Medflies Grounded at Airport

In an effort to prevent the Medfly outbreak from spreading out of the Los Angeles area, federal agriculture inspectors have been stationed at Burbank Airport to confiscate fruit carried by departing passengers, authorities said Wednesday.

The crackdown, the first such action in the region’s latest Medfly outbreak, applied solely to Burbank Airport because it is the only commercial airport located in a Medfly quarantine area.

Five uniformed officers arrived at the airport Tuesday afternoon and will be assigned there at least until mid-summer, said Don Wimmer, a regulatory supervisor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The officers will be stationed behind the terminal’s two security checkpoints, he said.

Posters informing passengers of the quarantine will be displayed at the checkpoints and other locations throughout the terminal, including parking lots. The posters notify passengers that it is illegal to remove fruit or vegetables from the quarantine zone and ask that they dispose of them in indicated containers before passing through the security checkpoint.

The regulations apply to tomatoes, peppers and almost all fruits except bananas.

Carry-on luggage will not be separately checked, but will be subject to searches if fruits are detected during routine X-ray inspections for weapons, Wimmer said. Checked baggage will not be searched unless airport luggage inspectors suspect that fruit is being transported, he said.

“We will not do it in a punitive way at all,” Wimmer said. “We are trying to enforce the quarantine and also to inform the public.”

Inspector John R. Deveraux said about 50 pounds of fruit was confiscated Wednesday, including apples, oranges, lemons, limes and peaches.

One passenger was pulled aside because officers noticed his coat had a bulge, which turned out to be an apple, Deveraux said. He said ticket agents as well as porters had been asked to notify passengers about the quarantine.

“Everybody’s supposed to be an informer,” he joked.

Deveraux said passengers generally were cooperative and did not protest when fruit was taken from them. “They’re just taking them to eat on the plane,” he said.

The inspections were ordered after agriculture officials extended the Medfly quarantine zone to the Burbank area in late December, Wimmer said.

Inspections may be ordered at other commercial airports if the quarantine area is extended, he said.

The last such crackdown in Southern California occurred in 1987 at Los Angeles International Airport during a Peach Fruit Fly outbreak, officials said. Last year, the Department of Agriculture ordered inspections at Tampa International Airport to prevent a Citrus canker infestation from spreading, Wimmer said.