Los Angeles airport terminal evacuated in second security scare in week

One week after a security panic threw Los Angeles International Airport into gridlock, a police traffic stop on Sunday outside an LAX baggage-claim area triggered a smaller-scale upheaval that led to the evacuation of a passenger terminal.

The latest incident, which occurred during the busy Labor Day holiday weekend, began when a motorist stopped illegally in a bus lane in front of Terminal 3, and police pulled up behind him, ran the car’s license plate and found it was a stolen vehicle, police spokesman Rob Pedregon said.

In the process of arresting the driver, LAX police moved pedestrian traffic off sidewalks and back into the baggage-claim area inside as a safety precaution.

But the commotion apparently spooked some passengers, prompting a couple of dozen to rush past a security checkpoint into the “sterile” screening area, while about 15 others bolted through an emergency exit onto the airfield, police said.

Authorities quickly rounded up the wayward passengers and moved them back into a public area. But as a result of the security breach, the entire terminal was evacuated while offices with bomb-sniffing dogs swept the facility, Pedregon said.

At 12.30pm, about 3-1/2 hours after the incident began, the terminal was deemed secure again, and operations in Terminal 3 were returning to normal, according to police.