"Man with Gun Passes Detector at Atlanta Airport"

Tuesday, September 25, 2001

Man with Gun Passes Detector at Atlanta Airport


ATLANTA (Reuters) - A man with a loaded gun passed through a security
checkpoint at Hartsfield International Airport and went undetected,
Atlanta police said on Tuesday. 

A police report said the man, a Tennessee insurance agent, walked
through a metal detector on Sunday and was in a gate area when he
realized he had a loaded .22-caliber pistol in his pocket. He alerted a
Delta Air Lines Inc. representative, the report said. 

The man, who had a permit to carry the weapon, told police he did not
remember he had the gun in his pocket, according to the report. He also
said the metal detector did not go off when he walked through. 

An airport spokeswoman was quoted in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as
saying the metal-detection gear had been tested and determined to be in
working order. 

``I don't have any information as to how it happened,'' she said. 

In common with other airports around the country, officials at
Hartsfield, the world's busiest airport, have tightened security in the
wake of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. in which
hijacked passenger planes were used to slam into the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon. 

Police said the man was charged with having a firearm in a prohibited
area, a misdemeanor, and released.

 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID8

*****************************************