Participants of the planned power resiliency exercise listen as LAWA's Director of Emergency Management, Ed Bushman, provides important details in advance of the exercise.   

(Los Angeles, CA) On the evening of Tuesday, October 30, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), Los Angeles Airport Police Division, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, concessionaires, airlines, and airport partners gathered on the roof of Parking Structure 2A and at the Department Operations Center (DOC) at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to participate in a planned early-morning power resiliency exercise. 

“As the fifth busiest airport in the world, it is crucial that we are prepared and ready to respond if a catastrophic power failure or emergency situation were to happen," said Keith Wilschetz, Deputy Executive Director of Operations and Emergency Management, LAWA. "Our goal during an emergency is to return to full operations as quickly and safely as possible. These exercises take us from theoretical to actual, allowing us to better understand our systems, capacity, and improve our response plans."

The exercise assessed the strength of backup power systems and generators, as well as the impact that a complete loss of power would have on LAX's Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT). With the main power disconnected from the DWP power system, the participants were able to test and track resiliency and functionality of the emergency systems. During the exercise, a real-time test of the backup generators, fire/life/safety systems, emergency communications and recovery protocols was performed. 

"The Tom Bradley International Terminal field exercise gave us added confidence that in the event of a loss of our primary power, our backup systems will allow us to remain operationally functional," said John Carver, Deputy Executive Director, Chief Development Office, LAWA. "We found we were able to maintain terminal operations without taxing the full capacity of our back-up generators. The test, of course, also identified areas where we can improve, and to which we can now give added attention."

The goals of the exercise included discovering areas of vulnerability for the airport, mitigating any life safety concerns, monitoring emergency systems and infrastructure, identifying areas of the LAX terminal operations where further work was warranted, and better preparing personnel and first responders for possible natural disasters or power failures.  

A previous power shutdown was held in September in Terminals 1, 2 and 3. During that exercise, LAX officials determined emergency lighting was inadequate in certain locations and circuit boards in two elevators were burned out by the power surge when the grid turned back on. Since that time, workers have taken the necessary steps to correct those issues.  

(Left to right) LAWA Executives Keith Wilschetz and Michael Christensen discuss the situation and plan of action with staffer inside the terminal. 

 
LAWA staff members discuss the shutdown exercise at Tom Bradley International Terminal.

About Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
LAX, the fifth busiest airport in the world and second in the United States, was named in Skytrax’ 2018 top 10 U.S. airports. LAX served more than 84.56 million passengers in 2017 and offers 737 daily nonstop flights to 100 cities in the U.S. and 1,386 weekly nonstop flights to 88 cities in 44 countries on 73 commercial air carriers.  LAX ranks 14th in the world and fifth in the U.S. in air cargo tonnage processed, with more than 2.2 million tons of air cargo valued at over $101.4 billion.  LAX handled 700,362 operations (landings and takeoffs) in 2017.  

An economic study based on 2014 operations reported LAX generated 620,600 jobs in Southern California with labor income of $37.3 billion and economic output (business revenues) of more than $126.6 billion. This activity added $6.2 billion to local and state revenues and $8.7 billion in federal tax revenues.  The study also reported that LAX’s ongoing capital-improvement program creates an additional 121,640 annual jobs with labor income of $7.6 billion and economic output of $20.3 billion, $966 million in state and local taxes, and $1.6 billion in federal tax revenues. 

LAX is also the second most popular airport in the world to appear on Instagram according to wego.com. LAX is part of a system of two Southern California airports – along with Van Nuys general aviation – that are owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports, a proprietary department of the City of Los Angeles that receives no funding from the City’s general fund. 

For more information about LAX, please visit www.flyLAX.com or follow on Twitter @flyLAXAirport, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LAInternationalAirport, and on YouTube at www.YouTube.com/laxairport1. 

As a covered entity under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City of Los Angeles does not discriminate on the basis of disability and, upon request, will provide reasonable accommodation to ensure equal access to its programs, services, and activities.  Alternative formats in large print, braille, audio, and other forms (if possible) will be provided upon request.

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