2 Incidents Force LAX to Evacuate 4 Terminals

Two unrelated security incidents within one hour Saturday morning at Los Angeles International Airport triggered the evacuation of four passenger terminals, closed roadways around the airport and caused hours of frustration and delays for thousands of holiday travelers.

Just before 7:30 a.m., a man bypassed a screening checkpoint in Terminal 8. Forty-four minutes later a small flashlight exploded in the Tom Bradley International Terminal during a routine baggage inspection, slightly injuring eight employees.

Local and federal officials quickly determined that the incidents were not terrorist acts. “There is no evidence that this was a criminal act or related to terrorism in any way,” said John Miller, the LAPD’s counterterrorism chief.

But the dual occurrences prompted a swift and sweeping law enforcement mobilization that included about 200 airport police, the Los Angeles police and fire departments, the FBI and federal transportation security officers.

At the height of the evacuation an estimated 10,000 passengers were ordered out of the airport, part of a baggage-burdened stream that wended its way more than a mile down Century Boulevard, which became an impromptu pickup and drop-off point.

“Can you believe they are making an old lady like me walk all this way with her bags?” joked Brosley Rivera, 54, of Slidell, La., who had arrived at 8:30 a.m. from New Orleans. She waited half an hour inside the plane, only to be put on a shuttle bus and deposited on Century, where she faced a long walk to try to find her sister who was picking her up.

Will Greer dragged his luggage toward the airport, hoping to make a 12:45 p.m. flight to Hawaii for a weeklong vacation.

“We’re trying to leave -- on a wing and a prayer,” said Greer, 33, of Glendora, who called the airline and was told to try to get to LAX any way possible.

During the evacuations, planes continued to land but the number of takeoffs was greatly reduced since many passengers could not get to their planes. Even in the terminals that remained open, airlines delayed flights because people were stranded outside LAX.

By about 11:30 a.m., the closed airport terminals and roads had been reopened and throngs of travelers began their trek back to long lines at terminal doors, check-in counters and screening points.

At least 250 departing flights were delayed, some up to three hours. The delays rippled through the nation’s air traffic system, with scores of people missing connections.

The events unfolded during the lightest period of a busy Labor Day holiday weekend that is expected to draw 785,000 passengers to the airport.

“The combination of the two incidents required the actions that occurred, the evacuation of the terminals, the closing of the airport so we could ascertain exactly what had occurred,” said Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton. LAX is considered the state’s top terrorist target.

“The resulting inconvenience to thousands of people is unfortunate,” he said. “But we have to first determine what happened.”

The evacuation was the largest since March 2002, when officials shut down six terminals for several hours after security personnel discovered that a walk-through screening device had not been working for at least an hour, allowing dozens of passengers to pass through without being screened.

On Saturday, scores of perspiring travelers grumbled as they waited in long lines, but they were generally calm, accustomed to airport delays. Shawn and Pinky Clive, Los Angeles residents headed to India, waited an hour just to get into the airport. “It’s frustrating, but if this is a genuine threat, it’s understandable,” Shawn Clive said. Many did not know what was happening, but simply followed evacuation orders.

The security breach in Terminal 8 occurred at 7:22 a.m. A man who police believe had just gotten off a plane and was in the lower-level baggage area suddenly sprinted back up a stairway and past a security guard.

“After some time of not being able to locate him we followed standard operating procedure and evacuated the terminals,” said Larry Fetters, a security director for the Transportation Security Administration. Police were unable to find the man.

Fetters said the evacuation was necessary because the man could have been carrying a “contaminated item,” a typical reference to a bomb or other weapon. The man’s actions, he said, “had the appearance of a deplaning passenger who probably remembered his sunglasses were on the plane and he sprinted past the security guard.”

The incident was the third security breach in as many weeks. The two others also prompted temporary evacuations. An incident at Terminal 4 on Aug. 16 delayed 27 departing flights after a passenger with a small knife was mistakenly allowed through a security checkpoint. A second, on Aug. 26, forced the closure of the lower level of Terminal 6 after officials found a suspicious object in a restroom.

During a routine search at 8:06 a.m. Saturday, security screeners with the TSA were checking a metal suitcase that belonged to a Japanese man scheduled to fly to Tokyo on Korean Airlines. An agent had just picked up a 6- to 7-inch flashlight from the suitcase when it exploded, Bratton said.

He described the flashlight as a “$1.98 model” that contained two Type C batteries. “Apparently, for some reason the batteries malfunctioned and exploded and disintegrated,” he said.

