LAX Security Failures: An Introspective View and Opinion

?I present in somewhat of a chronological order, a series of security failures at the Los Angeles International Airport for your evaluation as to cause, and effects. LAX problems that I present are systemic to every airport in America to a lesser or greater degree.

I start with Charles Slepian of the Foreseeable Risk Analysis Center who conducted a series of remarkable criminal investigations at the JFK and Los Angeles airports and wrote about them in 2004. The airport drug investigations occurred in 1986 when the airline's employees went on strike. Slepian was hired to protect the in-flight airline employees and the airlines’ property. Slepian tells the details of several months of his investigations of airport employee crimes and violence in the two airports he investigated. Undercover agents used in the investigation revealed a great amount of narcotics trafficking, in addition to theft rings, employee fraud, and gambling. They identified airport employee drug users, sellers, and thieves who worked for the airlines, the airport, parking lot companies and a sundry of other aviation related employers. But what was most disheartening, was Slepian’s findings that airline managers and supervisors were not part of the solution, rather they were in some cases part of the problem. The following quote from his article brings a touch of reality to the past and current state of affairs in LAX and our airports today:

“Management personnel were not immune from temptations either…..some managers, in the face of the ready availability of illegal drugs or free alcohol, would partake long before the end of their work day. Other management personnel quit their jobs, went back to line positions, or risked their safety and quite possibly their lives because they would not accept what was going on around them.”

That was in 1986. What was learned eight years later is disheartening in terms of LAX failure to stop many of their systemic problems as attested to in the1994 General Accounting Office (GAO), Office of Special Investigations report, number B-256530. This report and investigation targeted pilfering of passenger luggage in the control of airlines at America’s airports. This report supported the position that the reasons for and lack of solutions to airport pilfering has for decades been and continues to be a problem for the aviation industry.?The 1994 GAO investigators queried Los Angeles Airport and four other major international airports and found:

• Airport police authorities and other enforcement agencies have little information concerning pilfered baggage because the airlines attempt to settle passenger claims through restitution, and they do not routinely report passenger claims to the police.
• Airport police told the GAO that the airlines wanted to settle with the passengers without notifying the police to avoid adverse publicity.
• Airport police cited contract luggage handlers as the main suspects due to their low wages and lack of benefits.
• Targets of pilferage are expensive luggage, electronic equipment, and soft sided luggage.
• Items more frequently pilfered are cash, cameras, jewelry, and firearms.
• Pilferage methods consisted of:

1. Check-in handler identifies wealthy passengers and marks the bag for accomplices inside the airport.
2. Pilferage in the cargo bin of the aircraft consists of three baggage handlers: one on the ground as a lookout and the two inside build a wall of luggage to hide behind while they pilfer passenger luggage.
3. Baggage handlers divert passengers’ luggage by removing the destination tags and retagging bags to a nearby airport where an accomplice picks up the diverted bag.
4. Baggage handlers avoid overt surveillance cameras and pilfer in other areas.
5. The airlines pressured the FAA from mandating that all individuals with unescorted access to sensitive areas of the airport have criminal history record checks be removed from the original proposal by the FAA and succeeded in doing so.

“Over the years when I was there, the pilferage of baggage was always a problem. It was always tempting for people who worked at the airport to pilfer bags for valuables.” Michael DiGirolamo, Former Deputy Executive Director of Operations Los Angeles International Airport

LAX, much to their credit is trying to change the systemic weaknesses that threaten their airport as discussed by the RAND Corporation:

In 2003 RAND released an “Issue Paper” called Designing Airports for Security, An Analysis of Proposed Changes at LAX.” Terry Schell, Brian Chow, and Clifford Grammich reviewed the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) expansion plan section titled ‘Alternative D.’ Alternative D emphasis was for the security of airport workers and passengers by:

• Maintaining the current annual passenger numbers (less number of passengers, lesser attractive target).
• Removing all parking structures.
• Restricting passenger drop off to only large buses and other mass transportation vehicles.
• Building a ground transportation Center away from the terminal where passengers would be dropped off and picked up.
• Constructing a mass transit system to move people from the ground transportation center to the terminal.

I had a great Airport Division Captain who understood my airport, SNA, had many weaknesses and assigned me to conduct inspections and assessments at several major and mid-level enplanement numbers airports in the United States. I assessed airport construction projects at my airport and at many other airports. I also assessed other airports security that concluded in a 21-Airport Police Agencies Comparison Study. Security during any construction project at airports is one of the weakest periods of security facing airport police departments anywhere.

“I hope they will design an airport with the idea that security is forever.”

Arnold Barnett, Aviation Safety Specialist, Professor of Operations Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Why did the Homegrown Violent Extremist find it so easy to march into the LAX terminal in November 2013 with a rifle and kill one TSA officer while wounding others? The HVE continued into the passenger departure loading Jetway area where he was shot and wounded by arriving LAX police officers.

