This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
For the third time in a week, a passenger has been arrested for trying to carry a loaded firearm onto an airplane at Salt Lake City International Airport — this time hidden next to his artificial leg.
Lorie Dankers, a spokeswoman with the Transportation Security Administration, said the latest incident came Thursday night when TSA screeners discovered a man with a loaded .22-caliber pistol strapped to his prosthetic leg inside a boot.
The firearm was spotted as the man, en route to Charlotte, N.C., walked through a whole body scanning station. A follow-up search yielded the firearm, with a fully-loaded, seven-round clip and another round in the chamber.
Salt Lake City Airport Police officers arrested the man on suspicion of violating state law by carrying a concealed weapon into a secure area.
TSA confirmed that this is the 19th time a firearm has been discovered at a security checkpoint at the Utah airport this year, just one shy of the 20 firearms seized in all of 2012.
Dankers stressed that passengers wishing to travel with a firearm must transport them in checked baggage.
Also, the weapon must be declared to the airline during the ticket counter check-in process and must be unloaded and stored in a locked, hard-sided container.
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