I was armed on a commercial military charter flight. I was carrying a machine gun but the TSA made me throw out my shampoo because it was too much liquid.
Your luxurious locks were the real WMDs!
Not good.
I was (also inadvertently, since I had forgot it in my carryon bag) carrying a Swiss army knife on a transatlantic flight in 2008. That was from Havana to Madrid, where I would have to change to my final destination. I had to go though security again in Madrid, where they spotted the knife and made me check in that bag - and they also shook their head in disbelief that Cuban security had not noticed it.
I was in the security line for boarding in Alice Springs, and there was a Galaxy C5A parked further down the tarmac. Some USAF fellow in a jumpsuit was in front of me to get through the metal detector. Those blue flight suits seem to use zippers instead of stitching to hold everything together, there were so many zippers. Needless to say, he set off the metal detectors.
But, IIRC, the Australians just let him go on…
As a side note - the original Airport movie, so much has changed. The old lady went right up to the gate and talked her way on without a boarding pass. The suicidal guy just presented a ticket and walked on, nobody looked in his briefcase to see it was a bomb…
I don;t recall any incidents back then in the news where a gun was fired inside an airline cabin - unless you count Goldfinger
“There are too many motherf### hamsters on this motherf### plane!”
Years later, after metal detectors but before 9/11, I took another hamster, and presented him in his cage. The TWA people had a fit, and told me the hamster would get out of the cage and eat the wires in the cargo department and the plane would crash and we’d all die. After a long discussion they let him on inside an armored plated dog carrier.
I always took my Swiss Army knife on planes before 9/11. When writing my chapter on these for my book, I found that the biggest financial crisis for Victorinox, the company that made them was after 9/11. A substantial amount of their sales was in duty free shops in airports, all of which went away once you could no longer take knives on board. The ticket counters at Swiss airports had signs reminding people to put their knives in their luggage. Their competitor failed because of this, and Victorinox bought them.
I had a friend who was a deputy sheriff doing fugitive recovery. If you got arrested somewhere else but had a warrant locally, he’d fly there, take custody of you & fly you back here. Yes, he was armed on the flights as he was working.
What a$$hole brought them onboard???