Miller said that the flashlight was about 10 years old and that the batteries were probably 5 years old. The passenger, interviewed through an interpreter, carried it with him on trips, Miller said, adding that tests revealed no explosives or explosive residue.

“This was just a beat-up old flashlight,” Miller said. “The individual with the flashlight has been extremely cooperative from the beginning.”

Although authorities called the explosion small, it knocked a security officer off his feet, and the agent who handled the flashlight suffered swollen hands.

The injured employees -- five security screeners and three baggage handlers -- were not seriously hurt but were sent to nearby hospitals for evaluation. Some were struck by shards of plastic and others complained of ringing in their ears. The names of the injured were not released.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Bob Collis said many batteries carry instructions warning about the possibility of an explosion and advise owners not to allow them to disintegrate inside devices. “It is not real common,” Collis said of such explosions. “But it’s certainly possible.”

Flashlights have exploded while being used by firefighters, according to information posted on a website by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Batteries commonly used in flashlights produce hydrogen when the zinc electrode in them corrodes. If the gas accumulates within batteries and cannot be released, it builds up pressure and can cause the battery to explode when ignited by a spark or excessive heat, according to the institute’s website.

The loud pop of the explosion “was consistent with the erosion of the batteries that had been in the flashlight for an extended amount of time,” said Amy von Walter, a TSA spokeswoman.

Officials also said they did not believe the explosion would have punctured the suitcase, let alone brought down a jet, if it had occurred in flight. They said that because batteries are used in so many devices and aren’t considered a serious danger, there is no plan to ban them from airplanes.

An “abundance of caution” led officials to close down Century and Sepulveda boulevards leading into the airport as well as the Sepulveda offramp on the Century Freeway, said Mayor James K. Hahn. The airport’s double-deck, horseshoe-shaped roadways were also closed for only the second time in the facility’s 76-year history. The first time occurred for three days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

During the closure Saturday, about 20,000 vehicles were diverted, estimated Bernard Wilson, chief of Los Angeles World Airport Police. Many arriving passengers were taken by shuttle to Lot B for pickup. Besides the two terminals where the incidents occurred, Terminals 6 and 7 were closed because walkways connect them to 8.

To direct passengers out of terminals, officials relied on an evacuation plan drafted after a fatal Independence Day shooting at LAX in 2002. That incident, which left three dead -- including the Egyptian gunman -- and several wounded in the Bradley Terminal, raised questions about whether travelers milling around outside airport terminals during evacuations might be targets for a subsequent attack.

By about 10 a.m. Saturday, the four terminal areas were nearly vacant. Travelers vied for the few grassy spots along Century Boulevard, sought refuge in hotel lobbies or stood on sidewalks outside airport grounds. At one point sidewalk traffic was so crowded that pedestrians spilled onto the street.

Those who remained at the terminals were mainly uniformed airline and security personnel. During the evacuation, firetrucks, a Fire Department hazardous materials van and numerous police cruisers lined the upper departure level. Two LAPD sharpshooters were on the roof of the parking garage overlooking Bradley Terminal.

An eerie quiet descended on the terminals after most had left, with only the computerized drone of “The white zone is for the loading and unloading of passengers only” echoing.

One passenger evacuee quipped: “All I know is the only time I walk this much is when I’m in New York.”

Scott Lane, 43, a costume designer from Los Angeles, said he had cut his Orlando, Fla., vacation short because of Hurricane Frances. Like others, he sounded resigned to the hassle, but not angry. The main thing most passengers complained about was the lack of information.

“From what I’ve heard this just sounds like an overreaction to a safety precaution, but who knows,” Lane said.

When the airport terminals and roadways began to reopen, the Bradley Terminal quickly filled with travelers, who rolled luggage that sometimes accidentally clipped the ankles of passersby. Passengers, some hindered by language barriers, gestured to anyone in uniform trying to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B.

Hans Hu studied a Bradley Terminal board that said his 3:50 p.m. flight to Taiwan was on time. But the lines were forming quickly. “I’m just a little worried,” Hu said.

At Terminal 6, Chuck Lizak, 54, and his wife, Dolores, 51, were waiting to catch a connecting flight to Las Vegas for a quick gambling trip. The Chicago couple said they were annoyed that the delays were eating into their short vacation.

But there was an upside to the delays. The more time at LAX, the less time they would spend gambling. “It is saving me money by being here,” he said.

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Times staff writers Andrew Blankstein, Stephanie Chavez, Anna Gorman, Richard Fausset, Caitlin Liu, Monte Morin and David Pierson contributed to this report.