U.S. authorities are investigating after a United Airlines pilot flushed bullets down a toilet on a flight to Germany.
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Karen May, a spokeswoman for United Airlines, said the pilot should not have thrown the bullets in the toilet, but that he was still employed by the company.
The Transportation Safety Administration and the airline stated Thursday that they had been investigating the incident.
Under federal law, a pilot is allowed to carry weapons, but only in the US.
According to The Aviation Herald, the aircraft was enroute when the pilot discovered that he was still carrying 10 bullets in his luggage, the ammunition not being permitted to be taken into Germany.
However, those rules do not apply in Germany, which has strict gun laws.
©2015 by The Associated Press.
She added that the pilot had not been fired following the incident on June 23. He is likely to be very experienced – it takes many years of seniority for pilots to become captains on worldwide flights for major US airlines.
It comes after all US United flights were grounded on Wednesday after a glitch in the company’s computer systems. “I can’t give any details about his status other than he is still with us”.
If not for a missing ring and a dutiful flight attendant, the tale of the flushed bullets may never have come to light.
The pilot proceeded to flush the bullets down the toilet, but then informed German authorities of what had happened when he realized that the flight crew member would report the incident. He first put them in a trash bin that was accessible to passengers but moved them after a flight attendant raised concerns. While searching for it, a flight attendant checked lost and found, and then the trash.
The captain threw the bullets away in a wastebasket.
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Firefighters wearing protective suits emptied the waste tanks and recovered the bullets.
