Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the storyPHILADELPHIA, PA -- The FBI charged a US Airways employee with helping his roommate get a concealed, semiautomatic handgun onto a plane departing Philadelphia early Thursday.
Customer service agent Roshid Milledge switched black carry-on bags with passenger Damien Young at the gate so Young could board the 7 a.m. flight to Phoenix with the unloaded 9 mm weapon, the FBI said in an affidavit.
Young, 29, was moving to Phoenix and had asked Milledge about the procedures for transporting guns. Milledge, 38, instead agreed to carry the bag through an employee entrance so it would not be screened by security.
An alert fellow passenger saw the switch and, sensing that Milledge seemed "fidgety," raised concerns. Young, already on the plane, allegedly denied to a US Airways manager that he had switched bags with anyone. The plane then started to taxi, but was soon called back to the gate so Young could be removed.
He then admitted the bag was his and both men gave statements, the FBI said. Milledge told agents he had grabbed the wrong laptop bag from their Philadelphia home that morning and was switching it back.
"When they called for passengers needing assistance, he sneaked right in very quickly, then I saw him bend down at the end and he went on the plane," said Tom McDonnell, a flight 1195 passenger.
McDonnell says he didn't see what Young picked up, but several other passengers did.
"They switched bags ... that's what made everyone suspicious when they switched bags before they got on the plane," said passenger Sandi Bryant who sat a few rows behind Young.
Another passenger says when the switch happened Milledge and another US Airways worker at the gate exchanged looks, but the worker didn't do anything.
"I thought he was security or a U.S. Air Marshall," said McDonnell.
Passengers say the female passenger who was dating a Philadelphia Airport worker sent him a text message about the suspicious exchange, soon after the plane was called back to the gate and searched.
Patrick Bosak was sitting next to that passenger on the plane, "She was a little shaken and felt bad about the delay, but I wasn't upset. I'd rather be safe, what's a couple of hours anyway."
The unloaded 9 mm handgun along with some ammunition was found in an overhead compartment.
The gun is registered to Young, and he had a valid permit to carry it, authorities said.
"It's good that someone saw it and did some quick thinking to get the plane back to the gate," said passenger Cornelia Tsakiridou.
There was no evidence the person planned to use the gun on board or harbored any terrorist intentions, the law enforcement official said.
The affidavits show Milledge agreed to carry the weapon through an employees entrance at the airport. The two then exchanged identical looking bags at the gate.
"It was a bit disturbing how the gun got into the terminal," said McDonnell.
The Transportation Security Administration declined to comment because of the FBI investigation, spokeswoman Ann Davis said.
In a statement, the Tempe-based airline said only that additional passenger screening took place "after a concern was raised about a carry-on bag."
"We are cooperating with investigators fully and take security considerations very seriously," said the statement issued by spokesman Morgan Durrant.
Milledge was not a member of the flight crew but worked as a customer service agent in the airport, the official said.
"This didn't really have anything to do with the plane," the official told The Associated Press. "This was a guy that wanted to get a gun from one place to another ... and had this relationship with someone who worked at the airport."
US Airways Flight 1195 departed Philadelphia several hours later, the airline said.
The men were in federal custody late Thursday with court appearances expected in the next few days.
