Gun-Shaped Lighter Sparks Evacuation of LAX Terminal

Security guards evacuated one of Los Angeles International Airport’s busiest terminals and briefly grounded at least 15 flights Saturday after suspecting that they let a gun-toting passenger slip through their grasp.

But only after screening hundreds of passengers a second time did security crews find the source of the scare: a pistol-shaped cigarette lighter tucked in a woman’s bag.

“Clearly it was an innocent mistake on her part,” said Cora Fossett, spokeswoman for L.A. World Airports, the airport authority.

Agents with the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration and airport police questioned the woman, then let her board her flight, Fossett said.

The turmoil began about 3:30 p.m., when a guard for Whitewood Security Services spotted a gun-shaped silhouette on the screen of her luggage scanner.

“She got sidetracked and looked away” from the passengers, said Bill Wysong, vice president of West Coast operations for Whitewood.

“By the time she looked up, the woman was gone,” he said. “She did the right thing, which was to immediately call her supervisor.”

Concerned that an armed passenger was headed for a plane, the supervisor called airport police, who locked down Terminal One. Agents evacuated passengers and searched the building, officials said.

Cory Banks, 28, of Phoenix, said he was checking in at the Southwest Airlines counter for his flight home when airport police told everyone to “stay put.”

“Nobody knew what was going on,” Banks said. “A lot of people were getting irritable. It was pretty hot.”

After finding no gunman, airport police reopened the terminal, and Whitewood guards began screening all passengers and their carry-on luggage a second time.

That’s when they again spotted the gun-shaped object on a scanner and detained the woman carrying the bag. Inside, agents found a lighter shaped like a .25-caliber pistol, said T. Dale Harris, the airport authority’s operations superintendent.

As the woman was questioned, a little girl with her “said something about ‘this is a gift for daddy,’ ” Fossett said.

Agents confiscated the lighter, but the woman was released without being charged, Fossett said.

Some passengers were delayed up to 1 1/2 hours.

The security guard who let the woman through the screening point the first time has been working for Whitewood for 30 days, Wysong said. The company will do an internal investigation of the incident, he said.