Evacuation of LAX Terminal Worsens Holiday Travel Woes

A man who rushed off before security guards had finished checking his laptop computer inadvertently forced the evacuation of a Los Angeles International Airport terminal Saturday morning, adding to delays on a hectic travel day the week before Christmas.

Hundreds of annoyed passengers laden with gifts and luggage stood outside the evacuated Terminal 1 building, which was closed for about two hours while officers futilely searched for the man. He had passed through the initial metal detector, but left without going to a second screening area, where authorities check items for traces of potentially explosive material.

“He just took off and ran,” said airport Police Sgt. Louis Hoffman. “It’s possible that he may not have known he had to submit to another screening.”

The man was not found and the terminal was reopened without incident at 9:15 a.m., Hoffman said.

In other terminals, thousands more passengers faced holiday queues. One elderly woman collapsed in front of a United Airlines ticketing line at about 9:45 a.m., and airline workers fanned her with boarding passes until a paramedic arrived 15 minutes later.

Saturday’s crush came on the first day of Christmas vacation for many school districts nationwide. Federal authorities have placed entry ports into the United States on high alert following the arrest last week of a man who crossed from Canada into Washington state with more than 100 pounds of bomb-making supplies and a detonating device.

Technically, peak travel begins Thursday, LAX officials have said, when more than 172,000 passengers are expected to pass through the airport each day until after the New Year. Experts recommend holiday travelers allow themselves an extra half hour or longer to get to the airport and check in.

April Roethel wished she had heeded such advice. The Vista woman, who was taking her two children to their Fort Myers, Fla.-bound plane, stood near the back of a line of at least 200 passengers at a Southwest counter.

If the youngsters missed their flight to see their father, then she and her husband, Frank, would miss theirs to New York an hour later, Roethel fretted. With less than 20 minutes to go before the Southwest plane’s departure, the couple decided to send the children’s luggage separately. That way, her son and daughter did not have to wait in line and could board on time.

“We’ll send it as cargo,” Frank Roethel said. “I’ll just pay the extra cost of shipping it.”