NON CREDIBLE THREAT AT LAX Jet searched as precaution

Posted on 05/26/2016 | About Los Angeles, California

A SWAT team with guns drawn searched a jet packed with passengers at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday after authorities received a threat about the flight from Houston, officials said.

The search, which was aired live on local television stations, was one of two incidents Tuesday involving flights originating in Houston. Threats related to both incidents were deemed not credible and no one was detained.

In Los Angeles, 76 passengers and four crew members were escorted from an American Airlines twin-engine regional jet more than an hour after it landed without incident. Seven SWAT officers and a police dog drove up in an armoured vehicle and went through the plane, which was kept on a remote stretch of runway during the search. 

The Transportation Security Administration received the threat against American Eagle Flight 5931, operated by Compass Airlines, LAX police Officer Rob Pedregon said. 

Officials did not release details about it, and the TSA referred inquiries to local law enforcement. 

The FBI would try to determine “the person or group responsible for making the threat,” agency spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

In Houston, a phoned-in threat to Delta Flight 227, which was departing for Atlanta, was deemed not credible after passengers and baggage were rescreened, said Houston Airport System spokesman Bill Begley. He knew of no link to the LAX incident. 

The response in Los Angeles was normal for LAX but would have been unusual for most other US airports, said Jeff Price, an aviation safety expert who has written a textbook on the subject and trains airport workers nationwide. 

He said that's because LAX is historically one of the most targeted airports in the country and has a SWAT team based there. 

“A lot of other airports wouldn't have responded at that level unless they had additional information about the credibility of the threat,” Price said. 

“In this case, you've got them, you might as well use them. If it turns out to be nothing, great. If something bad happens, the question is going to be: 'Why didn't you do it?”'