L.A. Gets U.S. Pledge on Airliner Security

A communications mix-up that kept Los Angeles officials in the dark as an inbound airliner transmitted a hijacking alert will not be repeated, Mayor James K. Hahn said Tuesday as he announced new cooperation between local and federal security officials.

The mayor said, however, that he had received no assurances from Washington that federal officials would divert airplanes transmitting such alerts away from Los Angeles.

Two weeks ago, a SWAT team boarded a Singapore Airlines jet at Los Angeles International Airport after Los Angeles authorities learned just half an hour before the plane landed that it was transmitting an automated hijack alert.

Federal officials had detected the alert many hours earlier and quickly determined that the pilot had inadvertently triggered it. But they did not immediately inform local officials.

In the aftermath, Hahn sent a strongly worded letter to Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta to complain about the communications breakdown.

The mayor said Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Department of Homeland Security had convinced him that the mistake would not be repeated.

“If this happens again, if there is a hijack signal that does occur, we are going to be able to address that situation and be notified much earlier,” Hahn announced at a news conference attended by local and federal security officials.

But Hahn said he remained concerned about the decision by federal authorities to let the Singapore Airlines jet land in Los Angeles.

“It would seem to me that the best way to treat an incident like this is to treat it all the way as if it’s real. And that would mean you don’t bring this plane anywhere near populated areas,” the mayor said.

“In this age, when we know planes can be used as missiles ... that plane ought to have been landed a lot sooner, away from populated areas.”

Hahn said he had been told only that federal authorities were discussing the issue.

Representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which protects U.S. airspace, said Tuesday they had taken the proper precautions.