O'Hare private security workers suspended

CHICAGO -- Private security workers at O'Hare International Airport have been suspended for allowing a man to pass through a checkpoint with several knives and a stun gun in his carry-on luggage.

Federal law enforcement officials said there was no indication the man was involved in terrorism. They said he told them he owned the knives for protection and mistakenly packed them in a plastic bag rather than his luggage before leaving for the airport.

In a statement issued Monday, Atlanta-based Argenbright Security Inc. said eight of the workers they hired to operate the screening operations at United Airlines' terminal had been suspended pending a company inquiry.

The Federal Aviation Administration is also investigating.

City officials said the workers, including one supervisor, failed to detain the Subash Gurung, 27, of Chicago, after two folding knives were discovered in his pocket when he passed through a metal detector.

The workers did not notice seven other knives, a stun gun and a can marked tear gas when Gurung's bag went through an X-ray machine. Instead, they were found by United employees in the gate area who searched Gurung's carry-on bag, police spokesman Thomas Donegan.

"Something obviously went seriously wrong here, and we're trying to find out if it's the employees' fault," said Monique Bond, spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Aviation. "If weapons were confiscated, he should never have been let through security."

Gurung, who told authorities he was unemployed, was arrested trying to board a United flight to Omaha, Neb., on Saturday night, Donegan said.

He was charged with unlawful use of a weapon and attempting to board an aircraft with weapons, both state misdemeanors.

After being released on bail on those charges early Sunday, Gurung was rearrested by FBI agents when he returned to O'Hare to retrieve his checked-in luggage. He was charged with a federal felony count of attempting to carry a weapon on an aircraft, Randall Samborn, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.

"The investigation does not seem to reveal an illicit, suspicious or nefarious intent about his trip to Omaha," Samborn said.

At a brief court appearance Monday, a judge ordered Gurung, a Nepalese citizen who is in the United States on an expired student visa, held without bond.