August 2010 I was returning to Australia, leaving LAX on the 10.30pm flight to Sydney. You wouldn’t believe what happened while I was there…
I arrived at LAX about 7hrs ahead of departure time from Dallas. I wanted to be sure there would be no delays in arriving at LAX. I have spent many an hour hanging around airports waiting for flights, either on standby or delayed flights. This time it was my choice to be early and not miss the flight.
After walking around the airport shops buying last minute gifts I decided to have some dinner and just relax. Dinner finished I seated myself down on Concourse C immediately in front of the departure gate. At that hour people had not arrived for the flight, it was much too early. International bags can only be checked 4 hrs. prior to departure. Mine had been checked straight through from Dallas to Sydney.
It was very quiet as there was no through traffic at that end of the Concourse, so not much in the way of people watching. I settled down to reading my Kindle, a birthday gift from my previous employer.
About 7pm I noticed in front of me near the departure doors where tickets would be collected before boarding the plane, a man went around the behind the console and opened the door and went through. He then opened the door out onto the tarmac and disappeared. No alarms went off but I saw a red light flashing above the door but no sound. I felt sure there would be police and security arriving immediately. This area is off limits until it’s time to board the plane.
He was a very suspicious character, dressed in shorts, T-shirt and carrying a black men’s toiletry bag. He definitely was not an employee of United or airport staff. I looked around and nobody was heading my way. I looked for staff and saw a United ground crew person casually headed toward me. He didn’t look in any hurry. I waved him over and explained what happened.
He raced to the telephone on the console to get help. He looked worried now. Within a minute or so all hell broke loose. Police, airport security arrived with guns and lots of members of the dog squad with their canines. This was heavy duty excitement. There were police sniffer dogs, police with large rifles, and lots of staff. A police sergeant started to take my statement; I was able to give a detailed description of the offender. I had made a mental note of his clothing and his appearance at the time, knowing that he was entering a secure area and something about his actions were not normal. The police relayed my description throughout the airport. Halfway through the statement the officer received a call and he told me someone matching that description was trying to re-enter security further back up the concourse and they had detained that person. He asked would I be willing to identify the person they had apprehended. Of course I would. I was surrounded by police and security as we all made our way back up through the airport. We were all talking as we made our way to the security gate and then I realised that people we passed looked at me and must have thought that I was an offender, it didn’t look good.
Arriving at the security entrance the offender was seated and surrounding by police. I walked up and stood a couple of feet from him and turned to the police, yes that’s him. I had no doubt at all in my mind. This had all happened within the last 30 minutes, so I was very clear. The offender was then handcuffed. I was then escorted back down to the gate where I proceeded to finish my statement.
After the police sergeant finished with my interview I sat down to watch all the activity going on around me. I realised my children wouldn’t believe my story and would go ‘yeah right Mom’. I got out my camera and held it to my side trying not to be obvious while sitting on the seat. I wanted to capture at least something to verify my story. There were police and security and lots of police with dogs combing the area. After about 10 minutes several police arrived at the gate with the offender in handcuffs. As they passed and headed out onto the tarmac I managed to get some video of him and his police escort. They were taking the offender back out through the gates to look for the black toiletry bag. He had entered back into security without it, and the police were worried.
This was certainly passing the time while waiting for my flight. Several police and security persons came up and thanked me for taking the time to report the incident. They said many people wouldn’t bother or want to be involved. I said I had been in the USA when 911 happened and I didn’t want a repeat of that. I asked how come the alarms didn’t go off; they didn’t have an answer but were definitely going to report it and find out why. Alarms should have gone off.
While seated a member of the United Airlines staff came over and asked me for my boarding pass. I had a feeling I would be upgraded that’s why they wanted it. I was excited, how wonderful. He returned with my ticket. I said, batting my eyelids where would this seat be? He said Oh you will like your new seat. I looked at the ticket and it was a seat with single digits, I knew I was now in a First class seat. Thank you God, what a blessing as this would be a 14hr flight.
Have you ever got a flight upgrade? Tell us your lucky story in the comments below…