Grenade in Luggage at LAX Delays Travelers

An inert military-style hand grenade in a passenger’s luggage prompted police at Los Angeles International Airport to evacuate portions of two terminals, close the upper-level roadway and delay hundreds of flights Monday morning.

Federal security employees in Terminal 3 discovered the grenade around 6 a.m. in a cardboard box packed inside the suitcase of an Alaska Airlines passenger bound for Seattle.

The bag was passed through a bomb-detection device after a passenger profiling computer singled out its owner as suspicious. The machine showed the clear outline of the grenade, packed next to a paint can.

Some 6,000 people were evacuated from Terminals 2 and 3 at the airport for more than three hours, as a bomb squad robot removed the suspicious package from the bomb-detection machine.

Some 200 flights were slowed by the incident, with incoming planes asked to delay their landings and outgoing flights held on the ground.

The evacuation was the sixth time in a week that terminals have been emptied at the world’s third largest airport due to a suspicious item or other security snafu, including an unplugged metal detector last Thursday.

The incident comes less than a month after the new federal Transportation Security Administration assumed responsibility for screening at 429 commercial airports.

Some security experts think the alert on the benign device is an indication of things to come: Only a handful of the explosive-detection machines are currently in operation at LAX. But more than 200 are expected to be installed once the full security system is in place.

Mayor James K. Hahn and other officials said they were pleased that the screening system detected the suspicious device, proving that heightened security measures are working.

Jane Garvey, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, was visiting LAX on Monday. She said she is working with new federal security officials to study how such incidents can be made less disruptive.

Authorities described the owner of the suspicious package only as a man in his 30s. He told investigators that he had no idea the hollowed out grenade was in his bag and that his brother had packed it.

The FBI detained the man for questioning, but refused to release any other details after the U.S. attorney’s office determined that he had not violated any laws.

Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, said the “outer shell or husk” of a grenade cannot be considered an explosive or destructive device under the law.

But federal security officials said the man will probably face civil charges. They added that they have not determined the specific charges he could face, and that a cash penalty is possible.

Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. Gary Brennan described the device spotted by the machine as “an exact military replica of a grenade, capable of being rendered into an explosive device.”

Members of the LAPD bomb squad were so concerned that they took the unusual precaution of sending a robot to the scene to move the suspicious package to an enclosed trailer. An ambulance and a firetruck were also dispatched to the airport’s upper-level roadway.

The trailer containing the grenade was then driven to a taxiway and taken to the remote west side of the airfield, closest to the ocean. After shutting down two runways for the operation, officials determined that the device was not explosive.

The thousands of evacuated passengers spent hours standing in the bright early morning sun, waiting to be allowed back into Terminals 2 and 3. The evacuation delayed 200 flights and forced the cancellation of five others.

During the incident, traffic diverted from the upper-level roadway backed up traffic for blocks on roads leading to the airport.

Security evacuations have become so commonplace at LAX that most draw little comment from LAX administrators. But Monday’s incident was considered serious enough that airport executives called a news conference.

“The good news is that LAX continues to have a high level of security,” Hahn said. “The suspect was immediately apprehended without incident. Our safety and security measures are working.”

City officials apologized for the inconvenience to passengers, but added that the traveling public should be forewarned that they should not try to take suspicious devices onto aircraft.

“It defies belief that someone would have a hand grenade, whether it’s inert or not, in baggage that’s going to go on an airplane,” Hahn said. “A strong message should be sent to someone as thoughtless as this.”

On Monday, the evacuation created a now familiar tableau at LAX.

Hundreds of passengers waited for hours for word about their flights. Some sat reading books on benches between the terminals on the lower level. The Starbucks in the lower level of Terminal 2 ran out of pastries.

Word spread quickly among the stranded passengers that there might have been a bomb in a passenger’s luggage. But most said they would continue with their trips.

“You gotta do what you gotta do,” said Gary Sanders, 40, an assistant manager at a Toyota dealership. “I’m getting on that plane.”

Sanders was waiting with golf-club-toting friends in a long, disorganized line on the upper-level roadway, still hoping to board a flight to Hawaii.

Dozens of his fellow travelers searched for the right line and tried to navigate overloaded luggage carts on crowded sidewalks.

Others said the incident would not keep them from flying in the future. “I fly for business a lot,” said Ken Haz, an Alberta, Canada, resident who was in town to test telecommunications equipment. “This is one of those things.”

*

Times staff writer David Rosenzweig contributed to this report.