(CNN Español) — Three people were injured at Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport after a passenger jumped on a bag containing a firearm, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said in a statement, saying that information on injuries comes from “initial reports.”
The three injured adults have injuries that are not considered life-threatening, according to a source familiar with the situation. Two of the injured were taken to hospital, he added.
The source said the injured people were not shot and instead were injured during the evacuation. He also indicated that the bullet from the firearm entered the property of the person who brought it.
According to the agency, the prohibited item was identified by X-ray at the main security check and an inspection of the luggage began. The passenger was told not to touch the property, but he lunged toward it and fired the gun, the statement said.
The passenger ran out of the airport. At that time, the TSA and local authorities began a ground halt.
The incident occurred around 1:30 pm (Miami time) and continued until the clearance was given at 3:20 pm Passengers were screened again at that time.
“This incident underscores the importance of checking personal belongings for dangerous items before leaving for the airport. Firearms, particularly loaded ones, introduce unnecessary risk at checkpoints, they have no place in the passenger cabin. of a plane and represent a very costly mistake for passengers who try to board a flight with them, ”the statement said.
The TSA says its officials have found more than 450 firearms at Atlanta checkpoints so far in 2021.
No details have been provided about the weapon or the circumstances surrounding the accidental discharge.
Travelers detained inside the domestic terminal of the Atlanta airport after an accidental discharge of a weapon caused chaos and panic on Saturday, November 20, 2021.
–
Witnesses recount the chaos after the scare
Witnesses described confusion and disorder when panic broke out in the airport’s domestic terminal. Erika Zeidler, who was traveling from Atlanta to Anchorage, Alaska, said she was sitting in Concourse T when people started running down the aisle.
“We assumed they were late for a flight,” he told CNN. “Then all of a sudden more people started running through the terminal and yelled that there was an attacker.”
Zeidler and others took refuge in a TGI Fridays restaurant, he said. Photos he shared on Twitter showed a crowd of people standing on the runway under a catwalk as the incident unfolded.
Current view from inside T terminal in Atlanta Airport after “accidental discharge” pic.twitter.com/1uONeCzJi9
– E Zeidler (@EmZeidler) November 20, 2021
Greg Romero had just gotten off a Salt Lake City flight when he heard there was an emergency. Airport personnel “closed all the escalators and cut off all the passengers and turned off the tram,” said Romero, father-in-law of CNN correspondent Nadia Romero.
“Right now, the airport staff is doing a very good job of keeping everyone calm,” he added.
Some travelers were “a little scared, but more frustrated,” Romero said. “They try to take flights, get out of the airport. For the most part, people are just against the walls.”
More than 2.2 million travelers on Friday
The shooting scare comes as the Thanksgiving travel period begins. On Friday, the TSA screened more than 2.2 million airport travelers nationwide, the highest volume of checkpoints in a single day since the pandemic began, according to a TSA spokesperson.
In October, David Pekoske, the TSA administrator, told CNN that airline passengers are bringing weapons to the airport in quantities never seen before, and it is a “big problem.”
The TSA reported that 4,650 firearms were collected at checkpoints during the first 10 months of the year, most of which were loaded. That number surpasses the full-year record of 4,432, set in 2019.
Pekoske said he believes the number of weapons confiscated reflects an increasingly armed American population. “I think more people carry guns, generally across the country, and then whatever is happening across the country we see it reflected at our checkpoints,” he said. “As a passenger, I don’t want another passenger to fly with me with a weapon in their possession.”
CNN’s Pete Muntean, Melissa Alonso, Nadia Romero and Ray Sánchez contributed to this report.
–
