A Guy Got Hauled Off A Plane In Handcuffs When Somebody Saw He Had A Gun.......Whoops He Was The Federal Air Marshall
Yahoo- A federal air marshal was hauled off a United Airlines regional partner plane in handcuffs after a flight attendant saw the gun he was carrying and issued an emergency alert in concert with the crew, the Star Tribune reported on Tuesday. The incident occurred late Monday on United Airlines Flight 3531, a nonstop flight from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The flight was operated by Republic Airlines, an Indianapolis-based regional partner of United Airlines and other major carriers. A representative for Republic Airlines, Jon Austin, told Business Insider in a statement: “The safety and security of our customers and employees is our top priority. We are aware of this incident and are working with investigators.” Neither the Transportation Security Administration nor United responded to Business Insider request for comment.
In a statement to the Star Tribune, the TSA said: “A Federal Air Marshal on official business onboard a flight was mistaken for a passenger by a flight attendant. Protocols for notification of law enforcement presence aboard an aircraft are in place to avoid an incident like this. TSA is working with the airline to determine the specific circumstances in this case.”
Good. I’m glad this happened. Anybody who ever plans on getting on an airplane in their life should be glad this happened too and I’ll tell you why. I’d rather have people pointing out every gun they see on an airplane as opposed to not doing that. Seems simple but it’s the truest thing I’ve ever wrote. Think about it the other way. People just assuming the guy with a gun is the air marshal would be a bad precedent to set. It would’ve really sucked if everyone on that flight saw the guy with the gun, shrugged their shoulders and thought, “He’s probably the air marshal” and then he wasn’t the air marshal. We’d be talking about a very different story.
I bet the air marshal agrees with what I’m saying. If you see something, say something. Especially if it’s a goddamn gun on a goddamn airplane. If there’s any time in life where you should muster up the courage to say something, it’s when you spot a guy with a pistol right before you’re about to go 30,000 feet in the air with that person. The federal air marshal likely didn’t love getting hauled off the plane in handcuffs for doing his job but thems is the breaks when you make your gun visible on a plane full of people who don’t wanna die. I want everyone on every flight I’m on pointing out every gun they see.