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Woman Held for Carrying Loaded Gun Onto Commuter Flight
Aired August 26, 2002 - 13:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A 37-year-old woman is in custody, charged with carrying a loaded .357 Magnum on a U.S. Airways flight. Nancy Keller was detained yesterday after arriving in Philadelphia from Atlanta. The question now is how she managed to get through security at Atlantas Hartsfield Airport.
Thats where we find CNN national correspondent Gary Tuchman -- Gary.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, just like we know the sky is blue and the earth is round, we know not to take loaded guns or any kind of gun on a commercial airline flight. And thats why it was quite surprising for security officials in the Philadelphia International Airport yesterday when they saw a bag go through the X- ray detector and noticed it looked suspicious. They took the bag out and inside the bag they found clothes, some personal belongings, and a fully loaded handgun, with 12 rounds inside the handgun.
Under arrest right now is a 37-year-old woman. Her name is Nancy Keller. We dont know where shes from. She will be appearing in court for a first appearance about 30 minutes from now. The allegation that she tried to take this gun on a commuter flight from the Philadelphia International Airport after leaving from here at Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport.
Now this is a very important point. We have no proof at this point and no allegation that she had the gun here in Atlanta, although its possible. But thats not part of the legal charges. All we do know is that she allegedly had the gun when she went through security in Philadelphia. She flew on a jet, a U.S. Airways jet, from Atlanta to Philadelphia, and then had to go through security again because she switched to a commuter terminal for a U.S. Airways commuter flight. According to officials, this .357 Magnum handgun was loaded with 12 rounds, and there was another magazine inside the bag, also with 12 rounds. According to officials, the types of magazines she had with her are only for restricted law enforcement use.
The woman has told police that this bag was her husbands; the gun was her husbands, and she had no idea the gun was inside the bag. But depending on what happened here, it raises a couple of disturbing questions. If she had the gun here in Atlanta, that means she made it through the security here at the worlds busiest airport.
If she did not get the gun here at Atlanta, that means somehow she may have gotten the gun in Philadelphia, which is also disturbing in its own right. But either way this woman said she knew absolutely nothing about it. The likeliest scenario is she didn't know anything about it, but right now she'll be in court in 30 minutes on very serious charges of carrying a loaded weapon.
Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: All right, Gary. I know its hard when youre working a story like this to get a lot of the exact details, but lets decipher this a bit. What are you hearing from sources or police in the area? If -- How would that gun get in her bag if she didn't have it in Atlanta? How would it have gotten into her bag in Philadelphia?
TUCHMAN: Well, theyre not speculating about it. And like I just said, the last thing, if you were a betting person, and we dont normally bet on the news -- but its very likely that she somehow got it through here. Perhaps did not know it was in the bag, which raises a question of, how many other times does that happen? The fact is there was success at Philadelphia International Airport; they did find the gun; they stopped her from getting on the plane. There is no problem. This woman is now in jail. Shell go to court and well see what happens next.
PHILLIPS: All right, Gary, so lets go back to Atlanta. I don't mean to harp on this. But the National Guard, as you know, a few months ago was pulled out of Atlanta Hartsfield. Their mission was over, I was told. Now I know a number of the National Guardsmen that were there in the airport, checking and monitoring the area, and I remember a number of them saying to me that they were concerned about leaving that detail and not being at the airport any more. So, what does this tell us about the security at Atlanta Hartsfield? Are folks there reacting? Are they going to add more security; are they going to beef up training? What are they telling you about making Atlanta safer?
TUCHMAN: Well, right now theyre certainly waiting to find out what happened in this particular instance. I can tell you, though, you could have had a thousand National Guardsmen inside this airport; it wouldnt have stopped this particular incident. Because what this was, was a bag being checked at Philadelphia and whats been seen on the X-ray screen was the outline of a gun. Theyre trained to look for these types of things. If that gun was here yesterday morning on her connection flight, they did not see it go through the checker. And that wouldn't have been the job of the National Guardsmen; thats the job of security personnel to look at those monitors very carefully to see whats going through the X-ray machines.
PHILLIPS: Gary Tuchman, point well made. Thanks, Gary.
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