uh.....dont know wht to say
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Perimeter and air patrols are being beefed up at Los Angeles International as defense against possible shoulder-fired missile attacks on commercial aircraft, a top security official said.

Security officials are undergoing training specific for that threat, and additional helicopter patrols are being deployed, John Miller, head of the Los Angeles Police Department's counterterrorism bureau, told Airports Friday. While air patrols would not be able to counter a launched missile strike, they could give officials an important vantage point over the adjacent waterfront.

And, Miller added, if an attack were launched several miles away, an air patrol could trace the contrails back to the assailants.

"This is something terrorists are already trying," Miller said.

Miller noted that shoulder-fired missiles have been used against commercial flights in recent years, most recently against a cargo plane at Baghdad International. About 20,000 shoulder-fired missiles are on the black market, and no one knows how many could have been smuggled into the U.S., he said.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill recognize the threat and included a provision in the intelligence reform bill to press the President to use diplomacy to limit proliferation. They also called on FAA to expedite airworthiness certification for aircraft defense systems. President Bush signed the bill into law last week.

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kinda scary,
ashar

They HAVE been stopping them altogether-why do you think there haven't been any major terroritst attacks on US soil since 9/11?  Because, every day, things we never hear about occur over sees-and even here occasionally. A news story about SEALs who sunk a ship full of weapons grade uranium (I think it's uranium-point is it's dangerous) was leaked to someone, and Discovery made a documentary on it.  It is quite clear there are many more ops of this sort going on daily.  Sometimes, things fall through the cracks. One of the biggest ocncerns are weapons that were here before we beefed up security. Sure hope LAX is safe, my thoughts are it'll be fine, everything else has been a scare.

Beefhole, the simple fact is, there hasnt been anything major because no-one has tried. US airport security still has many holes, as demonstrated by the people riding a boat upto JFK and wandering the taxiways for quite a while, it was purely innocent in this case but had they been terrorists then you can imagine what could have happend. The same goes for the guy who left weapon like objects in the toilets of various southwest aircraft. The stories of people accidentally getting the banned objects onto planes. As for the stuff you dont hear about, i can assure you i have a very good idea whats going on, and i have heard many stories from my dad and cousin who both served/serve in the military that will never make it to the press. The US needs to stop trying to tell various international airports how to run security and perhaps ask those with much better experiance what they can do to improve US airport safety. EL AL is known to have the toughest security in the world for airports they need to follow their example, here in the UK we have been very strict on security for a long time. The US after 9/11 made some great strides in terminal security, but then they screwed it up big time by bringing in the TSA. Now they are giving airports the option of private companies again under the supervision of the government, this should help alot. As for the LAX problem, CCTV along the problem area with 24 hour surveilance, that will allow them to spot suspcious individuals, they can then send the airpatrol to the location to keep watch while ground police come to the area.

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Damn dude, we can't cover everything... all I know is everything has been a scare up tot this point and anything that is truly, truly incredibly serious will be dealt with. Done.

I think it should be obvious to anyone with a little sense that an airliner is highly vulnerable to a modern heat seeking missile fired from a hand-held launcher. It makes an ideal target & the missile could be fired from miles around every airport in any country in the world. How can you possibly cover every single one?

I've seen plenty of ideal spots around Heathrow & Gatwick & I'm sure both the terrorists & security services are well aware of this. Heck, airliners fly over here regularly, well within range of a missile & the nearest big airport (Gatwick) is over 30 miles away. I could fire a missile from my back garden & be miles away before anyone found out where it came from. I realised this years ago so I can't think what all this latest paranoia is about.

I'm all for security & vigilance but being a photographer myself I can just see some innocent cameraman with a long zoom lens being mistaken for a terrorist & possibly shot for taking photos of an aircraft. I think this is just another example of overkill (pun not intended) to fool the public that something is being done.

heat seeking missiles, that is even scarier,

yeah it think ur rite Doug 8)
it makes sense not to use heat seeking missiles near a guarded airport

well a prime example would be, when i lived in Bristol, the fields i used to go running in, were right under the flight path for the airport the planes would be 15 miles out but at barely 2000 feet. The area was largely away from anywhere and a person could take out a plane with a missile and escape without anyone ever seeing them.

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Stingers are history... latest stuff is the SA-18... 30% kill ratio against IR jammer eqiuiped aircraft

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Who care's if they're history or not. The fact is they can effectively shoot down an aeroplane and the Taliban was given a whole load of them in the 80's. If they use anything it's likely to be a Stinger.