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Pilot's Gun Accidentally Fires in Cockpit

Posted Mar 25, 08 1:15 PM CDT in US,  Business 

(Newser) – A pilot’s gun went off in the cockpit of a US Airways plane just as it was landing in North Carolina this weekend, the AP reports. It was the first time a gun was discharged inside a plane since pilots were armed in the wake of 9/11. Though no one was hurt in the incident, the plane has been taken out of service.

Officials wouldn’t say where the bullet hit, only that neither plane nor passenger was endangered by the “accidental discharge.” Had the bullet "compromised the shell of the airplane," an analyst said, "the airplane could have gone down." The TSA, which according to the analyst “has never been real supportive” of the armed pilot program, is investigating.

Source Associated Press

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Instructor James Hollmann demonstrate a video simulator in which he shoots a man with a knife storming the cockpit at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, New Mexico.   (KRT Photos)
Instructor Dexter Young demonstrates some of the training pilots will receive at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, New Mexico, on Wednesday, February 4, 2004.   (KRT Photos)
A US Airways flight soars through the clouds in this file photo. A pilot on a US Airways flight accidentally discharged his firearm today as the plane was coming in for a landing.   (AP Photo/Airbus, Fixion, HO )
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