A woman was fired from her job as an agent for the Transportation Security Administration at the international airport which serves the greater Atlanta metropolitan area after she missed a loaded .38-caliber handgun which was in the possession of a female passenger from Alabama and passed through the airport security checkpoint on Sunday, March 26, 2017.
Loaded Handgun Passed Through Airport Security Checkpoint; Agent Fired
Katrina Jackson — who is from Hoover — found her handgun in her purse when she later looked for her passport; and she immediately informed officials, according to this article written by Aaron Diamant of WSB-TV Channel 2 Action News in Atlanta, who was informed that screeners of the Transportation Security Administration detected 198 guns at the airport in 2016 — which is purportedly more than any other airport in the United States — and prevented 48 guns from going through security since Sunday, January 1, 2017.
Despite proactively informing officials, Jackson was arrested and charged with illegal possession of a handgun when she admitted that she did not have her permit from Alabama in her possession.
A spokesperson from the Transportation Security Administration sent the following statement to Diamant: ‘This egregious mistake was unacceptable and the officer, who was still a probationary employee, was immediately and permanently separated from federal service.”
Summary
How many other prohibited items successfully passed by the unidentified former agent of the Transportation Security Administration is unknown — but then again, three days have elapsed since the incident; so something would have most likely already happened had any other weapons or contraband passed through the airport security checkpoint.
That is no comfort to anyone who may consider what happened to be a significant lapse in security; and passenger security is the main reason why the Transportation Security Administration was created in the first place.
According to the federal agency, the probationary period of a screener of an airport security checkpoint lasts two years.
Photograph ©2016 by Brian Cohen.
