Passengers wait to go through security and board a flight at Philadelphia International Airport.
Unless your job specifically requires one (if you are, say, a police officer, a soldier or a federal air marshal), you might want to avoid bringing a loaded gun to work with you — especially if your place of business is an international airport.
Unfortunately, a Republic Airlines flight attendant didn’t follow this advice. Although she did have a permit to carry a handgun, she forgot to remove the weapon from her purse before heading to work at Philadelphia International Airport on Sunday. Going through routine security checks, she placed her bag on the X-ray machine conveyor belt around 6:30 a.m., the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. TSA officers noticed the weapon (luckily) and soon alerted police. An officer, whose name has not been released, tried to remove the gun’s ammunition — you know, to make things safe. Instead, the officer accidentally fired the gun. The bullet hit the ground and no one was injured.
(MORE: FBI Investigation: Stun Gun Found on JetBlue Plane in Newark Airport)
Because the flight attendant has a valid permit, she received only a summary citation for passing the weapon through an airport security checkpoint. She is an employee of Republic Airlines, which operates US Airways Express flights, but her name hasn’t been released. In the meantime, another flight attendant soon arrived to replace her on a Dallas-bound flight. As for the police officer who discharged the gun, she “will go back to training for handling weapons,” a Philadelphia police spokesman told the Inquirer. “She will be off the streets for a period of time.”
Troubling as this may be, no one was injured, and no flights were delayed. Just think of it as another adventure to add the list of ridiculous shenanigans that have become commonplace at Philadelphia’s airport.
MORE: Fight or Flight? Spat Between American Airlines Flight Attendants Delays Plane Four Hours