with plenty of other things left to bring home to family and friends. 12:49 p. m. Catching cows heads This was Diedra Dukes introduction to life as an agriculture specialist in customs: On her first day at work, a Nigerian woman told Duke there was a cows head inside her luggage. Sure enough, when Duke opened the bag she found decaying flesh and squirming maggots. It was an experience, Duke recalls, with a big smile and bigger sense of understatement. Twelve years later, Duke isnt getting her hands dirty in the same way anymore. At 34, shes now a chief in the agriculture division of Customs and Border Protection. She oversees a group of specialists with science backgrounds who are asked to detect minuscule pests, recognize all types of flora and fauna, and grasp how rules differ depending on where the goods came from. Humans arent the only ones assigned to this task: Numerous beagles and one Labrador prowl and sniff to make sure every item is up to snuff. Their work goes well beyond forcing a traveler to toss out her apple. These specialists think a few steps ahead. What happens if an invasive animal or plant species is introduced into the United States How about a pest that, absent any natural predators, gobbles up crops and chews through trees Dukes team is the first line of defense. Members need to have one thing in common: You have to have a love, a passion. Find that bug, that disease, and stop it. 10:27 a. m. Snakes on a plane Bugs, weird food, dirty laundry, mice. Tarra Rankin has seen just about everything go through the airport. She generally works in the oversize luggage area in the International Terminal. After nine years with TSA, the slight woman from Niagara Falls, New York, says little surprises her any more. You name it, Ive seen it, she says. But you cant be scared, even if it says its a box of snakes. Shes gotten good at guessing which suitcases come from which country. People traveling often bring food from home for comfort. The luggage from India smells like curry, she says. Italians and Spaniards like their stinky cheese. I dont mind at all, she says. I find it all very interesting. With the right paperwork, guns can go into checked baggage. Often, though, weapons turn up in carry-ons. TSA in Atlanta leads the country for finding the most weapons mdash 68 guns just this year, as of this August day. (By comparison, TSA officers at JFK in New York have found seven.) One guy even came up to me and opened his jacket to show his gun, Rankin says. He said he completely forgot. When that happens, I tell them what their options are and try to help out. The key to doing well in this job is to stay flexible and level-headed. 7:09 a. m. Boots on the ground Hunters and explorers often bring back more from their trips abroad than just memories and mementos. These can include viruses and bacteria that pose a threat to U. S. agriculture or health. To guard against this, customs officers spray down the boots of returning hunters with a disinfectant called Virkon S. Today, a wet, muddy mess collects at the bottom of a gray tote as a customs officer sprays a pair of boots belonging to a hunter back from South Africa. Its the same treatment military vehicles returning from overseas duty get, port director Stephen Kremer says. 1:17 p. m. The world comes to him Nick Sengchanh has been around the world as a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines. Now, as he sits in the Customs Hall, the world is coming to him. On this day, travelers from places from Aruba to Zurich file past a bevy of interpreters paid by the city of Atlanta and walk up to booths, where they are met by Customs and Border Protection officers like Sengchanh. To his left, people with U. S. passports stand in their own set of lines. He doesnt remember it much, but Sengchanh was once a newcomer to the United States himself. Born in 1968 to a Laotian father and Thai mother, he immigrated with his family in the mid-1970s. Their first stop was Nashville, before moving a few years later to Atlanta. Three decades later, Sengchanh is in many ways a Southern gentleman but one who speaks fluent Lao and Thai. As a flight attendant for Northwest, hed often help passengers fill out the paperwork they need to officially get into the United States. Asked to describe the best part of his current job, an answer comes easily: When a new immigrant is coming into the United States. However they end up in this country, he adds, Its like winning the lottery. Being a flight attendant was fun while he was single, but it didnt make as much sense once he got married. He followed a friends advice and applied for a customs job after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He still travels the world. But nowadays, its for fun. Airports are gateways to journeys, not the final stop. But for 24 hours, we made the worlds busiest airport our destination -- and discovered a world with its own culture, marketplace and transit system, people who make it hum, even a taste of the exotic. In other words, much like the places we visit or hope to see. On August 28, from 12:01 a. m. to midnight, more than three dozen journalists descended on Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. We found moments of love and loss, hope and suspense, echoes of war -- both on the ground and in the sky. Its a city within a city thats a second home to 58,000 workers and a fleeting stop for the 95 million passengers whose nearly 1 million annual arrivals and departures earn the airport its worlds busiest distinction. We invite you to join us on our journey, presented below in chronological order. Scroll down to read the stories in order or tap JUMP TO at the bottom of the screen to move to a particular hour. laquo Leave chronological viewCBC Digital Archives Canada8217s Earthquakes and Tsunamis Beneath our feet, Canada is constantly atremble. Earthquakes shake the country about 2,500 times per year, most too small to feel. But occasionally, and without warning, the earths crust below Canada buckles and spasms to frightening effect. More dangerous are the tsunamis that such quakes can cause. CBC Archives looks back at notable Canadian quakes, fears about the big one predicted for the West Coast and scientists efforts to better understand the threat from below. Canadas Earthquakes and Tsunamis The Early Years of the AIDS Crisis In the early 1980s doctors began noticing rare cancers and infections striking otherwise healthy young gay men. Something was destroying their immune systems -- something fatal and possibly contagious. At first it was called the gay plague. Then others began dying: Haitians, intravenous drug users, hemophiliacs and heterosexuals. Fear, confusion and prejudice reigned as the disease eventually known as AIDS grew from a mystery to an epidemic. This topic contains discussion of a sexual nature. The medical information in the clips was believed accurate at the time of broadcast, but may have changed. The Early Years of the AIDS Crisis Recommended Author James Baldwin on being black in America In 1960, the novelist talks with Nathan Cohen of the CBC about the place of black people in American society. Arts Entertainment Literature Other Books and Authors Bargain retailers go upscale Zellers, Kmart and Honest Eds have begun competing with the traditional department stores for consumer dollars in 1987. Economy Business Consumer Goods Consumers Products Tommy Douglas8217s story of Mouseland: A political allegory Life was tougher than ever in Mouseland until a little mouse came forward with a big idea. Politics Parties Leaders Tommy Douglas and the NDP Three-day blizzard seals Manitoba8217s fate before 1997 flood The people of southern Manitoba fear the flood of the century. Environment Extreme Weather Red River Rising: Manitoba Floods 1993: Canadian peacekeepers bid farewell to Cyprus After 29 years of service, Canadas Blue Berets prepare to leave the Mediterranean hotspot for good. War Conflict Peacekeeping Peacekeeper to the World Interstellar communication: the search for life beyond Earth Scientists discuss how we should look beyond our solar system for signs of intelligent life in 1965. Science Technology Space Space Astronauts On This Day Connect with us