by Donald Wood
Last updated: 12:39 PM ET, Wed July 19, 2017
Officials at an airport in Japan confiscated 30 bullets from the carry-on bag of an American Airlines crew member Saturday after he accidentally brought the ammunition through multiple security checkpoints.
According to The Associated Press, the unidentified flight attendant in his 50s was preparing to return to the United States on his duty flight when police at Tokyo's Narita International Airport discovered the bullets during a security screening.
The American Airlines employee was carrying the ammunition in two loaded magazines, but he was not carrying a gun. Airport police official Masatoshi Ito revealed that the man told authorities he accidentally left the bullets in his bag as he prepared for his Tokyo-bound flight.
The incident indicates the flight attendant traveled through security checkpoints at a U.S. airport with the bullets in his luggage and they were never discovered.
Traveling with ammunition in carry-on bags in the U.S. is illegal.
Police in Japan took the crew member into custody but released him a short time later as he posed no danger of destroying evidence and agreed to cooperate with the investigation. Authorities in Japan are also trying to understand how the man made it through customs when he first arrived in Japan.
While the flight attendant was not charged with a crime at the time, Japanese police are now considering a possible violation of the gun and sword control law.
[READMORE]READ MORE: TSA Uncovered Record 3,391 Guns at US Airports in 2016[/READMORE]
In response to the incident, American Airlines released a statement saying the crew member flew to Dallas following his release but did not provide details about the flight or how the man made it through security checkpoints in the U.S. with the bullets.
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