Los Angeles International Airport

Ground transportation and access

Transiting between terminals

LAX Shuttle routes

FlyAway Bus

Metro Rail and the LAX Automated People Mover

Freeways and roads

Taxis, ride-share and private shuttles

Walk in from nearby areas

Other facilities

Flight Path Museum LAX

Accidents and incidents

1930s

• On January 23, 1939, the sole prototype Douglas 7B twin-engine attack bomber, designed and built as a company project, suffered a loss of the vertical fin and rudder during a demonstration flight over Mines Field, flat spun into the parking lot of North American Aviation, and burned. Another source states that the test pilot, in an attempt to impress the Gallic passenger, attempted a snap roll at low altitude with one engine feathered, resulting in a fatal spin. Douglas test pilot Johnny Cable bailed out at 300 feet, his chute unfurled but did not have time to deploy, he was killed on impact, the flight engineer John Parks rode in the airframe and died, but 33-year-old French Air Force Capt. Paul Chemidlin, riding in the aft fuselage near the top turret, survived with a broken leg, severe back injuries, and a slight concussion. The presence of Chemidlin, a representative of a foreign purchasing mission, caused a furor in Congress by isolationists over neutrality and export laws. The type was developed as the Douglas DB-7.

1940s

• On June 1, 1940, the first Douglas R3D-1 for the U.S. Navy, BuNo 1901, crashed at Mines Field, before delivery. The Navy later acquired the privately owned DC-5 prototype, from William E. Boeing as a replacement.
• On November 20, 1940, the prototype NA-73X Mustang, NX19998, first flown October 26, 1940, by test pilot Vance Breese, crashed. According to P-51 designer Edgar Schmued, the NA-73 was lost because test pilot Paul Balfour refused, before a high-speed test run, to go through the takeoff and flight test procedure with Schmued while the aircraft was on the ground, claiming "one airplane was like another". After making two high speed passes over Mines Field, he forgot to put the fuel valve on "reserve" and during the third pass ran out of fuel. An emergency landing in a freshly plowed field caused the wheels to dig in, the aircraft flipped over, the airframe was not rebuilt, the second aircraft being used for subsequent testing.
• On October 26, 1944, WASP pilot Gertrude Tompkins Silver of the 601st Ferrying Squadron, fifth Ferrying Group, Love Field, Dallas, Texas, departed Los Angeles Airport, in a North American P-51D Mustang, 44-15669, at 1600 hrs PWT, headed for the East Coast. She took off into the wind, into an offshore fog bank, and was expected that night at Palm Springs. She never arrived. Owing to a paperwork foul-up, a search did not get under way for several days, and while the eventual search of land and sea was massive, it failed to find a trace of Silver or her plane. She is the only missing WASP pilot. She had married Sgt. Henry Silver one month before her disappearance.

1960s

• On January 13, 1969, Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 933, a Douglas DC-8-62, crashed into Santa Monica Bay, approximately west of LAX at 7:21 pm, local time. The aircraft was operating as flight SK933, nearing the completion of a flight from Seattle. Of nine crewmembers, three drowned, while 12 of the 36 passengers also drowned.
• On January 18, 1969, United Airlines Flight 266, a Boeing 727-100 bearing the registration number N7434U, crashed into Santa Monica Bay approximately west of LAX at 6:21 pm local time. The aircraft was destroyed, resulting in the death of all 32 passengers and six crew members aboard.

1970s

• On the evening of June 6, 1971, Hughes Airwest Flight 706, a Douglas DC-9 jetliner that had departed LAX on a flight to Salt Lake City, Utah, was struck nine minutes after takeoff by a U.S. Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter jet over the San Gabriel Mountains. The midair collision killed all 44 passengers and five crew members aboard the DC-9 airliner and one of two crewmen aboard the military jet.
• On August 4, 1971, Continental Airlines Flight 712, a Boeing 707, collided in midair with a Cessna 150 over Compton. Although the Cessna was destroyed upon landing, there were no fatalities.
• On August 6, 1974, a bomb exploded near the Pan Am ticketing area at Terminal 2; three people were killed and 35 were injured.
• On March 1, 1978, two tires burst in succession on a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 on Continental Airlines Flight 603 during its takeoff roll at LAX and the plane, bound for Honolulu, veered off the runway. A third tire burst and the DC-10's left landing gear collapsed, causing a fuel tank to rupture. Following the aborted takeoff, spilled fuel ignited and enveloped the center portion of the aircraft in flames. During the ensuing emergency evacuation, a husband and wife died when they exited the passenger cabin onto the wing and dropped down directly into the flames. Two additional passengers died of their injuries approximately three months after the accident; 74 others aboard the plane were injured, as were 11 firemen battling the fire.
• On the evening of March 10, 1979, Swift Aire Flight 235, a twin-engine Aerospatiale Nord 262A-33 turboprop en route to Santa Maria, was forced to ditch in Santa Monica Bay after experiencing engine problems upon takeoff from LAX. The pilot, co-pilot, and a female passenger drowned when they were unable to exit the aircraft after the ditching. The female flight attendant and the three remaining passengers—two men and a pregnant woman—survived and were rescued by several pleasure boats and other watercraft in the vicinity.

