FULL-TIME LAX TECH ABOARD IN WAKE OF SYSTEM FAILURE.

Byline: RICK ORLOV Staff Writer

A technician has been assigned to LAX full time in the wake of a navigational-system failure earlier this week, the Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday.

``We now have a technician assigned 24 hours to LAX only,'' FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said. ``We just want to make sure that someone is available in the case something like this happens again.''

FAA technicians have not yet determined what caused the Instrument Landing System to fail Monday, forcing a ripple effect of delays for air traffic across the nation.

``Technically there was nothing wrong with the machine,'' Gregor said. ``Something interrupted or obstructed the radio signal and it is designed to shut down rather than send wrong information to a pilot.

``The problem was we didn't have a technician on site to reset the equipment.''

The system went down at 9:17 a.m. on Monday, forcing air traffic officials to reverse landing and takeoff patterns and slowing arrivals and departures.

Los Angeles International Airport officials said the system is designed to deal with 80 aircraft an hour on three runways while a fourth runway is being rebuilt as part of an overall modernization plan.

Monday's problems reduced the number of landings and takeoffs to about 60 an hour.

LAX officials said the $333 million runway relocation project is scheduled to be completed in March.

rick.orlov(at)dailynews.com

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