Travelers' tales aloft

LINTHICUM, Md. — The blond woman at the check-in counter is crying, tears streaking her cheeks. She has too many bills, she explains. She is supporting her brother, her family. She's just a bus driver. She's stressed, she says, not drunk. Across from her, the man in the Southwest Airlines uniform leans in, nods sympathetically. He understands life can be hard. He understands she is upset.

He's still not going to let her get on the plane.

From across the walkway in Terminal B at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, a camera crew slowly closes in on the scene. It's a slow but steady creep, ever watchful to see what kind of reaction it might get. Twenty feet away, 10, five. Soon, it is right there in the woman's face, the sound boom over her head, the film rolling. She's on her cellphone now, spelling out her tale of woe to someone else.

The Southwest employee -- customer service supervisor Christopher Marr -- turns to the camera and starts explaining the situation. The woman, he reports, was acting strangely in the boarding area. She smells of alcohol and may or may not be intoxicated. Airlines, he explains, are bound by Federal Aviation Administration rules to deny boarding to any passenger who appears to be intoxicated.

Overhearing this, the woman pulls away from her phone conversation for a moment and breaks in: "No, I'm not intoxicated," she insists to the camera, which does not seem to strike her as either odd or intrusive. Marr continues with his explanation. The camera keeps rolling. For a random Monday afternoon, this is good stuff.

As hordes of summer travelers make their way through BWI, some -- the angry, the drunk, the stinky, the outrageous -- may find themselves caught on camera as the A&E Network films footage for its airport-based reality show, "Airline," which returned for its second season Monday night. Produced with the cooperation of Southwest, the first season averaged 1 million viewers per episode and was filmed at Los Angeles International Airport and Chicago's Midway Airport. The network expanded to BWI this year.