Philly woman charged with taking gun to Trenton-Mercer Airport; what she told TSA

EWING - A woman helping a relative at Trenton-Mercer Airport was arrested after the discovery of a loaded gun in her purse.

The woman, identified only as a Philadelphia resident, was escorting her visually impaired sister to a boarding gate when she entered a security checkpoint on Tuesday, Nov. 7, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The X-ray unit alerted on her purse, which was found to hold a loaded .38-caliber revolver, the agency said in a statement.

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“The woman was not a ticketed traveler, but had been given a ‘gate pass’ by the airline” to assist her sister to a boarding gate, the statement said.

Individuals with a gate pass “must go through the same security screening process as ticketed travelers and that means no weapons are allowed,” said Thomas Carter, TSA’s federal security director for New Jersey.

The woman told officials she always keeps the gun in her purse and did not think to remove it before coming to the airport, the statement said.

However, Carter said, “There are no acceptable excuses for bringing a gun to our checkpoints.”

A Mercer County Sheriff’s Officer confiscated the gun and the woman was charged with a weapons offense.

She also faces “a stiff financial civil penalty for bringing a gun to a TSA security checkpoint,” the statement said.

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Loaded gun found at TSA checkpoint at Trenton-Mercer Airport