Thousands Evacuated at LAX After Man Breaches Security

Several thousand Los Angeles International Airport passengers and visitors were evacuated and suffered flight delays Saturday after a man without proper credentials was found on an airliner parking ramp outside a terminal.

Three United Airlines terminals were cleared shortly after 8 a.m. when the man vanished into a crowd after being confronted by an airline employee and escorted to the terminal, officials said.

The man, dressed in street clothes, apparently was dropped off by a van from another airline, said a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the incident.

“We’re trying to figure out how he got in the van [and] how he got on the tarmac,” said the FAA’s Jerry Johnston. The man had not been located, he said.

As a precaution, three United terminals were cleared and searched by police and security personnel, said Andy Plews, an airline spokesman. As many as 7,000 people were evacuated, 29 flights were canceled and several inbound planes with passengers on board were diverted to hangars while the terminals were searched.

Flights delays of up to two hours affected an additional 3,000 customers for a period of several hours, Plews said. By midafternoon, most operations had returned to normal, he said.