TSA stops a woman from bringing a loaded gun onto a Christmas Eve flight at Reagan National Airport

Transportation Security Administration officers at Virginia's Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport stopped a local woman from bringing a loaded gun onto a plane Christmas Eve, according to a Tuesday news release from the TSA. 

The firearm was detected on an X-ray machine as the woman reached the security checkpoint, whose unit alerted the TSA to take a look inside the traveler's carry-on bag. The gun was then confiscated and the woman was cited on a weapons charge.

"Bringing a gun to an airport security checkpoint was no way to enter the holiday," said John Busch, TSA's federal security director for the airport.