Weapons discovery at airport may lead to charges, deportation

It was, depending on your interpretation, a serious breach of security at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport — or much ado about very little.
Two men, both Indian nationals, now face state weapons charges after one was stopped at a security screening point with a folding knife and steak knives in his carry-on luggage. His traveling companion was pulled from a flight and found with a razor blade in his possession.
Federal officials questioned the two and found no connection to any terrorist activity and no criminal intent aboard their Oct. 25 Atlanta-to-New York flight. The feds did not file charges, and the men could be kicked out of the country before they are prosecuted by the state.
"We did not get any indication they had planned any overt act on the plane," said FBI spokesman Steve Emmett. "We are deferring to local charges."
Federal officials say they have no idea why Chhaganbhai Patel, 60, or Shakarabhai Patel, 64, had knives and razor blades. Chhaganbhai Patel has been charged with a misdemeanor for carrying a concealed weapon and Shakarabhai Patel has been charged with a felony for having prohibited items on or around an aircraft.
The men were booked on a Delta Air Lines flight from Hartsfield-Jackson to JFK in New York and then a connecting flight to Mumbai, India.
Transportation Security Administration officers discovered a double-bladed folding knife, 20 steak knives wrapped in foil and several old-fashioned razor blades in their original wrappers concealed in the battery compartment of a toy car when Chhaganbhai Patel passed through a security screening gate. TSA officers immediately interviewed him and discovered his traveling companion had already been through the security area and boarded the plane.
Officers removed Shakarabhai Patel from the plane, which was still parked at the gate, and searched his baggage, said Lt. Jim Carlino, the evening airport watch commander for the Atlanta City Police Department.
"He got on the plane with one of those razor blades," Carlino said. "It was in one of the bags."
Carlino said Shakarabhai Patel also carried $5,000 in cash.
The 4 p.m. flight was delayed about 5 hours after the incident because passengers were removed from the plane and rescreened "out of an abundance of caution," said Atlanta-based TSA spokesman Jon Allen.
11/02/07 Jim Tharpe/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA

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Categories: Airports Nov 2007, Foreign Nov 2007, Safety Nov 2007