CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Travelers were surprised to see a bald eagle being taken through a TSA checkpoint at Charlotte Douglas International Airport this week.
Clark the eagle, who lives with the World Bird Sanctuary, "decided to give his wings a break and fly commercial," TSA Southeast tweeted Thursday. The airline flying Clark notified TSA, and the agency was able to screen the eagle and his handler, TSA added.
"Clark is trained to spread his wings, and even showed off a bit during screening," TSA said.
A video of the eagle showed him flapping his wings while waiting to pass through security with his handler.
Clark was born at the World Bird Sanctuary in 2002. The organization, based in Missouri, was breeding the then-endangered bald eagles for release into the wild. Clark's siblings were released, but he hatched with scale deformities on his feet that made him vulnerable to frostbite or loss of toes in the winter. Because of that, he could not be released.
American bald eagles once on the brink of extinction, but their population has quadrupled since 2009.