1980s

• In January 1985, a woman was found dead in a suitcase that was lying on the baggage carousel for a while. The suitcase had arrived on a Lufthansa flight. The woman was later discovered to have been an Iranian citizen who had recently married another Iranian with UGreen card status. She had been denied a US visa in West Germany and therefore decided to enter the US in this way.
• On August 31, 1986, Aeroméxico Flight 498, a DC-9 en route from Mexico City, Mexico, to Los Angeles, began its descent into LAX when a Piper Cherokee collided with the DC-9's left horizontal stabilizer over Cerritos, causing the DC-9 to crash into a residential neighborhood. All 67 people on the two aircraft were killed, in addition to 15 people on the ground. 5 homes were destroyed and an additional 7 were damaged by the crash and resulting fire. The Piper went down in a nearby schoolyard and caused no further injuries on the ground. As a result of this incident, the FAA required all commercial aircraft to be equipped with Traffic Collision Avoidance System.

1990s

• On February 1, 1991, USAir Flight 1493, a Boeing 737-300, landing on runway 24L at LAX, collided on touchdown with SkyWest Airlines Flight 5569, a Fairchild Metroliner, preparing to depart to Palmdale. The collision was caused by a controller who told the SkyWest plane to wait on the runway for takeoff, then later gave the USAir plane clearance to land on the same runway, forgetting that the SkyWest plane was there. The collision killed all 12 occupants of the SkyWest plane and 23 of the 89 people aboard the USAir 737.

2000s

• Al-Qaeda attempted to bomb LAX on New Year's Eve 1999/2000. The bomber, Algerian Ahmed Ressam, was captured in Port Angeles, Washington, the U.S. port of entry, with a cache of explosives that could have produced a blast 40 times greater than that of a car bomb hidden in the trunk of the rented car in which he had traveled from Canada. He had planned to leave one or two suitcases filled with explosives in an LAX passenger waiting area. He was initially sentenced to 22 years in prison, but in February 2010 an appellate court ordered that his sentence be extended.
• On January 31, 2000, Alaska Airlines Flight 261, attempted to land at LAX after experiencing problems with its tail-mounted horizontal stabilizer. Before the plane could divert to Los Angeles, it suddenly plummeted into the Pacific Ocean approximately north of Anacapa Island of the California coast, killing all 88 people aboard.
• During the September 11 attacks, American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 77 were destined for LAX before they were hijacked mid-flight by Al-Qaeda terrorists. Flight 11 and Flight 175 deliberately crashed into the Twin Towers of World Trade Center and Flight 77 deliberately crashed into The Pentagon.
• In the 2002 Los Angeles International Airport shooting of July 4, 2002, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet killed two Israelis at the ticket counter of El Al Airlines at LAX. Although the gunman was not linked to any terrorist group, the man was upset at U.S. support for Israel, and therefore was motivated by political disagreement. This led the FBI to classify this shooting as a terrorist act, one of the first on U.S. soil since the September 11 attacks.
• On September 21, 2005, JetBlue Flight 292, an Airbus A320 discovered a problem with its landing gear as it took off from Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. It flew in circles for three hours to burn off fuel, then landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport on runway 25L, balancing on its back wheels as it rolled down the center of the runway. Passengers were able to watch their own coverage live from the satellite broadcast on JetBlue in-flight TV seat displays of their plane as it made an emergency landing with the front landing gear visibly becoming damaged. Because JetBlue did not serve LAX at the time, the aircraft was evaluated and repaired at a Continental Airlines hangar.
• On 19 December 2005, Air India flight 136, a Boeing 747-400M flying from Los Angeles to Delhi via Frankfurt, suffered a tire blowout after take-off. The plane dumped fuel and returned to Los Angeles after conducting an emergency landing. There were no injuries among 267 passengers and crew, however a woman passenger was hospitalized after fainting on landing.
• On June 2, 2006, an American Airlines Boeing 767 was about to complete a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City when the plane's pilots noted that the number 1 engine lagged the number 2 one by 2 percent. The plane landed safely and passengers disembarked, but when maintenance personnel retarded its throttle to idle, the number one engine, which had been put to maximum power, suffered an uncontained rupture of the high pressure turbine stage 1 disk, causing the engine to explode. There were no injuries among the three people on board the aircraft at the time, but the airplane was written off.
• On July 29, 2006, after America West Express Flight 6008, a Canadair Regional Jet operated by Mesa Airlines from Phoenix, Arizona, landed on runway 25L, controllers instructed the pilot to leave the runway on a taxiway known as "Mike" and stop short of runway 25R. Even though the pilot read back the instructions correctly, he accidentally taxied onto 25R and into the path of a departing SkyWest Airlines Embraer EMB-120 operating United Express Flight 6037 to Monterey. They cleared each other by and nobody was hurt.
• On August 16, 2007, a runway incursion occurred between WestJet Flight 900 and Northwest Airlines Flight 180 on runways 24R and 24L, respectively, with the aircraft coming within of each other. The planes were carrying a combined total of 296 people, none of whom were injured. The NTSB concluded that the incursion was the result of controller error. In September 2007, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey stressed the need for LAX to increase lateral separation between its pair of north runways in order to preserve the safety and efficiency of the airport.

