TSA reviews security breakdown at Los Angeles International Airport

TSA reviews another security breach at LAX

LOS ANGELES — A man who walked onto an airplane with a bag flagged for further inspection touched off a security breach Thursday that delayed 15 flights and left hundreds of passengers waiting at Los Angeles International Airport, authorities said.

The breach is the second of its kind in less than a month and has the Transportation Security Administration again scrutinizing a breakdown of procedure at one of the nation’s busiest airports.

“Certainly, this did not go as we would have liked,” TSA spokeswoman Suzanne Trevino. “Had all of our procedures been followed this morning, we would not have had to call for a security breach.”

The screening shutdown occurred when a man’s bag was X-rayed and flagged for a physical check at Terminal 7, but the man picked up his bag and left without realizing it needed additional screening, Trevino said.

Security screening at the terminal and connecting Terminals 5 and 6 were shut down from 5 a.m. to about 6:48 a.m. while the man was sought, found aboard a United flight and taken back for re-screening, Trevino said.

No dangerous or threatening items were found and the man was allowed to reboard his plane, Trevino said.

“He was not doing this maliciously,” she said. “He was not trying to evade screening at all.”

The nearly two-hour security shutdown delayed about 15 flights, she said.

Hundreds of passengers for United, Continental, Delta and other airlines found themselves milling in the terminal or lined up on the sidewalk until they could be scanned.

Trevino said she did not know what was inside the bag that prompted it to be flagged. She also said it was not immediately clear how the man was able to get through security before his bag was double-checked without being stopped.

The incident took place just hours after LAX increased police patrols Wednesday night through early Thursday following an incident in which authorities say a diplomat from Qatar tried to smoke a cigarette in the bathroom of a plane headed from Washington, D.C., to Denver, then joked about lighting his shoe. LAX increased police patrols as a precaution.

On March 17, security screening was halted at the same three terminals for about 25 minutes after TSA agents mistakenly allowed a bottle of liquid to pass through before it was properly scanned.

An unopened bottle of prescription medicine was to have been examined by a special scanner but it was returned to a man in a wheelchair and his female companion without being tested.

The couple went to a boarding gate and had to be found and the liquid cleared by another security screening.

Trevino said both incidents have prompted the agency to review procedures at the airport but did not indicate serious problem with security at the airport.

“LAX sees more passengers getting on more airplanes than any other airport in the entire world. It may simply be a coincidence that we’ve had two incidents recently,” Trevino said. “We’re not seeing any kind of trend … a lot of it is simply the call volume. Unfortunately, you’re going to have a miscommunication now and then.”