So I was on a DL flight ATL-BOS last week, when a passenger came onboard with 3 carry-on items -- a rolling bag, a computer bag, and a big shopping bag. The FA stoped the passenger, and told him he'd have to check one item.

This seemed to me to be a good thing -- DL policy is that you can only have two carry-ons, and I was happy to see this being enforced. However, the passenger wanted all three, and the FA proceeded to tell him that the carry-on limit was an FAA regulation, and that he could go to jail and be fined for having more than two carry-on items. She also said that if an FAA inspector came onboard, she (as the lead FA) could be fined $1,000 for allowing him to take 3 items on.

I could be way off base, but I'm pretty sure that the FAA doesn't regulate the number of carry-on items passengers are allowed to have.

After takeoff, I asked the FA about this, and she insisted that the FAA requires her to limit all passengers to two carryon items, that DL merely put their policy in place to comply with the FAA.

Does anyone know if there's a portion of the FAR that deals with carryon items, or was the FA just plain wrong?