TSA: Cannon barrel found on flight to California

In the annals of strange things found by Transportation Security Administration workers in passengers’ luggage, this discovery might have been one of the more potentially explosive.

Last week while checking bags for a departing flight from Kahului Airport in Hawaii, TSA agents discovered a unloaded cannon barrel inside a passenger’s luggage, the agency reported on its blog.

The flight was bound for San Francisco the night of Oct. 20 when the thick barrel was found tucked among the passenger’s clothes in his suitcase, a TSA official said.

“Our officers have discovered cannonballs in the past. But this is the first cannon I can recall,” wrote TSA blogger Bob Burns. “You can add this one to the ‘items we don’t see every day’ category.”

Replica weapons are prohibited on commercial flights.

The passenger was allowed to fly, but had to make special arrangements to transport the cannon barrel, according to the Associated Press.

Other prohibited items found last week included a dozen plastic-wrapped packages of marijuana at San Francisco International Airport and stun guns at Los Angeles, Oakland and San Diego airports.

In total, TSA officers found 51 guns in passenger bags last week, 39 of them were loaded.

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