A passenger was caught last week attempting to board a flight in Maine with a hatchet and a homemade gun in his carry-on bag, in accordance with TSA.
TSA officers on the Portland International Jetport in Portland, Maine, discovered the items on Tuesday. Portland Police responded and confiscated the firearm, Recent England TSA spokesman Daniel Velez said.
Velez told MassLive that the passenger was a 50-year-old man headed to Philadelphia. He was allowed to maintain the hatchet but had to maneuver it to his checked luggage.
Velez said this was the third firearm detection on the Portland International Jetport in Portland this 12 months.
The invention got here just days ahead of an announcement from TSA that it has recorded a record variety of firearms found at airport security checkpoints nationwide this 12 months.
As of Dec. 16, a TSA press release states, the agency has prevented 6,301 firearms from getting past security checkpoints this 12 months – adding that greater than 88% of them were loaded. That’s up from 5,972 firearms detected at security checkpoints last 12 months.
TSA can be increasing the utmost civil penalty for a firearms violation to $14,950, which is set on a case-by-case basis “based on the circumstances in each case.”