Security a Key Concern for Future of LAX

Even though many said they were unaware of Mayor James K. Hahn’s new security-centered alternative for renovating Los Angeles International Airport, airline employees and others concurred Tuesday that security should be a central facet of the $12-billion plan.

Speaking at the first public hearing on the expansion plan since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, pilots and flight attendants said there are still holes in security at the world’s third-busiest airport that must be addressed in any plan to modernize the facility.

“The front door of the airport has been locked and deadbolted,” said Holly Hightower, vice president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Assn. of Flight Attendants. “But the back door is swinging in the wind.”

Hightower suggested that screening checkpoints be constructed on the airfield and that all employees such as aircraft mechanics, baggage handlers and others be required to pass through them on their way to work. She added that all domestic baggage must be screened before being placed in aircraft cargo holds.

Jon Russell, a spokesman for the Airline Pilots Assn., agreed, adding that his major concern is that a “bomb will get on an airplane.”

In an interview prior to the hearings, Hahn defended his proposal despite the fact that his office and airport planners have yet to release any details.

“I’m a member of the public just like everyone else,” Hahn said. “This is an idea. I’m outlining broad principles. It’s not about expansion anymore--there won’t be any new gates and we’ll look at a new security check-in to the east of the airport.”

About 46 people spoke at the hearing at the Luminarias Restaurant in Monterey Park. The first of six public hearings scheduled on the master plan in the next 10 days was rescheduled after the terrorist attacks. The hearings are part of a public comment period on the 12,000-page plan and its accompanying environmental studies that began in January and will end Nov. 9.

Many themes that emerged during the first set of hearings in June in communities around the airport appeared again at the sparsely attended event.

Some speakers weighed in with support for a regional approach that would spread passengers--whose volume is expected to double in Southern California by 2025--among the region’s dozen airports.

Hahn, who made clear during his campaign that he opposed the expansion plan supported by his predecessor, Richard Riordan, articulated his vision for modernizing the 41-year-old facility for the first time on Oct. 8. The mayor outlined what he called a fifth alternative that would focus on security and safety. Some have criticized this approach, saying California environmental law may forbid adding his alternative to the current plan.

Hahn’s alternative would feature a separate facility, perhaps east of the airport near the San Diego Freeway, where passengers would check their bags and go through security and then take a high-speed people mover to the airport.

The mayor suggested doing away with many parts of the Riordan plan that LAX neighbors disliked the most, such as a road circling the airport to handle more cars and a new passenger terminal to accommodate more airplanes. He has also said he won’t support adding more gates at LAX.

Increasing safety is also a major component of Hahn’s plan. LAX logged the highest number of serious near-crashes in the nation from 1997 to 2000, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. To address this, Hahn’s proposal would move the runways farther apart.