Burbank Airport’s Security System Is First in State : Aviation: It is aimed at keeping intruders and unauthorized employees from restricted areas. Electronic access can be instantly revoked.

Burbank Airport has become the first airport in California to complete installation of a high-tech security system to keep intruders--including unauthorized airport and airline employees--from runways and other restricted areas, airport officials said Monday.

The $83,000 system was installed in response to stringent federal regulations adopted in 1990 after what Federal Aviation Administration officials said were security breakdowns at airports across the nation. It requires employees to insert identification badges bearing coded magnetic strips into a slot to unlock doors to flight aprons, where airplanes are prepared for takeoff.

The advantage of the new system, local and federal aviation officials say, is that Burbank Airport officials can at a moment’s notice revoke an employee’s access to sensitive airport areas by simply changing the employee’s classification on a computer terminal. The new system can also be programmed to allow access only on certain days of the week or during certain hours, ensuring that an employee can gain access only during scheduled work hours, they said.

The new system also records each employee’s use of a door, allowing airport officials to determine which employees were present in a secured area at a given time.

Previously at Burbank, doors to aprons and runway areas were secured by combination locks and traditional key-operated locks. Employees needing access to the area were given keys and the combinations needed to open the locks.

There are no backup security measures, such as guards, at the doors.

The security upgrade is part of an FAA mandate outlined in the Aviation Security Improvement Act passed by Congress in November, 1990. The bill followed recommendations made by the Presidential Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism, appointed in the wake of the 1988 Lockerbie disaster, in which a bomb placed aboard a Pan Am jet by terrorists in Germany exploded over Scotland, killing 270 people.

But the security breach that FAA officials say most demonstrates the need for tighter security measures at American airports occurred in Los Angeles International Airport a year before the Lockerbie crash.

During that incident, a disgruntled former employee of Pacific Southwest Airways used his ID badge to board a PSA jet with a gun at LAX. Authorities believe that during the flight to San Francisco, the man shot the cockpit crew, causing the plane to crash near Paso Robles and killing all 43 people on board.

FAA officials said the PSA incident tragically demonstrated a weakness at the nation’s airports that the stricter regulations attempt to address.

“There have been indications over the years that there is the possibility of breaching the system,” FAA spokesman Fred O’Donnell said.

He said many airports distribute employee access cards and do not confiscate the cards when an employee leaves the job. “We want something that is updated hourly, if at all possible, to keep up with employees and their work schedule,” he said.

Los Angeles International Airport has submitted plans to the FAA for a similar system that is scheduled to be in operation by the end of this year, according to LAX officials. A spokesman for Ontario International Airport, also owned by the city of Los Angeles, said there have been some delays in installing such a system and it is uncertain when it will go into operation.

Officials at John Wayne Airport in Orange County installed an ID access system in September, 1990, when the airport’s operations were moved to a new terminal. But O’Donnell said the system there does not meet the FAA requirements. He declined to elaborate, saying that discussing security problems would provide helpful information to anyone trying to circumvent the system.

Federal aviation officials said commercial airports throughout the nation were required to submit a plan for the installation of such improved security systems and to have the systems on line before 1994.

O’Donnell said McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas completed the first such system in the nation last year.

The Burbank Airport system was fully operational last week, airport spokeswoman Elly Mixsell said.

“This will give us a much better handle on access control,” Airport Director Thomas Greer said.

He said the new system has been installed on 13 doors throughout the airport that lead to the flight apron areas.

Greer said the system was designed by Burbank Airport officials and approved by the FAA.