By Lisa Morton
Van Horn resident and Advocate contributor Lupa Jernigan, was traveling from Europe the morning of the terror attacks in Brussels, Belgium. Her plane had just left when the event occurred. I messaged her immediately wanting to know where she was, not hearing from her until later that afternoon that she arrived in Atlanta safely.
The so-called Islamic State group said it was behind the attacks which came four days after the capture in Brussels of Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect in the jihadist attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015.
“I heard the news about Brussels just after taking my seat on a flight leaving from Manchester, England,” Jernigan said. “As the plane crossed the Atlantic, I read updates on the airlines news network that security at airports across the United Kingdom and all of Europe was on high alert.”
Lupa also said that arriving for her layover in Atlanta, there were many K9 units patrolling the public areas and other than that she didn’t notice anything unusual there. Her arrival in El Paso was also routine.
Today a suspicious package was inspected in the atrium of the baggage claim area at Atlanta Hartsfield airport, but was cleared.
