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False alarm triggers terror scare |
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Friday, 18 January 2008 |
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By Darcy Ellis
Editor 1-17-2008
Inyo County’s terrorism-response procedures were tested over the weekend when some high-flyers’ hijinks triggered a full-blown homeland security scare.
It was a tense hour-and-a-half on Saturday evening for the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Federal Aviation Administration, FBI and Homeland Security after a trio of pilots were seen discharging “a dark substance” into the L.A. Aqueduct near Haiwee Reservoir.
According to Sheriff Bill Lutze, it was later determined the substance was actually smoke – and totally harmless to the major Los Angeles water source.
But that determination was far off when the report initially came in indicating a potential biological attack on the aqueduct, and agencies had no choice but to spring into full terror-response mode as trained.
“It was a frightening situation to begin with,” Lutze said.
The scare started about 5:06 p.m., Lutze said, when an employee of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power walking down the aqueduct by Haiwee south of Lone Pine saw three airplanes overhead discharge a “brown” substance over the channel. He immediately contacted LADWP personnel at the Owens River Gorge station, who notified the Sheriff’s Department.
According to Lutze, the L.A. Aqueduct is ranked third highest on the Inyo County Threat Assessment List as a potential target for attack. (First on the list is U.S. 395, followed by the high-tension lines running from L.A. to Oregon.)
Obviously, the gravity of the situation at Haiwee was not lost on local officials.
The Sheriff’s Department immediately triggered its terror-response protocols, putting to practical use years of training for how to react to potential terrorist attacks.
A deputy was dispatched to the scene of the airplane discharge to interview the LADWP employee, while the Sheriff’s Department contacted the FAA to try to see if the agency had a radar tracking on the aircraft.
At the same time, Inyo County Sheriff’s Department’s Homeland Security coordinator, Lt. Jim Jones, got on the horn to the Regional Terrorism Analysis Center in Sacramento.
The RTAC, Lutze said, then notified the FBI, which in turn dispatched agents to respond from the FBI headquarters in Bakersfield while also informing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
As the various agencies initiated the chain of response, LADWP began implementing its own emergency protocols, and the deputy at the scene of the drop collected a more detailed description of the three airplanes. Armed with the witness’ information, sheriff’s personnel began calling around to airports in the region to see if the planes had been seen at any of those facilities.
The investigation led sheriff’s personnel to a Lone Pine resident who had been at the Lone Pine Airport earlier in the day and had seen three airplanes matching the description given by the LADWP employee. Accord-ing to Lutze, the department was then able to obtain the numbers off the aircraft, which led to the identity of the pilots.
Turns out, Lutze said, the aircraft belong to a stuntman outfit out of Rosamond called Smoking Airplanes. A call to one of the pilots at his home in Rosamond revealed that as the flyers passed over the aqueduct, they noticed the LADWP employee and discharged harmless smoke as a way of “just saying, ‘Hi,’” Lutze said.
In the process of being so cordial, the sheriff added, “they activated everything for a terrorist threat response.”
After the pilot was contacted by the Sheriff’s Department, his story was confirmed by Homeland Security and the threat response was called off.
Though the pilots’ moment of ill-advised whimsy caused quite a scare and several agencies a good deal of grief, the incident did have its silver lining.
“It was a good test of our procedures that we have in place for these types of things and it went very smoothly,” Lutze noted. “Even in remote areas, you never know what’s going to happen … if anything else, the incident provided us a good, active exercise.”
As for the pilots, who were left to deal with the feds, “I would imagine the FAA and Homeland Security had quite a chit-chat with them,” said Lutze. “I’m sure it opened their eyes a little bit.”
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Last Updated ( Friday, 22 February 2008 )
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