Early this morning, a scandal erupted at a St. Louis airport involving Southwest Airlines. According to a report from TMZ, one pilot was taken into custody by security personnel after it was discovered that there were firearms in his carry-on. While the identity of the pilot who was arrested has not been revealed yet, the incident apparently grounded the flight that he was supposed to be helming, which was on its way from Lambert International Airport to LAX in Los Angeles. The initial report on the incident indicated that all passengers were asked to deplane and received a $100 voucher for the inconvenience.
The details of the story, which is still being updated, are at least a little fuzzy in terms of how many pilots were trying to sneak guns past the TSA and, consequently, how many of them were actually booked by authorities. Eyewitness accounts from the scene of the infraction say that two individuals, both supposedly pilots, were handcuffed by authorities and presumably taken away for further questioning. However, the airport has since denied this, saying that there was only one person who was officially taken into custody. There's no telling what kind of guns the pilot(s) had in their possession, nor what type of weapons they were, but clearly the situation was serious enough for security to flag whomever was responsible for the firearms. Clearly, the people who work security at St. Louis' Lambert International aren't in the business of messing around.
All this being said, it's not all bad news when it comes to personnel who work for the bigger airlines operating in the United States. Yesterday (November 14th), the video of a Delta flight attendant went viral online after he delivered his safety instruction speech in the form of a rap. With some of the physical mannerisms that one might typically associate with Eminem, he advised those on board to take their seat belts and "snap it in place around your waist like it’s going out of fashion." There's no word if he's feeling the pressure to keep this up on all the flights that he's working, but it's safe to say that the man has some rhyming skills to go along with his ability to put your luggage into the overhead compartment.
