Fears Halt Mexican Flight to LAX

A week after the Christmas Eve cancellation of six Air France flights from Paris to Los Angeles International Airport, authorities canceled Aeromexico’s Flight 490 to LAX on New Year’s Eve for fear it may have been targeted by Al Qaeda, federal law enforcement sources said.

The suspicion arose from the same intelligence that led authorities last week to cancel the Air France flights. One of those flights had been identified by terrorists and included passengers whose names were close to those of suspected Islamic militants, sources said. .

On Tuesday evening, an Air France flight was escorted to LAX by two U.S. fighter jets, according to city officials. It was the first time that military aircraft have been spotted escorting a commercial plane there since shortly after 9/11.

In the case of Wednesday’s Aeromexico flight, the sources said, authorities did not have reason to suspect specific passengers. Flight 490 was scheduled to leave Mexico City at 5:05 p.m. and arrive in Los Angeles at 9 p.m. But Agustine Gutierrez Canet, Mexico’s presidential spokesman, said the Department of Homeland Security told Aeromexico that for security reasons, Flight 490 would be denied landing rights. U.S. officials didn’t specify what the security concerns were, he said. The passengers were allowed to leave on a later flight.

“Homeland Security should give an explanation why it denied landing rights and then accepted the same passengers on another flight to Los Angeles,” Gutierrez Canet said.

U.S. authorities were given reason to suspect that an Aeromexico flight might be targeted over the New Year’s holiday and decided to press for cancellation of Flight 490 as a precaution, sources said.

“Just because we don’t have names that draw attention doesn’t mean there isn’t a concern,” said one source. “Before Sept. 11, a lot of the hijackers who brought down those planes were unknown to us.

“If you have reason to believe something may happen on a flight, why not just cancel the damn thing?” said the source. “That makes it impossible to hijack.”

About 30 flights leave Mexico City’s airport for U.S. destinations each day. Last week, at the request of the Bush administration, the Mexican government began quietly deploying armed undercover police agents on selected U.S.-bound flights.

Also at the request of the United States, security at all of Mexico’s international airports last week was raised one level to level three, the second highest. That has meant more exhaustive identity checks and searches of passengers and hand luggage. Aeromexico’s Wednesday morning flight to Los Angeles left 50 minutes late because of additional security, the airline said.

Law enforcement and intelligence officials in the United States said the information of a pending attack on Los Angeles prompted the federal Department of Homeland Security last week to raise the nation’s terror alert level to orange, the second-highest level on its color-coded scale.

The news of the Aeromexico flight cancellation came near the fourth anniversary of an attempted attack by a suspected Al Qaeda member, who was arrested at the Canadian border in December 1999 as part of an alleged plot to attack LAX with explosives. LAX is considered the state’s No. 1 terrorist target.

Officials also continued to keep their eye on Air France flights that were canceled last week after U.S. intelligence officials warned that as many as a dozen passengers on two flights might be Al Qaeda or Taliban terrorists. Two F-16 fighter jets escorted Air France Flight 68 to LAX about 6 p.m. Tuesday, according to several eyewitnesses. The flight was taken to a remote gate near Pershing Drive.

The sighting of fighter jets in the skies around LAX marked the first time that military aircraft have been seen escorting an airline flight since two F-16s escorted an Air Canada Boeing 767 bound for Toronto back to LAX on Sept. 27, 2001. The aircraft was turned back after a passenger threatened to kill Americans.

Law enforcement sources said the F-16 escort Tuesday night was at least the second time in recent days that military jets have escorted one of the arriving overseas flights mentioned in recent U.S. intelligence reports.

Several days earlier, the sources said, F-16s flew over LAX after monitoring the arrival of another nighttime flight at the airport.

It was not immediately known why certain flights were selected by the Pentagon for the escorts. Given the fact that the commercial jets, their passengers and crews had been extensively screened, one federal law enforcement source suggested the F-16s were dispatched as a final precaution as well as to send “a message” that extensive counterterrorism measures are in place.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, federal officials who deployed the military aircraft hoped that the fighter jets would be able to see if the commercial aircraft drifted off course, or to make visual contact with the pilots if verbal communication were lost. The deployments were controversial, because F-16 pilots were armed and could be ordered to shoot down a commercial airliner if the plane was commandeered by terrorists.

In Washington, D.C., Wednesday night, FBI and Homeland Security Department officials boarded a British Airways jet shortly after it landed at Dulles International Airport and detained passengers for about three hours, officials said.

Transportation Safety Administration spokeswoman Jennifer Marty said passengers aboard Flight 223 from London’s Heathrow Airport to Dulles were questioned aboard the plane, which landed at 7:20 p.m. EST. Officials began allowing passengers off the plane about 10:30 p.m.

Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Rachel Sunbarger said the baggage on board the flight was undergoing additional screening. The plane was being kept several hundred feet from the terminal just as a precaution until questioning was finished.

Meanwhile, tight security and holiday crowds are likely to create long lines at LAX through Monday. Officials warned travelers to arrive 2 1/2 hours before departure time for domestic flights and 3 1/2 hours before departure for international flights.

An estimated 153,000 passengers will have passed through LAX each day in the holiday rush between Dec. 19 and Jan. 4, airport officials said.

That’s about 3% more than on an average day in 2003, airport officials said. Still, 153,000 is less than the 2002 average of about 157,000 per day during the holidays.

Officials suggest that passengers take public transportation to LAX to avoid traffic jams caused by a ban on private vehicles pulling up to airport curbs to drop off or pick up passengers. The ban, ordered by Mayor James K. Hahn on Dec. 23, is scheduled to be lifted on Monday.

“We’re liable to have serious automobile congestion unless people use other means to get to the airport,” said Paul Haney, an airport spokesman.

Only limousines, taxis and shuttles are allowed to pull up next to LAX’s nine terminals. Private vehicles are required to use the outside lanes on the horseshoe-shaped roadway and to park in the parking structures before dropping off or picking up passengers.

Airport police have been aggressive in ticketing those who stop to drop off passengers in the middle of the roadway.

Tightened security prompted by the orange alert is also causing traffic to back up on roads leading into the airport. Airport officials have set up checkpoints staffed by police officers and K9 dogs at four access points to LAX.

Officials suggest that travelers, their relatives and friends use the Century Boulevard entrance.

The entrance to LAX off the 105 Freeway and through the Sepulveda Boulevard tunnel is typically the most congested, forcing travelers to wait as long as 45 minutes to exit the freeway and enter the airport’s access road.

Boudreaux reported from Mexico City and Krikorian and Oldham reported from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Andrew Blankstein contributed to this report from Los Angeles.