Local News in Brief : LAX Security Delayed
Scheduled for implementation at Los Angeles International Airport this month, a sophisticated $500,000 computer/photo security system--ordered in the wake of a jetliner crash believed caused by a man who took a gun aboard--is several months behind schedule, an airport official said Wednesday.
Stephen Yee, the airport’s manager, said the equipment has been delivered and some photos have been taken but “we’re working out the bugs.”
“It’s taken longer than I had hoped. I would be the first one to admit that,” Yee said.
The computerized system was ordered in December following the crash of a Pacific Southwest Airlines jet in which 43 were killed. A former USAir employee had smuggled a gun aboard the plane at LAX after flashing an old ID badge and without passing through a metal detection device, as required.
Officials believe that the former employee, David A. Burke, later shot a number of people, including the jet’s pilot, causing the crash.
Until the computer/photo identification system is on line, Yee said, a stop-gap validation system based on photos on name tags will be used by the 30,000 people who work at LAX.
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