LA airport failed to spot gun in hand luggage
LA airport failed to spot gun in hand luggage
BBC News, April 20 2017
Pre-flight security checks are part of the travelling routine (Getty Images)
An off-duty policewoman flew from Los Angeles international airport (LAX) to Taiwan with a gun in her hand luggage.
The weapon was not detected during security screening and Noell Grant only realised she was carrying it as she changed planes in Taipei.
She informed the local authorities and she has been barred from leaving Taiwan until the matter is resolved.
US federal officials have admitted security procedures were not properly followed at LAX.
The authorities have "determined standard procedures were not followed and a police officer did in fact pass through the (airport) checkpoint with a firearm," said Nico Melendez of the US Transportation Security Administration.
"We'll hold those responsible appropriately accountable."
Officer Grant, 42, of the Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) was carrying a personal firearm, not a service weapon, when she took the flight to Taiwan last week.
She was changing planes at Taoyuan international airport in Taipei, intending to travel on to Thailand for a family holiday, when she discovered the gun and six bullets in her hand luggage.
She is not under arrest in Taiwan, but she has been told to remain in the country.
It is unclear whether Officer Grant will face disciplinary charges on her return to the US, SMPD Lieutenant Saul Rodriguez told the AFP news agency.
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So how does THAT make you feel about flying?
The TSA were probably distracted by having to pat down somebody's grandmother.
We don't fly. I have smelly feet.
No, actually I can't talk my wife into it and I wish I could! The only cruises we go on is to Mexico until we went to Hawaii this past January! She won't fly to Orlando or New Orleans or New York to cruise the Caribbean! I mean I have seen Puerto Vallarta (at least 12 times!) so many times I could drive a cab there! She won't go to Alaska because, even in the summer she thinks it too cold! We've been saving up for another Hawaii cruise, but now she wants to trade our Bettle in on a C-Class Benz! I would love a new Benz, but I mean come on! Let's FLY somewhere! Hell, I'd even put up with her idiot son in Orlando to go there!
LOL
I only fly ''Red Baron'' Airlines...The only contraband ever found was a smuggled bag of kibble.
Watch out over Northern France and Germany! There is this guy I have heard of Shooting people down!
To tell the truth it is just plain fucking amazing that he got 80 kills using that equipment! And that the pilot that is credited with taking him down only had ten kills during the whole war, not that that is such a small accomplishment. My step-mothers father Joesph DeBoer flew a Sopwith Pup as an Dutchman who became an American citizen before the war, for the British briefly during WWI and got three kills before he was shot down with a crippling wound to his left ankle and walked with a cane the rest of his life. He was, as I remember, quite a character.
He told me when he was quite old and I was quite young (9 to 11years old) when we went fishing in the streams of Michigan that in the winter in France they wiped Bear grease all over their body before putting on their long johns, flight suits, and leather jackets and even then it was really cold in the morning. He said that the first thing they would do was to fly up toward clear air into the Sun to warm up. He said most of the movies about WWI were too romantic because most of the pilots really stunk most of the time, were drunk a lot and were not very dashing. He said they bragged a lot but were scared to get the plane off the ground, let alone what would happen after they did. He loved the Pup as it would just about do anything he asked it to do, but he had never flown anything else so he didn't know any better or worse. Whenever he talked about flying he got really quiet and sort of sad. I didn't understand that at the time, but even after not being able to have flown after more the 50 years (this was the mid-late 1960's) he still missed it. Or his youth. Or whatever. He never, ever told war stories, even if you asked. He'd just say something like "Aw, It was nothing. Forget about it."
He ran an auto repair shop in Grand Haven, Michigan for more the 40 years before he sold it and retired. He didn't have a bathroom in his cabin (that he built himself). Not even an outhouse. He had a roll of toilet paper (if you needed it) by the backdoor and a way up a path into the woods he had constructed a few poles to where you could (if you needed to) sit on one pole he'd cut from a tree and lean back on another until you were finished with your business. This facility was open year 'round. LOL
He had a sort of board on his wall with his medals on it, but I always liked the Racoon sin he had next to it better. I asked him if he'd give it to me sometime and when he died (of bladder cancer in 1969) he made sure my step-Mother got it to me. I kept it across my pillow until I left for the Air Force when I was 17 and none of my sisters can explain where it went after that. I miss fishing with him. It was quiet and peaceful. I think he liked it that way. I did.
Sorry if I rambled on. He was just a nice and unusual old man. I miss him still sometimes.
Oh and he drove a 1964 Ford Falcon that had a pickup style bed. The base for the first year Mustangs which I owned one of in 1971.
Great story Randy...He sounds like quite the character.
Great fly fisherman too. You would think he was talking to the trout. You also would think he would be happy to talk about his "victories" in the air, but he never would. I haven't the slightest idea of when they happened or any of the circumstances about them. My Step-Mother is still alive but I am certain she doesn't know either. He never got mad when I asked, but he always blew it off, like he did with just about any questions I had about the war. It was very inside and personal to him, I guess. I knew he had the three kills and a bullet through his left ankle and that he was scared most of the time taking off and in the air (partially about the aircraft failing) and knew most of the rest were too but that was pretty much it.
He got a bit drunk on beer one time when I was at his cabin and he told me that his wish was to die at the age of 101 in a certain house of ill repute in Marseille, France. I told my Step-Mother about it and she read him the riot act! LOL! He was one of a kind. Or at least one of a kind that is gone now.
Snitch!!!!!
It figures that a pilot would be a FLY fisherman.
Don't mind flying I'm in Naples, Florida right now. I hate the TSA and actually preferred flying prior to the creation of that useless government bureaucracy. I know a number of people that gave up flying after the government made it such a hassle.
I heard the other day that most people caught with guns really had no idea they had the gun and I believe according to the show I listened to it was true. They didn't realize it was in the bag because some people put their gun somewhere they won't forget where it is.