Israeli team helps LAX security planners with terminal redesign

The 2002 terrorist attack at the El Al ticket counter at LAX demonstrated both the weakness of that airport’s security procedures and the more advanced and aggressive approach offered by Israeli security planners. After Hesham Mohamed Hadayet opened fire and killed two passengers, an El Al employee shot him dead — something no American Airlines worker would dream of doing. Four years later, a team of Israeli security experts has traveled to LAX to help local officials review their policies. “This is an unprecedented visit by the head of Israeli airport security to cooperate with us and help us spotlight what is needed,” said Councilman Jack Weiss.

Although the exact recommendations will not be made public, the team plans to offer LAX as much advice as is practical, meaning that some of the advanced security measures in place at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport — involved questioning and behavioral profiling among them — will not likely be implemented. The focus is on physical security, and the team will spend much of its time reviewing the plans of the $576 million redesign of the international terminal. Everything from perimeter gating to the tarmac to the layout of the terminals will be carefully examined.

One particular area of concern: recent studies by RAND have located the airport’s biggest vulnerability in the crowded areas outside the terminal, such as the ticket counters mentioned above. With 61 million travelers passing though annually, one can see how it might get dangerously congested so as to present a tempting target while also making general surveillance more difficult. We reported recently on one solution — a pilot program at LAX to allow passengers to drop off their luggage ahead of time and go straight to the gate