Another gun was found at a security checkpoint at Pittsburgh International Airport, making it the 11th firearm found at the facility this year.
Transportation Security Administration officers found a .380 handgun loaded with six bullets in a Butler County woman’s carry-on bag around 5 a.m. Monday, officials said.
Allegheny County police were able to determine the woman, of Sarver, had a valid concealed carry permit and inadvertently left the gun in her bag, a release reads.
The FBI was notified and the woman was permitted to fly. Charges are not expected to be filed, but the woman is facing a federal financial civil penalty
The penalty for a loaded firearm ranges from $3,000 to $10,000, according to the TSA.
“It is midway through the fourth month of the year and already we have caught more than half the number of guns we caught during all 12 months of 2020,” Karen Keys-Turner, TSA’s federal security director for the airport, said. “Let me say it very simply. Do not bring your gun to an airport security checkpoint. Even if you have a concealed carry permit, you are not permitted to carry it onto an airplane. If you want to travel with it, you must pack it property so that it can be transported as checked baggage.”
The last gun found at a checkpoint, a loaded .45 caliber handgun, was found April 1 after TSA officers spotted it in a man’s backpack in the checkpoint X-ray machine. At the time, he was facing a federal financial civil penalty for bringing the gun the the checkpoint.
According to a release from the TSA, when someone brings a firearm to a checkpoint, the lane comes to a standstill until police resolve the incident.
Passengers are permitted to transport firearms as checked baggage that will be transported in the belly of the plane, according to the TSA. Firearms must be properly packed and declared at their airline ticket counter.
At Pittsburgh International Airport, 35 guns were found in 2019 and 21 were found in 2020.
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