El Al Security at LAX

So I was plane spotting today with my buddy Glen at LAX as I sometimes do, and this El Al ( Israel Airlines ) vehicle pulls up. I was wondering what they were doing hovering around eyeballing me, but didnt think too much of it. All of a sudden a gentleman with an El Al uniform comes to the car and in a thick Iraeli accent asks us what we are doing at the airport.

I informed him that I was looking at planes, and he said so you are a plane spotter? I said yes. He said have a good day and walked of and hopped on his CB keeping a close eye on my car. Now I wasn't too comfortable with that confrontation, and I found it really odd that I would be questioned by an employee of a foreign airline.....

Next thing you know there are police cars driving up and down the runway more so than usual, baggage handling trucks driving by slowly glearing over to the car and the guy was still there yabbering on his CB.

All of a sudden an El Al Airlines 767 pulls onto the runway and slowly comes to the end of the runway to where we were, with a virtual police escort. I know that most of the time El Al does not have a steady schedule and sort of tells it's passengers to be at the airport at a certain time and wing it if I may, but I had never seen this sort of thing unless it was a head of state traveling.

As the plane is spooling up its engines and I am watching with amazement, the El Al employee comes back to the car and asks me where I am from. He had spotted the NZ flag on the back of my car, as he was prying over it with his eagle eyes, and wanted to talk about NZ.

He had been there for 3 months he said and loved it. Glen was wondering if he was packing heat, but didn't want to ask. It turns out that every time a plane with an Israeli Flag on it is preparing to take off and land, they ramp up the security dramatically for the safety of the passengers. He waited till the plane had taken off and was out of sight then he bid his farewells.

I must say, the employee turned out to be polite and nice and I am VERY impressed with the security precautions that El Al take for the sake of safety. They take it very seriously.

Would I fly El Al......? Probably not out of preferance, I'd be feeling a bit uncomfortable with all the excess security.... Having said that no other airline goes to the same lengths as El Al.