Smoke trailing from a light airplane frightened some in the Albert Lea community Wednesday afternoon.

Friday, September 28, 2001

Smoke trailing from a light airplane frightened some in the Albert Lea community Wednesday afternoon. The phones at the police station and airport kept ringing. Fears of a possible chemical attack mounted. Some people even thought of evacuating.

It turned out to be a fuss over nothing.

It was just testing of a smoke device.

The local businessman who owns the yellow biplane left Albert Lea airport around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. The owner bought the plane about five years ago for pulling advertisement banners.

Jim Hanson, airport manager, saw the plane expel smoke three times shortly after taking off.

The police received nearly 20 phone calls immediately after that. The airport office also had 16.

Fresh images of the suicide missions in New York and Washington and alleged chemical attack schemes by the terrorists in mind, some Albert Leans panicked when they saw the smoke in the blue sky. Some of them were asking if they should evacuate into the basement.

County Sheriff Don Nolander rushed to the airport to see the pilot, but found no violation regarding the flight.

According to Hanson, the owner was planning to restart his advertising on Thursday after about one month of absence. The flight was to test the equipment on the plane. The smoke device is for attracting attention from the ground to the banner.

&uot;We have seen the same airplane flying with the banner and smoke for five years,&uot; Hanson said.

As the national investigation started grasping the clear picture of Sept. 11 terrorists’ vicious plot, Americans are obliged to pay more attention to the public security issue. A new fear arose when the investigation explored whether the terrorist group was preparing a chemical or biological attack.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said Monday one of the suspected hijackers, Mohamed Atta, was gathering information on the use of a crop-duster.

He also said another person in custody had information on the use of aerial applications of pesticides or crop-dusting.

The FAA Sunday grounded all crop-duster planes in the American sky for two days.