A foreign flight was delayed for about four hours at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) because a sky marshal of the flight was detained by airport security officers due to carrying a loaded firearm when he arrived at the transit passenger terminal. Every aircraft has a sky marshal for the safety of the passengers, aircraft and the employees.
However it is strictly prohibited for the sky marshal to use his weapon outside of the plane. If the marshal wants to go outside he must hand over the firearm to the chief pilot of the plane, sources said.
A BIA security officer saw the firearm when the marshal was heading back to the plane and the BIA security officer informed the airport security chiefs. The errant sky marshal was taken into custody by the Katunayake Airport security officers. Later the matter was solved through diplomatic channels amicably.
Accordingly, the flight which was supposed to depart at 1.35pm last Saturday (6) departed at 5.35 pm due to the incident.