http://www.boston.com/dailynews/029/world/Israeli_officials_investigate_:.shtml

Israeli officials investigate lapse after passenger carries gun on flight to New York

By Associated Press, 1/29/2002 08:53

JERUSALEM (AP) An Israeli passenger unwittingly carried a gun in his hand luggage on a flight from Tel Aviv to New York, and Israeli airport officials were trying to determine Tuesday how their extensive security checks failed to find the weapon.

The passenger, Haim Zilberstein, boarded the El Al flight at Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv, the Israel Airports Authority said in a statement. Only after he landed at JFK airport in New York and arrived at his hotel did he realize that he had unintentionally brought his gun in his handbag.

Fearing he might be arrested in New York for having a handgun, he went to the Israeli Consulate in the city and turned in the weapon, the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported, citing an Israeli source. Zilberstein has since returned to Israel without his gun, the newspaper reported.

The reports did not make clear why Zilberstein was carrying a gun or if he was involved in security. Many Israeli civilians own and carry weapons.

Security at Ben Gurion airport is extremely strict. Travelers are asked to arrive three hours before departure, and passengers are subjected to detailed security interviews and multiple luggage checks.

However, last week, a South African teen-ager boarding a plane for Johannesburg alerted a flight attendant that his hand luggage contained a flare he had brought aboard inadvertently, Israeli newspapers reported.

The teen-ager was already aboard the El Al plane when he realized that the flare, a gift from an Israeli friend, was in his bag. He was taken off the plane by security officials and questioned, the newspapers said.

Israeli authorities were investigating to see if changes needed to be made in security procedures, Pini Schiff, a spokesman for the Airports Authority, said in a written statement.

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2002