Intruder Managed to Slip Past Security, Board LAX Jet

Airport cameras captured it all: On a busy morning at Los Angeles International Airport last month, a convicted felon wearing a sweatshirt, sunglasses and gloves strolled unnoticed past two security checkpoints in Terminal 5 and walked onto a jumbo jet without a ticket.

Kareem Thomas, a 19-year-old Decatur, Ga., resident on probation for burglary, was discovered hiding in an airplane restroom by passengers and was apprehended by police before takeoff.

Thomas was unarmed and passed through the airport’s metal detectors along with other travelers. But the ease with which he boarded the Jan. 15 Delta Airlines Flight 1972 to Atlanta -- particularly at a time of heightened security at the state’s No. 1 terrorist target -- alarmed passengers on the flight and triggered investigations by two federal agencies and the airline.

“Clearly this was a monumental security screw-up,” said Santa Monica resident John Hall, who was a passenger on the flight. “Here I am, along with all the other passengers, taking off our shoes and waiting in endless lines to board a plane and this guy just strolls past the security net.”

The FBI and the federal Transportation Security Administration -- the agency charged with beefing up security at the nation’s airports after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- are investigating the incident.

Delta Airlines, which failed to check for the man’s ticket or identification at two security checkpoints, said it was conducting its own investigation and might change some security procedures, although it offered no specifics.

The TSA is investigating whether Delta violated federal regulations and could levy a fine or send a letter of warning to the airline, said Larry Fetters, the TSA’s federal security director at LAX.

“Of course it’s worrisome that this happened and we need to make sure that it doesn’t happen again,” Fetters said. “But we also need to put it in perspective.”

At LAX, he said, “Millions of people have gone past screening checkpoints in the last year and only one person got through who shouldn’t have been in there.”

Security experts say Thomas’ ability to breach multiple layers of security at a major airport is a cautionary tale for millions of people who fly each year.

“It’s the person that’s a problem, not the pointy object,” said Brian Sullivan, a retired Federal Aviation Administration security agent. “How many weapons are there on an aircraft? You get me on an aircraft with an evil intent and if there’s a woman with a baby on that aircraft, I can take over the plane.”

The FBI is interviewing passengers and crew members and will turn its evidence over to the U.S. attorney’s office, sources said.

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, said the case had not been presented for prosecution by the FBI. Security agencies said there was no indication that Thomas was a terrorist or presented any threat to the passengers or crew.

But Thomas did manage to evade several security personnel. Airport cameras show that, after he entered Terminal 5, he slipped by a Delta security guard who was checking travelers’ tickets and identifications.

Then he climbed the stairs, proceeded through a metal detector and made his way to Gate 52A, where he slipped unnoticed past two airline employees who were standing at the jetway to take boarding passes.

After boarding the Boeing 767, Thomas went into one of the restrooms. A 28-year-old television producer who had seen Thomas evade gate agents told a flight attendant, who knocked on the restroom door and demanded to see his ticket. When Thomas failed to produce a boarding pass, airline employees called police.

Passengers aboard Flight 1972 said security personnel had failed to search the plane thoroughly after Thomas was arrested by airport police and escorted off the jet.

“What shocked everyone on board was, we flew off without a thorough search of the plane. They just checked the toilet,” passenger Hall said. “This was on the back of the terrorist warnings.”

Security officials said the flight had been delayed for an hour and a half. They said they had visually inspected the bathroom, emptied the toilet, questioned Thomas and other passengers and spoken with the pilot, before allowing the plane to proceed to Atlanta.

“There was a consensus among airport police, the TSA, the FBI and the airline that the flight could operate safely without inconveniencing additional passengers,” said Paul Haney, a spokesman for the city agency that operates LAX.

Thomas managed to sneak aboard the Delta flight as LAX remained on a heightened alert ordered by the Department of Homeland Security on Dec. 21. LAX is one of eight U.S. airports ordered by federal security officials to remain on orange alert, the second-highest level on the government’s color-coded warning scale. LAX has been targeted in the past by Al Qaeda.

Thomas was arrested by airport police on suspicion of burglary for boarding an aircraft without a ticket, said Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Randi Kaplan. He told authorities he “was trying to go home,” Kaplan said.

The district attorney’s office declined to charge Thomas, Kaplan said, because it was easier and more effective to refer him to court for violating probation. Thomas was being held at the county’s Pitchess Detention Facility in Castaic, awaiting a court hearing on Monday. He could be sentenced to three years in state prison, Kaplan said.

Thomas’ attorney, J. Joseph Modder, said he would not comment until he knew how the district attorney’s office planned to proceed.

Airport and TSA officials agreed that it was the airlines’ responsibility to make sure that only ticketed passengers and crew members are on board their aircraft, and that passengers going through security checkpoints have boarding passes and photo IDs.

Only passengers with these documents have been allowed in airport terminals since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Delta Airlines said it had thoroughly investigated the incident, in part by viewing videotapes from several overhead cameras in Terminal 5 that show Thomas bypassing the security checkpoints.

“We were able to see where the breaches occurred,” said Anthony Black, a Delta spokesman. “Based on that, we’re going to adjust the procedure on how we check identification and tickets.”

A security guard stationed at the bottom of the stairs near the entrance to Terminal 5 was employed, not by Delta, but by Globe Aviation, a company hired by the airline to check boarding passes. Globe Aviation referred questions about the incident to Delta.

According to court records, Thomas had been in California only two weeks when he was arrested Aug. 27, 2002, for attempting to steal clothing from the Ackerman Union bookstore at UCLA.

After his arrest, officers found a desktop computer and a laptop that they believed he had stolen. Thomas was charged with two felony counts of grand theft and one felony count of second-degree burglary.

In September 2002, Thomas pleaded no contest to a second-degree burglary charge and was sentenced to three years’ felony probation.

Last April, a judge found he had violated terms of his probation and ordered him to serve another 90 days in county jail. When Thomas failed to appear at a court hearing in July, a judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest. He was picked up in September.

At a Nov. 7 hearing, a judge ordered Thomas to serve 260 days in County Jail for violating probation. At Thomas’ attorney’s request, the judge ordered that his probation be transferred to Georgia so he could return to his family. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department records, however, show that Thomas was released 12 days later, on Nov. 19.

Thomas isn’t the only person to slip past airport security in the last year and make his way onto an aircraft without a ticket.

Last September, Charles McKinley, a former New York shipping clerk, got into a cargo crate and shipped himself on a United Parcel Service flight from Newark, N.J., to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. On Wednesday, McKinley was sentenced to a year’s probation, including 120 days of house arrest, and a $1,500 fine.

Last week, a TV cable technician got on Southwest Flight 216 without a ticket after it pulled up to the gate at Oakland International Airport.

Once aboard, he asked his girlfriend, an attendant on the flight from LAX, to marry him as the planeload of surprised passengers looked on.

The man was removed from the plane by airline personnel, said Sharon Cabello, a marketing representative for Southwest Airlines.

In the Jan. 15 incident at LAX, before Delta Flight 1972 pushed back from the gate for takeoff, the captain went on the intercom to recognize the passenger who had turned Thomas in. “We’ve had two passengers helping the authorities, and here is one of them,” Hall recalled the pilot’s saying. Many of the 185 passengers and crew members applauded the announcement, he said.

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Times staff writers Greg Krikorian and Kevin Pang contributed to this report.