Baggage thefts, Active Shooters, weren’t the only security problem facing LAX. In 2017 when I published my book, I wrote; “In 2014 Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) was an example of an airport that allowed the expansion of its infrastructure that may have lessened some of its security capabilities. LAX has continuously expanded its operations and infrastructure since 9/11. In 2014, the airport had twenty individual construction projects ongoing with an average of over 60,000 contract workers a year at the airport. A large number of projects presented a huge contract worker credentialing problem to screen these temporary employees and issue them credentials that provide them access to restricted airport areas. Deputy Executive Director and Chief Information Officer at LAX, Dom Nessi told Aviation Pros during an interview that the over 20-year-old relic credentialing system is inefficient and inaccurate. “It required our credentialing staff to enter the same information on multiple screens, creating a good chance for inducing errors into the system,” he explained that the software lacked internal business rules and editing capabilities.?In August of 2014, LAX launched its new software program that would eliminate many of the past ten years of credentialing problems.”

LAX plight continued as evidenced by the 2016 headline; “LAX Is Going Cocaine Crazy” reveals some high profile drug smuggling arrests at Los Angeles Airport. In 2014, a TSA agent was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport for helping drug traffickers smuggle drugs onto passenger aircraft. Organized criminal drug traffickers gave the TSA agent $1,000 each time he allowed a drug courier to bring a bag full of drugs through his screening lane.?Your calculations can quickly add up the monthly profit the TSA agent was making if he allowed only one drug courier through a day, much less two or three times a day. As decades of airport drug trafficking arrests declare, there is no doubt; our nation’s airports are a continuous conduit for this smuggling activity of all types of products.

“You personally exacerbated one of this nation’s greatest blights.”

Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis to an American Airlines baggage handler convicted of trafficking millions of dollars of drugs on commercial jets, October 2012

In 1986, Slepian’s report told LAX, “you have many security problems.” In 1994, the GAO report told LAX you have many security problems. ?But LAX problems didn’t stop then and continue today as evidenced by these examples years after the GAO report;

• In February 2002, police arrested a Los Angeles International Airport, (LAX), luggage theft and pilfering baggage handler ring for stealing from luggage.
• July 2002, an Egyptian HVE entered the LAX terminal shooting and killing three people.
• In September 2012, police arrested a LAX baggage handler criminal group of employees for stealing from passenger luggage.
• In March 2014, LAX police arrested a large group of approximately 25 LAX baggage handlers for stealing and pilfering passengers’ luggage.
• May 17, 2017, Turkish man beaches LAX Security, arrested, after released allowed to fly to Hawaii and tries to breach cockpit
• Feb. 10, 2018, Man?climbs over LAX perimeter fence, runs over to a Southwest plane that?was preparing for takeoff and pulled a fire extinguisher in a wheel?well
• August 27, 2018, Man jumps fence at LAX again, reaches passenger aircraft
• May 5, 2021, Man poses as janitor at LAX and uses airport worker entrance to go onto the airport ramp
• June 25, 2021, a driver crashed his speeding car through a LAX gate and led police on a chase over two runways while planes were landing and taking off
• August 29, 2021, man used pipe to lift LAX perimeter fence and crawl under. Crosses runway and climbs onboard a jet liner

These are just a few examples, for many more, visit the airport security news archives at airportwarning.com ?

In these 20 documented years, the evening news highlights the LAX criminal incidents that were public information. There were many other airport breaches, luggage theft cases and other criminal matters at LAX that are not mentioned in this article of which many did not make it to public news. What did LAX do to eliminate the problem and the news media negative publicity decade after decade? Only the airport directors and chiefs of police during these years at LAX can answer the questions. But judging by the continuous failures, their solutions were not adequate.

Opinion

I offered my ideas that would strengthen airport security for the variety of airports across our country. As typical, cost is the primary reason why airport managers balk or delay the basic security improvements needed.

But the cost isn’t the only reason airport management will decline security improvements. As an example, I presented a study on airport breaches after visiting several airports to my airport civilian administration and offered detailed solutions to the weakness in our airport fence line.

My Sheriff’s Department asset procurement unit told me they acquired enough concertina wire from the military that could wrap around John Wayne Airport a couple of times. I offered the free wire and other fence line security improvements requests to my airport and they said no because they didn’t want the airport to look like a fort. After my perimeter security report was submitted, my airport suffered nine airport perimeter breaches over the following twelve years.

“What I’ve learned since taking on this fight in Congress is even more alarming.?In the last decade, there have been over 1300 known breaches to our airports’ perimeter security throughout the country.?In September 2011, the Homeland Security Committee heard testimony from Mr. Lee Hamilton, the former vice chair of the 9/11 Commission and current member of the President’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, as well as former Secretary of Homeland Security, Governor Thomas Ridge. They both cited perimeter security as an overlooked yet incredibly important security issue that continues to exist—long after the 9/11 attacks—at airports throughout the United States.”

US Representative William R. Keating

Each airport security problem I presented in my book, I proposed a solution. Many of my solutions would be difficult to apply but not impossible. I stressed a need for creative answers and challenged other concerned aviation security personnel everywhere to use their own ingenuity and come up with remedies to the repetitious systemic security problems facing our airports.

I believe complacency permeates throughout our airports, and coupled with financial losses to our airports due to Covid, points to an ominous event that is certainly on the horizon. I believe the terrorists who have been waiting for twenty years to strike a blow to our national economy again, will strike at the backbone of America’s Economy once more, our aviation industry.

“Terrorist groups, in general, have always seen aviation as a big target. They will continue to try because aviation is such a big fat target that attracts global attention.”

Raffaello Pantucci, Director of Security, Defense Think Tank, Royal United Services Institute