Cop Boards a Plane to Taiwan with a Gun

Over the past decade, security at places such as airports has become increasingly tight. The threat of terrorist attacks both at airports and onboard flights has results in extreme action being taken in order to help avoid serious and potentially fatal attacks. However, a recent news story has shown that security may not be as tight as many believed, with a massive procedural failure results in a woman being able to board a plan with a gun.

 

The incident was reported recently on CNN Breaking News, after it was revealed that the woman had managed to board a flight with a firearm. The woman in question was a police officer that was not on duty from Santa Monica and she was boarding a plane heading to Taiwan. Despite having a gun on her, the officer, whose name is Noell Grant, was able to make it past security at Los Angeles International Airport.

 

Passenger detained in Taiwan by authorities

 

Following the incident at LAX, an official from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said that unfortunately standard procedures had not been followed properly, which is why the incident had occurred. The TSA has also said that it is conducting a full investigation into the incident as well as the procedural failure. The agency added that all employees that were involved in the incident would receive additional training.

 

In the meantime, a police spokesperson from Santa Monica PD said that the officer had informed Taiwanese officials that she had accidentally brought her fire-arm with her on the flight after she landed on April 13^th. Taiwan authorities then decided to detain the officer while they looked into the incident and tried to determine what had happened.

 

This incident will no doubt spark concern amongst many people who are traveling by plane, not least because it happened at one of the world’s major airports and that the officer made it past security without any issues. The constant worry about terrorist attacks amongst authorities and travelers means that the incident will have a significant impact in terms of causing concern.

 

When the incident came to light, the TSA stated that the officer had gone through standard security rather than expedited ones. However, others have since pointed out that since standard security is still very thorough the firearm should not have been missed. The TSA said that those responsible for the security breach would be held ‘appropriately accountable’.

 

In the meantime, some have expressed concern that the off-duty officer may have known a person or people at LAX personally, and that she was not subjected to full security checks because of this. One professor at USC said that the incident showed that we were all still very vulnerable and that violations of standard processes such as this needed to be thoroughly investigated.

 

He added that he thought that it was “human factor that led to this.” He stated that whatever the reason behind the incident “screening at airports should be capable of detecting a gun.”