Yesterday I was at LAX, Terminal 4. It was about 8:45-8:50AM. I had just passed through an extremely light security line. I moved over to the benches to the right of the security people to put myself back together. I'd moved about thirty-forty feet away from the security section on my way to Starbucks when suddenly I heard what sounded like a huge yell and then a massive amount of simultaneous footsteps. I turned back around and all of the security personnel had formed a barrier. If they all reached out and held hands (which they didn't), they would have been able to prevent anyone from going in or out of this area. All of the other passengers like myself who had just passed through stopped dead in our tracks. Should we hit the deck? Run for our lives? Pull our shirts over our mouths in case there was about to be trouble breathing? It was scary, scary, scary. Whoever was on one side was there; whoever was on the other side was there and too bad if half your family was in a different section from where you were. But then I noticed a couple of them giggling and realized it was a drill.

Did anyone else on Flyertalk witness this yesterday?

Did anyone else at Flyertalk witness this in other airports?

On one hand, I guess I'm glad there's a protocol in place so that if I'm ever at LAX when a real situation arises, I know they have a plan, and it's been tested.

I also realize passengers are moving through there every minute of every day so it's not as though they could test this in off-hours. Heck, they probably consider Sunday morning as being off-hours - maybe it is?

But, it still scared the living crap out of me and everyone else around me and made me edgier than usual before my LAX-YYZ flight.

Thoughts?

Your "security" fees and taxes are being spent teaching the TSA to play Red Rover.

Thoroughly professional behavior by the TSA, huh?

But did they yell, "Everybody Freeze!!" as has been witnessed in previous so-called training sessions?

Honestly they might have but all I heard was a gigantic yell; I could not discern what was being said and I played it back over in my head a few times but couldn't figure it out.

I spoke to some other people in line at Starbucks and asked "what did you make of that". And they said the same thing as me - they were nervous until they saw them smiling.

And maybe it's not such a bad thing they were smiling - as soon as I saw that, my heart stopped pounding and I thought "well, they wouldn't be this light-hearted if it was for real," so it actually made me feel better...

Ah yes, the smiling makes it all better...

Smiling after the drill is fine, especially if it puts others more at ease. However, giggling is unprofessional. (I would venture a guess that those gigglers would be the first to pee their pants if it was not a drill but was real.)

"Bravo" maybe? I've seen this at a couple of airports. The smiles I've seen appeared a bit sheepish. As if they realize juts how silly they look.

Perhaps this is some quaint TSA celebratory ritual after the discovery of an artfully concealed item?

Yes, this is *exactly* it. 100%. Again, it took me about 10 or 15 seconds to figure out where exactly the racket was coming from, and by the time I did they had already formed their line. Perhaps they were 100% professional from the time they began, but once the line was formed and anyone/everyone was prevented from getting through, they were just standing there, waiting for someone to say "and...that's a wrap," and let them get back to what they were doing before. That's when I noticed the fact that they didn't have stony faces of seriousness.

One of them was even gesturing in a friendly/somewhat joking manner to a friend trapped on my side of the line. Once everyone knew what was going on it was OK, but anyone who had heard what sounded like a herd of elephants simultaneously running and then stopping, had stopped in their tracks and just stared.

As an afterthought, I just remembered now that I saw some guards on the other side (not the "secure" side I was on), holding up their hands in a motion to stop anyone else from entering the x-ray area. I wish I'd thought to look at the people who had their shoes off and/or were putting their stuff on the belts at the time. If I was that startled on my side, I'd hazard a guess that they were extremely scared. To me, it's a high-pressure situation, going through that thing; being separated from all your possessions; hoping you don't beep and/or get pulled aside for further examination. Imagine doing all that and being stuck in the exact middle of a "red rover" type lockdown. Guess I was lucky not to be five minutes behind schedule yesterday...

Red Rover, Red Rover I dare Osama to come over!

I don't have a problem with drills. Again, it's the only way for them to know how to react should something happen, just like fire drills are in office buildings, drowning drills at beaches, etc.

There are so many drills in Manhattan now that when something real is happening there's always somebody on the news who witnessed it saying "I thought it was another drill or movie, had I known the gun was real I wouldn't have been standing there"

I think they have shown us recently what happens when they don't have any procedures in place, hopefully they can practice and put some into practice.

More crying "wolf"

My last trip through T4 LAX found the elite line moving 1/3 the speed of the regular lines because the document checker was spending in excess of 30 seconds per person to examine, lupe, and blacklight documents. There was only one document checker for the elite line. OTOH, there was NO line at the regular lines.

I presume you used the regular line then?

Of course not! What's the fun in that?!?