The Transportation Security Administration opened an investigation after a passenger may have boarded a flight with a gun in their carry-on bag.
A security screening machine detected an item resembling a weapon, an unnamed official said.
The bag went through the machine twice without setting off an alarm
The passenger was allowed to continue their journey at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport..
It’s unclear why a proper manual search wasn’t carried out.
“This is a one-in-a-million,” the official said.
“As a prudent security measure, TSA scanned the terminal for the passenger with the carry-on bag in question,” the agency said.
It was only discovered later during a routine review of screening images.
“By the time they saw it, the passenger was probably on a flight,” the official said.
The agency is detecting guns ‘at an alarming rate’ at checkpoints.
Even with passenger traffic down, last year was a record year for gun seizures by TSA screeners.
