Details of a gunfire on a Saturday morning flight from Denver began to emerge Tuesday.

Federal regulators confirmed the pilot accidentally fired the gun in the cockpit and the bullet exited the plane just beneath a window at roughly 8,000 feet as the US Airways jet was on final approach to its landing in Charlotte, N.C., just before noon.

"We're just not able yet to get into exactly what occurred, how the gun was handled, before it went off," said Greg Alter, spokesman for the Federal Marshal Service, one of the agencies investigating the incident. "It's just premature to speculate."

Alter said the gun did not fire on its own. The pilot, who has not been identified, is cooperating with the investigation, he said.

US Airways

confirmed that the pilot had been taken off flight duty.

The pilot was in the left seat of the cockpit, and the bullet went through the hull on his side of the plane, just beneath the window.

The pistol was identified Monday as a .40-caliber semiautomatic Heckler & Koch USP, 28-ounce German-made handgun. Alter would not speculate on the duration of the investigation but said that "it should be in short order."

Spokespeople for the government and the airline have declined to speculate on what sanctions or changes in procedure might result from the probe.

Alter said the pilot had been suspended from a federal program that allows pilots and crew members to be armed.

Agencies involved in the investigation have said the aircraft was never in danger, but some aviation sources disagree.

"The hole from the bullet wouldn't bring down a plane by itself, but it can put in motion a lot of bad things that could lead instruments to fail or pilots to become wounded," said engineering contractor John Thomas of Littleton, who has designed airplanes for combat duty. "I would not say they were never in danger. I would say US Airways, the pilot and all the people on that flight were lucky."

The incident is believed to be the first gunfire in flight since security measures were broadened to allow pilots to carry weapons in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The plane, an Airbus A319, has been grounded during the investigation, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus.

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