Another Malfunction Leaves LAX Flights Up in the Air

LAX’s already bumpy summer travel season experienced more turbulence Monday when a key landing system inexplicably failed, forcing jets to circle around Los Angeles and causing flight delays of more than 90 minutes.

The computer snafu came three weeks after a massive radar failure at a Palmdale facility shut down flight operations around the region for several hours and as one of LAX’s four main runways remains closed for repairs.

The failure at 8:46 a.m. of the Instrument Landing System at LAX’s southernmost runway left only two runways operating. By 9:02 a.m., planes were given the go-ahead to come across the Pacific Ocean and land from the west rather than the east, the more traditional landing pattern.

By then, the damage was done: Several flights were canceled, and officials said all flights nationwide heading to LAX could expect delays of up to 1 1/2 hours through Monday night.

Airport officials stressed that the computer glitch didn’t jeopardize passenger safety. But air traffic controllers said the problems prompted workers in the control tower to scramble to divert planes as they were about to land.

“We had one runway missing already,” said Diane Aceves, a controller at LAX and local president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. “It definitely caused a lot of extra work for controllers and pilots, especially the radar controllers who were stringing the arrivals out. There are no lull periods.”

The Federal Aviation Administration was still trying to determine why the landing system broke down. Aceves said there were intermittent problems with the system Saturday night.

LAX is expected to have its busiest travel summer since Sept. 11, 2001, with nearly 19 million passengers -- 200,000 more than last year. But the landing-system breakdown is just the latest problem to plague the airport. Last week, The Times reported that one plane heading into its takeoff missed colliding with a just-landed jet by 150 feet.

The ILS helps guide planes during poor visibility and bad weather. By 11:50 a.m. Monday, the skies had cleared enough so that planes were once again departing toward the west and landing from the east without having to use the landing system. And the ILS came back online at 12:18 p.m. after being manually reset, said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor.

The failure came at an especially inopportune time.

LAX has four runways, two incoming and two outgoing. On July 31, the airport closed one arrival runway so it could be relocated. To compensate, one of the departure runways handled both departures and landings.

It was the shared runway that had the problem Monday.

The number of landings, usually about one a minute, was reduced to 32 an hour, Gregor said.

Though Aceves speculated that the system might have failed because of its age, Gregor said it was only 10 years old.

“One reason it took a while is that the ILS had to be manually reset and the technician was not at LAX,” Gregor said. “She covers a territory that covers other airports.”

Conditions near LAX were foggy Monday because of a marine layer. Experts said that pilots can land planes without having to rely on the system, but that it provides an added safety precaution, especially during bad weather.

“It provides the most comfortable approach,” said retired American Airlines pilot Richard J. Bergholz. “You’re not flailing the airplane around, and there’s not the swift changes in the rate of descent.”

Retired TWA pilot Barry Schiff said he recalled only a few instances where the landing system failed.

“Most of the time it’s an excellent system that is awfully reliable,” Schiff said. “But the fact is, once in a while things do fail.”

It was the latest malfunction to cause delays, anxiety and grouchiness at the world’s fifth-busiest airport in a month. On July 18, commercial traffic at LAX and Southern California’s other major airports ground to a halt after the power failure at the Palmdale radar facility. Hundreds of flights were delayed at LAX alone.

Two years ago, as many as 800 commercial flights at LAX and other airports were affected by an even bigger radar malfunction.

On Monday, harried travelers expressed confusion as flight screens flashed delays and cellphones rang with calls from family members.

Groused Roger Roa, 48: “I have a 12:40 flight. I’ll never make it. I’ve never seen it like this.”

“I’m freaking out,” said Marcy Krich, whose flight to Chicago was delayed. She looked worried as helicopters buzzed overhead. “I don’t really know what’s going on.”

Gary Goldman and his son, David, 15, heard about the problems while standing in a baggage check-in line inside the Southwest Airlines terminal.

“My wife called me and asked if we were delayed,” said Goldman, whose flight to Oakland had been delayed an hour. “They’re not telling anybody anything. I wonder if they even know.”

At the US Airways and America West terminals, people waited up to an hour for friends, co-workers or clients to arrive.

“I’m just irritated because I have to be at work and I have things to do,” said Vickie McIver, 35, of Hermosa Beach, waiting for a friend’s arrival.

Within moments, her friend called from the plane, telling her she had arrived.

“She’s angry,” McIver said.

Keith Wells, 50, of San Francisco said his co-workers’ flight was delayed an hour, ruining a day of work for the two salesmen.

“I’ve already canceled all of our appointments,” he said.

Tim Smith, a spokesman for American Airlines, said it was difficult to quickly make up delays like the ones that happened Monday.

“Once you get that far behind, it’s very difficult to erase it until the next operational day,” Smith said. “It’s an inconvenience and we regret it.... Let’s hope Tuesday dawns better.”

*

Times staff writers Ashley Surdin and Jennifer Oldham contributed to this report.

*

Begin text of infobox

Q & A

Question: What caused the flight delays at LAX?

Answer: A radar navigation system used on one of LAX’s four runways failed. FAA officials are not sure why it malfunctioned, but the snafu caused some flights to be rerouted and others to be delayed before landing.

Q: What is the system?

A: The Instrument Landing System guides airplanes during inclement weather. Conditions near LAX were foggy because of a marine layer. Experts said that pilots can land planes without having to rely on the system, but that it provides an added safety precaution, especially during bad weather.

Q: Haven’t there been other radar problems involving the airport?

A: Yes. In July, a massive radar failure shut down flight operations around the region for several hours Two years ago, as many as 800 commercial flights at LAX and other airports were affected by a radar malfunction.

Q: When will air traffic get back to normal?

A: LAX officials said they hoped to have all planes back on schedule by late Monday night or this morning.

*

Source: Times reporting

Los Angeles Times