I don't know why I am posting this story. Kind of goes along with the one a few weeks past about gun found in the airplanes toilet. But then this is another Alaska airline plane.

Gun in plane's cargo hold discharges; bullet lodges in diaper bag

Tuesday, April 25, 2000

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A gun discharged in a baggage compartment on Alaska Airlines Flight 101 while the plane was on the ground at Portland International Airport Monday night, delaying takeoff but causing no injuries to passengers.

The bullet -- fired from a .357-caliber Ruger pistol -- went from the cargo hold, up through the floor of the passenger area and lodged in a diaper bag under a seat, Port of Portland spokesman Doug Roberts said.

The incident took place about 10 p.m., when the 737 airliner was scheduled to depart for Anchorage, Roberts said. The crew and 86 passengers on board were transferred to another plane.

Passenger Betty Jean Smith, 66, of Eagle River, Alaska, was charged with reckless endangerment and concealing a weapon without a permit, and released to relatives in Vancouver, Wash. The gun was one of two stored in her bag.

Grant Johnston of Anchorage owns the diaper bag that was hit by the bullet.

He told Portland television station KGW that he heard a loud noise at his feet and notified a flight attendant.

"She went and checked with the pilot and came back and said it was probably just the cargo door closing, but a few minutes later they said somebody had a loaded gun in their suitcase and when the baggage handler threw it on board, it went off," Johnston said.

Roberts said regulations require that passengers declare guns when they have them in checked luggage, and that those guns have to be unloaded.

http://www.seattle-pi.com/local/gunww.shtml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 25, 2000