'Gun' on Belt Bucklet Triggers Massive Search at Lambert

Feb. 16, 2007
The agency said it would investigate why the traveler wasn't stopped when the image appeared on the X-ray monitor. The TSA is using the incident to retrain screeners.

Call it a case of mistaken identity.

The item that looked like a pistol, leading to clearing of a concourse at Lambert Field and five planeloads of passengers the night of Feb. 2, was not a weapon after all.

It was a belt buckle.

Its owner was tracked down after an investigation by Airport Police, with help from the Transportation Security Administration, security officials said Wednesday.

Carrie Harmon, a spokeswoman for the agency, would not specify how authorities found the belt buckle and the woman who owns it.

At the time, the agency said it would investigate why the traveler wasn't stopped when the image appeared on the X-ray monitor. The agency is using the incident to retrain screeners.

"When we see an item in the X-ray machine, our goal is to find the person and find the item," Harmon said.

She declined to say whether any security personnel had been disciplined over the incident.

On the evening of Friday, Feb. 2, airport officials cleared the A Concourse and unloaded passengers from five planes to be rescreened after a security worker noticed the image on the monitor. Screeners contacted airport police, but the item and its owner were gone.

A sixth plane that took off at the time was diverted to Detroit so its passengers could be rescreened.

Harmon emphasized Wednesday that the item did not make it onto an airplane.

"We're always going to err on the side of caution if there's a perceived threat," Harmon said.

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