Airline officials at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska found gunpowder in a passenger’s checked bag last week, according to a Transportation Security Administration press release issued Tuesday.
Two one-pound canisters of Hodgdon’s “Lil’ Gun” and “H335 Rifle Powder” labeled “DANGER EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE” were removed from an unnamed passenger’s luggage, a Feb. 11 photo of the items showed.
“[I]ndeed it is rare that a traveler would be attempting to fly with any amount of gun powder let alone 2 pounds of gun powder, which is highly flammable and explosive,” TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said in an email to the Washington Examiner Tuesday evening.
TSA officials did not share the passenger’s flight number or airline, as well as charges he or she faces as a result of bringing the gunpowder into the airport.
However, packing gunpowder, blasting caps, dynamite, hand grenades, or explosives in checked baggage is punishable by a $7,840 to $13,066 fine and a criminal referral. Gunpowder is prohibited “for obvious reasons,” TSA wrote in a blog post.
TSA officers also found the highest number of guns at airport checkpoints ever recorded in a one-week period earlier this month.
A total of 104 firearms were uncovered in air travel passengers’ carry-on bags Feb. 5-11. The new record is nearly a 10 percent hike from the previous record of 96 guns that was set in July 2017.
