Man gets loaded gun on plane
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, October 24, 2001
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — A man carried a loaded gun through security checkpoints at the New Orleans airport Tuesday and boarded a Southwest Airlines flight before turning the weapon over to a flight attendant.
FBI spokesman Ed Hall said the man did not realize he had the derringer inside his briefcase until the Boeing 737 had left for Phoenix.
The FBI questioned the man in Phoenix, but he was not charged because he had no intent to commit a crime, Hall said.
"We interviewed him. We checked his history and determined it was innocent, poor judgment," the FBI spokesman said.
Hall said the flight attendant gave the single-shot derringer to the pilot, who locked it in the cockpit. It was returned to the man in Phoenix.
A security employee in New Orleans has been suspended, officials said.
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