She said the pilot is allowed to carry a gun on domestic flights under a post-9/11 federal program intended to make planes harder to hijack.
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A captain of an holiday jet threw live bullets in a passenger rubbish bin before flushing them down an onboard toilet.
It comes after all US United flights were grounded on Wednesday after a glitch in the company’s computer systems.
United spokeswoman Karen May acknowledged Thursday the pilot shouldn’t have thrown the bullets in the toilet. United Airlines and the Transportation Security Administration are reviewing the incident.
United acknowledged this week that a pilot had “improperly disposed of ammunition during a flight last month from Houston to Munich”.
Surprisingly, it doesn’t appear as though the pilot – who likely has years of seniority since he’s a captain – has been fired, and he probably won’t face criminal charges.
July 8, 2015: United Airlines planes are parked at their gates as another plane, top, taxis past them at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
“We are investigating. I can’t give any details about his status other than he is still with us”.
A source had told The Aviation Herald that the aircraft was enroute, when the captain discovered that he was still carrying ammunition consisting of 10 bullets in his luggage, the ammunition not being permitted to be taken into Germany.
After being asked about the situation by the flight attendant, the captain ‘fessed up and notified ground authorities about what had happened. While searching for it, a flight attendant checked lost and found, and then the trash.
When the pilot realised the flight attendant was going to report the incident of the discarded bullets in the trash bin, he informed the German authorities before landing.
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Firefighters wearing protective suits emptied the waste tanks and recovered the bullets.
