The effectiveness of security at U.S. ports is being questioned after a businessman accidentally travelled on a flight with a loaded handgun in his luggage.
Iranian-American Farid Seif was screened by Trasport Security Administration officials at Houston airport in Texas. His hand luggage was also X-rayed before he took off on his international flight.
It wasn't until Mr Seif arrived at his hotel several hours later that he realised that he had forgotten to unpack a loaded snub nose Glock pistol from his luggage before he embarked on his journey.
'It's just impossible to miss it, you know. I mean, this is not a small gun,' Mr Seif told ABC News.
'How can you miss it? You cannot miss it.'
According to ABC, security slip-ups in the U.S. are not rare.
The news network claims experts have confided that 'every year since the September 11 terror attacks, federal agencies have conducted random, covert "red team tests", where undercover agents try to see just how much they can get past security checks at major U.S. airports'.
ABC added that, while the U.S. Department of Homeland Security closely guards those test results, those that have leaked have been 'shocking'.
Undercover TSA agents testing security at a Newark airport terminal on one day in 2006 found that TSA screeners failed to detect concealed bombs and guns 20 out of 22 times, the news network claimed.
And a 2007 government audit revealed that undercover agents were successful slipping simulated explosives and bomb parts through Los Angeles's LAX airport in 50 out of 70 attempts. At Chicago's O'Hare airport, agents made 75 attempts and succeeded in getting through undetected 45 times.
Ironically the TSA has come under increased criticism in recent weeks - after it introduced new measures in a bid to bolster security.
Passengers have complained that new pat-down searches are invasive, and that full body scanning X-ray machines are too revealing.
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