US Pilot Arrested for Loaded Handgun in Carry On
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"If someone was trying to breach the door you might. Deny as you might, if you had one and someone hellbent on destroying you, your aircraft and potentially a lot of folks on the the ground, you'd use it."
I should hope you'd wait for the door to be breached, rather than trying to fire through said bullet-proof portal?
I should hope you'd wait for the door to be breached, rather than trying to fire through said bullet-proof portal?
Thread Starter
Nothing in local rag
There's typically several appearances until disclosure is produced before a trial date can be set and serious plea bargaining can begin.
Minimum one year before trial or deal.
Minimum one year before trial or deal.
Pilot fined $4000
The pilot plead guilty to a smuggling charge and was fined $4000. The other serious fireams charges were dropped. He is very lucky.
SkyWest pilot Joshua Petty White pleads guilty to smuggling loaded gun in carry-on - Calgary - CBC News
SkyWest pilot Joshua Petty White pleads guilty to smuggling loaded gun in carry-on - Calgary - CBC News
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I know personally of a few instances of pilots inadvertently carrying a firearm or ammunition through security.
In at least two of the cases, the duffel bag used to carry the weapon to the shooting range was later used as luggage for a trip.
In another case, the gun was placed in a pilot's rolling bag by his wife to keep it away from a visiting child.
I've somehow left a full size Leatherman tool with a large knife blade under a Velcro flap in my pilot case and carried it on several international sectors with customs and security inspections. I vaguely remember using the tool to try to fix a loose handle. Fortunately, the Leatherman went undetected and I found it at home while looking for a whiz wheel for upcoming training.
One of my acquaintances had his legal case resolved by a phone conference between union, TSA and company lawyers in some sort of sealed administrative plea. He paid a $2000 fine as I recall.
Another pilot had a bullet found in the folds of his luggage in an Asian country and his case has yet to be resolved a couple of years later.
In at least two of the cases, the duffel bag used to carry the weapon to the shooting range was later used as luggage for a trip.
In another case, the gun was placed in a pilot's rolling bag by his wife to keep it away from a visiting child.
I've somehow left a full size Leatherman tool with a large knife blade under a Velcro flap in my pilot case and carried it on several international sectors with customs and security inspections. I vaguely remember using the tool to try to fix a loose handle. Fortunately, the Leatherman went undetected and I found it at home while looking for a whiz wheel for upcoming training.
One of my acquaintances had his legal case resolved by a phone conference between union, TSA and company lawyers in some sort of sealed administrative plea. He paid a $2000 fine as I recall.
Another pilot had a bullet found in the folds of his luggage in an Asian country and his case has yet to be resolved a couple of years later.
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I know personally of a few instances of pilots inadvertently carrying a firearm or ammunition through security.
I was surprised to see that over 1400 guns were detected by airport security in the US in one year. That's four a day!
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And, since the TSA inspections are highly focussed towards the detection of firearms and explosives it would seem that anyone planning to harm an aircraft would realise this and choose another weapon or, at least, an alternative means of getting a weapon onto the aircraft. The vast majority of the detected firearms are the result of carelessness, stupid and culpable carelessness certainly and deserving of the relevant action certainly, but none the less, without evil intent. You can be assured that if the Federal authorities found a weapon that was genuinely intended to be used in a terrorist activity the event would be publicized to the skies. You would hear about it in headlines for a month - ergo the authorities also consider the 1400 detected firearms to be the result of culpable carelessness.
The TSA procedures are still more a pantomime for the travelling public than anything else. If you really wanted to board a weapon on a US aircraft you would use one of the thousands of immigrant airport workers from countries that dislike the US to smuggle the weapon to the aircraft via the thousands of serviceing and catering vehicles that enter the "back door" of the airports every hour.
Consider also that firearms in the US are the tools of sport as well as weapons., no different to many people here than golf clubs. There are thousands of weapons moving through US airports every day for sporting purposes and attendance at sporting events. There just is not the bed-wetting drama attached to a firearm that occurs in other countries. This is certainly not a justification for carelessness but it does facilitate errors. Simple example, a shooter travels from A to B, firearm is properly stowed in hold baggage. At hotel shooter removes firearm from suitcase and carries it to and from competition in a smaller range bag. End of competition, shooter packs secure gun container in suitcase and checks it but in the rush leaves actual gun in range bag which is carry-on, gotcha! Dumb, yes, evil, no, part of 1400 statistic, yes. 1.8 million people fly every day in the US, a few are going to make a mistake, apparently 4 per day.
