Hand grenade kept off plane by TSA

A section of Los Angeles International Airport was evacuated last week when a Stanford University professor was arrested on charges of bringing a World War II-era grenade through a security checkpoint in a carry-on bag.

It has become an all-too-common problem. Transportation Security Administration officers uncovered 136 inert, replica or novelty hand grenades at U.S. airports in 2013.

TSA screeners also discovered 1,813 firearms, a 16.5 percent increase from 2012. The 2013 weapons tally represents the fifth year in a row that the number of guns confiscated by the TSA increased.

In the latest weapons scare at Terminal 1 at LAX, Los Angeles police officials say Gary Walter Cox, 58, was arrested Tuesday after TSA officials found the grenade in his carry-on bag.

Cox told reporters that he thought the grenade was inert, but a police bomb squad detonated the grenade and found it contained explosive material.

Cox was arrested on charges of possessing a destructive device and was released on $500,000 bail, police said.

PILOT ERROR KEEPS FIDDLES OFF FLIGHT

A dispute over two violins on a US Airways flight ended with a musician fiddling away his time on the tarmac at Charlotte Doug­las International Airport in North Caro­lina.

The feud resulted in a YouTube video that has more than 200,000 views.

The musicians, Zach De Pue and Nick Kendall, from the group Time for Three, were making a connection in Charlotte on their way to a music festival in Arkansas.

According to De Pue and Kendall, the pilot told them that federal laws require that all musical instruments be checked in the cargo bin.

When the musicians refused to check their instruments, they were directed off the plane and onto the tarmac, where De Pue played his violin in protest as Kendall recorded the performance on a video camera.

According to US Airways, the violins would not fit in the overhead bin. Still, the carrier issued a statement apologizing to the musicians and booked them on a later flight.

For the record, Federal Aviation Administration officials say federal law allows musical instruments as carry-on items as long as they fit under the seat or in the overhead bin.

Hugo Martin, Los Angeles Times