4th gun found at Arnold Palmer airport checkpoint in 2019

Federal security officials at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport near Latrobe stopped a Connellsville man who tried to travel with a loaded handgun in his carry-on bag Thursday, according to the agency.

Westmoreland County Park Police, which assigns officers to the Unity airport, detained the man for questioning, eventually allowing him to return to his vehicle the 9mm handgun that was loaded with seven bullets.

When officials found a handgun at the same airport in April, the Transportation Security Administration told the Tribune-Review it was a rare occurrence — the first at Arnold Palmer in a long time.

This week’s incident was the fourth gun TSA officials spotted this year at the Arnold Palmer security checkpoint.

TSA agents handled all four incidents without disrupting day-to-day operations at the airport, said Westmoreland Airport Authority Director Gabe Monzo.

“That’s why they’re there, to take care of that kind of thing,” said Monzo, adding that he’s not sure why this has become a more-common occurrence. “They’re trained to deal with it, and we work around it.”

The airport had about 300,000 passengers last year, a figure which is expected to increase by about 5% in 2019, Monzo said.

Nationwide last year, a record 4,239 firearms were discovered in carry-on bags, up about 7% from the year prior, according to the TSA. Of those, 3,656 were loaded — also a record.

Nearly 300 firearms, the most in the nation, were found at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which also is the busiest airport in the world.

Also on Thursday, TSA officers found the 31st firearm this year at Pittsburgh International Airport.