Aviation authorities stopped Tuesday afternoon an American tourist from boarding a domestic flight at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) when he allegedly tried to smuggle a disassembled gun onto an aircraft.

The Aviation Security Group (Avsegroup) director, Chief Supt. Pablo Francisco Balagtas, said that American Donald Edward Frantz Jr., was intercepted at around 4 p.m., Tuesday, on initial screening of his luggage at the NAIA Terminal 3.

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Balagtas said the foreigner was supposed to be on a Philippine Airlines (PAL) Cagayan de Oro City-bound flight when security screening officers Gember Abilong and baggage inspector Gil Girado, both of the Office for Transportation Security (OTS), detected firearm parts in his luggage as it went through the x-ray scanner.

The OTS personnel immediately asked Frantz to open his luggage for inspection and it was then that the security men found a dismantled caliber .22 pistol among the American national’s belongings.

Transport security officers alerted Avsegroup personnel to their find, which led to the foreigner’s arrest.

Balagtas said that Frantz was taken into custody and charged with the illegal possession of a firearm in the Pasay City prosecutor’s office after he failed to present any document authorizing him to carry or possess a gun.

The Avsegroup director reminded flyers to refrain from packing in their baggage guns or ammunition, which have been banned on flights, to avoid the inconvenience of possibly being offloaded and having to be investigated for possession.

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