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The TSA procedures are still more a pantomime for the travelling public than anything else. If you really wanted to board a weapon on a US aircraft you would use one of the thousands of immigrant airport workers from countries that dislike the US to smuggle the weapon to the aircraft via the thousands of serviceing and catering vehicles that enter the "back door" of the airports every hour.
Consider also that firearms in the US are the tools of sport as well as weapons., no different to many people here than golf clubs. There are thousands of weapons moving through US airports every day for sporting purposes and attendance at sporting events. There just is not the bed-wetting drama attached to a firearm that occurs in other countries. This is certainly not a justification for carelessness but it does facilitate errors. Simple example, a shooter travels from A to B, firearm is properly stowed in hold baggage. At hotel shooter removes firearm from suitcase and carries it to and from competition in a smaller range bag. End of competition, shooter packs secure gun container in suitcase and checks it but in the rush leaves actual gun in range bag which is carry-on, gotcha! Dumb, yes, evil, no, part of 1400 statistic, yes. 1.8 million people fly every day in the US, a few are going to make a mistake, apparently 4 per day.
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1.8 million people fly every day in the US, a few are going to make a mistake, apparently 4 per day.
That's People...not Pilots, a pilot should not make this mistake, it's as simple as that, no excuse, he messed up and got off very lightly
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Is he now on the lists of people banned from flights or from re-entering Canada?
Any Joe Sixpack convicted of a firearms offence involving commercial air transport would immediately be added to such lists, regardless of any effect it might have on his job. He would not be allowed to fly again on commercial flights. Someone from another country with such a conviction would be banned from entering the USA. The same should apply to Americans who commit felonies elsewhere and in particular there should be no special dispensation for a pilot convict. Pilots should be setting an example to the general public.
At the very least this convict should not be allowed on any flight into, out of or over Canada and should not be permitted to re-enter Canada. The travelling public has the right to expect that the laws and rules regarding offenders will be evenly applied to all.
Any Joe Sixpack convicted of a firearms offence involving commercial air transport would immediately be added to such lists, regardless of any effect it might have on his job. He would not be allowed to fly again on commercial flights. Someone from another country with such a conviction would be banned from entering the USA. The same should apply to Americans who commit felonies elsewhere and in particular there should be no special dispensation for a pilot convict. Pilots should be setting an example to the general public.
At the very least this convict should not be allowed on any flight into, out of or over Canada and should not be permitted to re-enter Canada. The travelling public has the right to expect that the laws and rules regarding offenders will be evenly applied to all.
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Narita security finds 30 bullets in American Airlines crew member’s carry-on baggage
Kyodo
Jul 19, 2017
CHIBA – An American Airlines’ crew member was found to have 30 live bullets in his carry-on baggage last weekend at Narita International Airport, near Tokyo, during boarding procedures for the United States, investigators said Wednesday.
The bullets were found Saturday at the airport’s security check point for flight crew, where the U.S. national in his 50s told police that he had forgotten the bullets were in his bag when he left the United States.
The police are considering charging him with violation of the swords and firearms control law. But they did not detain the crew member, and allowed him to leave Japan on a Dallas-bound flight Saturday afternoon after he promised to return to Japan if summoned. The U.S. airline company also showed willingness to cooperate with the probe, the investigators said.
Kyodo
Jul 19, 2017
CHIBA – An American Airlines’ crew member was found to have 30 live bullets in his carry-on baggage last weekend at Narita International Airport, near Tokyo, during boarding procedures for the United States, investigators said Wednesday.
The bullets were found Saturday at the airport’s security check point for flight crew, where the U.S. national in his 50s told police that he had forgotten the bullets were in his bag when he left the United States.
The police are considering charging him with violation of the swords and firearms control law. But they did not detain the crew member, and allowed him to leave Japan on a Dallas-bound flight Saturday afternoon after he promised to return to Japan if summoned. The U.S. airline company also showed willingness to cooperate with the probe, the investigators said.