2010s

• On October 13 and 14, 2013, two incidents of dry ice bomb explosions occurred at the airport. The first dry ice bomb exploded at 7:00 p.m. in an employee restroom in Terminal 2, with no injuries. Terminal 2 was briefly shut down as a result. On the next day at 8:30 p.m., a dry ice bomb exploded on the ramp area near the Tom Bradley International Terminal, also without injuries. Two other plastic bottles containing dry ice were found at the scene during the second explosion. On October 15, a 28-year-old airport employee was arrested in connection with the explosions and was booked on charges of possession of an explosive or destructive device near an aircraft. On October 18, a 41-year-old airport employee was arrested in connection with the second explosion, and was booked on suspicion of possessing a destructive device near an aircraft. Authorities believe that the incidents were not linked to terrorism. Both men subsequently pleaded no contest and were each sentenced to three years' probation. The airport workers had removed dry ice from a cargo hold into which a dog was to be loaded, because of fears that the dry ice could harm the animal.
• In the 2013 Los Angeles International Airport shooting of November 1, 2013, at around 9:31 a.m. PDT, a lone gunman entered Terminal 3 and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle, killing a Transportation Security Administration officer and wounding three other people. The gunman was later apprehended and taken into custody. Until the situation was clarified and under control, a few terminals at the airport were evacuated, all inbound flights were diverted and all outbound flights were grounded until the airport began returning to normal operation at around 2:30 p.m.
• On August 28, 2016, there was a false report of shots fired throughout the airport, causing a temporary lock down and about 3 hours of flight delays.
• On May 20, 2017, Aeroméxico Flight 642, a Boeing 737-800, collided with a utility truck on a taxiway near Runway 25R, injuring 8 people, two of them seriously.
• On July 25, 2018, jetblast from a Dash 8 caused some dollies to crash into a United 737.
• On November 21, 2019, Philippine Airlines Flight 113, operated by a Boeing 777-300ER suffered an engine compressor stall shortly after take off from the airport's Runway 25R, forcing the flight to return. The flight made a successful emergency landing just 13 minutes after departure. There were 342 passengers and 18 crew on board the flight, with no injuries reported.

2020s

• On August 19, 2020, FedEx Express Flight 1026, a Boeing 767, made an emergency landing when its left main landing gear failed to extend. One of the pilots was injured while leaving the aircraft.
• On July 8, 2024, a Boeing 757-200 of United Airlines, registration N14107, was in the initial climb out of runway 25R bound for Denver when one of the main wheels detached. The aircraft continued to Denver and landed safely with no casualties.
• On July 18, 2025, a Boeing 767-400ER under the registration: N836MH that was serving Delta Air Lines Flight 446, returned to LAX after suffering an engine fire that caused the flight to be delayed 6 hours.

Aircraft spotting

Space Shuttle ''Endeavour''

In popular culture