After security breaches involving firearms, the FAA has suspended a program that allows safety inspectors to bypass the Transportation Security Administration’s screening checkpoints, the agency announced Friday.
A Federal Aviation Administration inspector was arrested January 13 after TSA employees at LaGuardia Airport in New York discovered a firearm in his carry-on bag, the TSA said.
The inspector had used his Security Identification Display Area badge to skip TSA security checkpoints at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, the TSA said. He didn’t have SIDA clearance for LaGuardia, the TSA said.
Two men were arrested last month after smuggling more than 100 firearms from the Atlanta airport to New York, authorities said. One of the men was an airport employee who skipped security checkpoints as part of the smuggling operation, authorities said.