A Mingo County man was cited by police Tuesday after he told security workers at Charleston's Yeager Airport that he was carrying a loaded handgun when he was asked to pass through a metal detector.
Manolo Tampoya, 69, of Williamson, was cited by Yeager police on a state weapons charge, according to Yeager Police Chief Joe Crawford.
Tampoya allegedly told Transporation Security Agency officials at a security checkpoint that he had "just remembered" that he was carrying a loaded gun, according to a TSA news release. Tampoya was carrying a fully loaded .32-caliber handgun and a folding knife, which airport police confiscated.
There was no impact on airport operations, according to Yeager.
Tampoya was the second man in a week to be cited for trying to carry a weapon through airport security. On Aug. 3, TSA screeners found a loaded .45-caliber handgun in the military-style backpack of Huntington resident Thomas Marcum, 31. Marcum, who told police he forgot the gun was in his backpack, was cited for violation of airport regulations.
In all, seven guns have been found by TSA screeners at Yeager this year, according to the TSA.
On Aug. 4, a Charleston man was cited for having an unloaded .40-caliber handgun in his bag at Huntington's Tri-State Airport.
In all, TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said, the number of firearms detections and seizures at airport security gates across the country is slightly up from last year, after posting a 20 percent gain in 2015 from the previous year.
From July 22 to 28 of this year, TSA screeners discovered 74 firearms at airports across the nation, setting a one-week record for attempted passenger aircraft boardings by people with handguns. Of those weapons, 65 were loaded and 29 had rounds chambered.