by David B. Caruso, Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - An airport screening supervisor in Atlanta was fired because he missed a loaded gun during a hand-check of a bag belonging to a woman charged with carrying the weapon into a terminal at Philadelphia International Airport, federal officials said.
Nancy Keller, 37, of Huntersville, N.C., was detained Sunday morning after she put a carry-on bag containing a .357-caliber handgun through an X-ray machine at the airport’s Terminal F, authorities said.
Keller got the weapon past security screeners in Atlanta, said the head of the Transportation Security Administration, retired Coast Guard Adm. James Loy.
A woman screening bags in Atlanta noticed something strange on her screen and alerted a supervisor, who did a hand-check of Keller’s bag and “simply missed” the weapon and another clip of ammunition, Loy said Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“I just simply don’t know how the miss occurred, but the procedures were conducted as we would hope they would be, and the officer ... was not able to find the weapon in the handbag,” Loy said.
Keller told an FBI agent that the gun belonged to her husband and she wasn’t aware it was inside the bag. She was charged with boarding an aircraft with a concealed weapon.
FBI spokeswoman Linda Vizi said Keller arrived in Philadelphia on a plane from Atlanta and was making a flight connection that required her to leave and re-enter the airport’s secure zone.
No one was injured and no flights were delayed, officials said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacob Hart ordered Keller released on $100,000 unsecured bond during a brief court hearing Monday. She was ordered to give up her passport and restrict her travels to Pennsylvania and Ohio. Prosecutors said she is in the process of moving from North Carolina to the Columbus area. Hart also ordered her to stay out of airports.
“I hope you aren’t planning on flying the next two weeks,” Hart said.
“Not anymore,” Keller said.
Keller declined to address the charges outside the courtroom. When a reporter asked if the gun belonged to a relative, Keller said, “something like that.”
Lanii Thomas, a spokeswoman for Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport, would not provide any details on the security breach.
Court papers filed by an FBI agent said the semiautomatic handgun was found inside a small nylon bag within Keller’s carry-on bag, and was loaded with 13 rounds. The bag also contained a second 12-round clip labeled, “restricted law enforcement, government use only.” Federal gun laws bar civilians from possessing magazines with more than 10 rounds.
The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms was tracing the weapon. Vizi said she didn’t know whether Keller’s husband worked in law enforcement.
US Airways spokesman John Bronson confirmed that there had been a “security incident,” but referred questions to local and federal authorities.