Report: US Airways F/A arrested in Rome for gun posession

[jimntx]

Must be terribly depressing to be perfect like you and have to live with human beings that actually make mistakes.

Never said I was perfect. But, missing your turn off on the freeway is one thing. Forgetting that you are toting a gun--particularly if you are an airline employee--is something else wildly different. Quite frankly, the fact that she had the gun disassembled tells me that she knew exactly what she was doing, and just decided that she was a lot smarter than the Italian police. Kind of like the MIA AA flight attendants who almost caused us to lose Known Crew Member there. If they were picked for the random screening, they would just get out of line and go to the other Known Crew Member portal and try to get through there. It didn't work, and as I said, we were notified that if it happened again, AA would be removed from known crewmember in MIA.

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Never said I was perfect. But, missing your turn off on the freeway is one thing. Forgetting that you are toting a gun--particularly if you are an airline employee--is something else wildly different. Quite frankly, the fact that she had the gun disassembled tells me that she knew exactly what she was doing,

Even though I have never owned a gun, I do know that, to many people in the US, guns are an everyday item and they often carry them along. But I just don't get the "I forgot" excuse. Yet does happen to passengers rather frequently. For an airline employee (whether in this case or in the PHL one) to do it is beyond my understanding. While we don't know the details of what happened in Rome, the gun being disassembled has wondering (I know next to nothing about guns or how common it is to take them apart.)

(Does anyone know what would up happening in the PHL instance?)

 

[Phoenix]

PSA 1771 demonstrated the folly of exempting airline crew from the same security measures as forced upon passengers. Background checks, fingerprints and decades of lawful behaviour prove nothing about someone's propensity to violate laws and bring firearms or other prohibited items thru checkpoints. An AA FA had a gun in her bag last year at ORD - she was getting ready to work a flight to PVG:

http://articles.chic...ltz-carryon-bag

Sorry, non sequitur..

"The man who caused the crash of PSA 1771, David Burke, was a disgruntled former employee of USAir..."

..Background checks, fingerprints and decades of lawful behaviour prove nothing about someone's propensity ...

Thousands upon thousands of people are authorized to carry firearms onboard commercial aircraft (federal agents, marshals, FFDOs, LEOs, etc. etc. etc.)... The criteria you say prove nothing is exactly what is used to screen individuals for armed authorization. Even if you were to point out a single case where the screenings have failed, which you have not, it would still be inadequate to prove the whole approach should be scuttled.

 

[Phoenix]

Never said I was perfect. But, missing your turn off on the freeway is one thing. Forgetting that you are toting a gun--particularly if you are an airline employee--is something else wildly different. Quite frankly, the fact that she had the gun disassembled tells me that she knew exactly what she was doing, and just decided that she was a lot smarter than the Italian police. Kind of like the MIA AA flight attendants who almost caused us to lose Known Crew Member there. If they were picked for the random screening, they would just get out of line and go to the other Known Crew Member portal and try to get through there. It didn't work, and as I said, we were notified that if it happened again, AA would be removed from known crewmember in MIA.

The common theme I am seeing is that some FAs, former employees, and passengers should be allowed to go through the metal detector if they think it would help them as a back up to their forgetfulness. We could call it armed amnesty, a memory handicap don't ask don't tell program, just use the metal detector, we'll quietly take your pistol for safe keeping upon your return, and we won't tell anyone you are a ditz.

 

[cynic]

I'm sorry, it's really hard to defend anyone that "forgets" about the gun in their bag when they go to work. I own a number of firearms and learned from an early age to handle them properly.

 

[robbedagain]

she oviously took it from clt or phl to rome with it from the way it sounds not sure if she forgot it in her bag but still it begs to ask how did she get by security in the usa to go to fco?

 

[autofixer]

Maybe she bought it in Rome? If the picture I saw in the article is the gun, it looks like an old collector's piece. Did I miss that she brought it from home as fact?

 

[Harry Callahan]

Folks there is a lot more info. about this in the US forum on Flyertalk.
www.flyertalk,com

Harry

 

[ContUNITEus]

WTF...? It's her second amendment right!!!!!!

Get me the number to the NRA....

 

[jimntx]

How she could have brought it from the U.S. is easy. Both CLT and PHL have Known Crewmember portals. If she participated in this program (and most of us do if we are crewmembers), she went through a portal into the secure part of the airport with her id and a check of her credentials (online) by a TSA agent. No bag screening. No metal detector involved.

The only exception would be if she were picked at random to go through regular screening--unlikely.

 

[767one]

PSA 1771 demonstrated the folly of exempting airline crew from the same security measures as forced upon passengers. Background checks, fingerprints and decades of lawful behaviour prove nothing about someone's propensity to violate laws and bring firearms or other prohibited items thru checkpoints. An AA FA had a gun in her bag last year at ORD - she was getting ready to work a flight to PVG:

http://articles.chic...ltz-carryon-bag

I must assume you are in the airline business so I want you to think over what you just said. Sending pilots who already have a security clearance through a screening is like urinating in a wet suit .....it will give you a warm feeling all over but it doesn't accomplish anything. Do you think a pilot needs a weapon? Many of the airliners flying can be overstressed with one hand and outside of that if one pilot had bad intent and picked the right moment the other would be powerless to stop him/her. Maybe the answer is to keep the pilots, flight attendants and the passergers off of the airplanes and then nothing bad can happen.

 

[paul1]

This no laughing matter . This can really endanger our Known Crew Member program . Idiot!!

security for crew members is a fricking joke!

 

[robbedagain]

Maybe she bought it in Rome? If the picture I saw in the article is the gun, it looks like an old collector's piece. Did I miss that she brought it from home as fact?

But theres no mention she did not get it in rome either either way a sad way to end a career and who knows what they italian prosecutors will do or the judge will say etc

 

[robbedagain]

Maybe she bought it in Rome? If the picture I saw in the article is the gun, it looks like an old collector's piece. Did I miss that she brought it from home as fact?

BUT theres nothing to say she did not buy it over there.... overall its a sad way to ruin her career.

as for the 2nd amendment i do not think it would apply over there in europe as someone else said they have stricter gun laws thus lower crime violence vs the usa.. just my 2 cents