Hopping on a plane? Here’s a tip: Leave the dagger brush, grenade and chlorine at home
Travelers: Watch what you pack this holiday season.
If you’re flying, the Transportation Security Administration will be checking what you are carrying.
They are asking travelers — and they expect more than 26.8 million people to go through security screening areas by Dec. 2 — to be prepared and pack smart.
The busiest travel days coming up include Wednesday, when 2.7 million travelers and crew are expected at airports, and Sunday, when 2.8 million are expected.
And TSA workers are keeping an eye out for prohibited items.
The TSA has posted pictures on social media showing some confiscated items, including a dagger, loaded pistol, a gun-shaped toilet paper holder, a gun-shaped alarm clock, a brush with a handle that was a dagger, flare pen guns and more.
Not only that, but last year, 4,239 firearms were found in airports across the country. DFW airport ranked No. 2 on the list, with 219 firearms (193 of them loaded), behind only the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where 298 handguns were found (253 loaded).
Other items confiscated by TSA at airports include:
▪ A knife comb at the Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport and a knife concealed in a medicine bottle at the Springfield-Branson National Airport.
▪ Three smoke grenades at the Nashville International Airport and an inert grenade at the McCarran International Airport.
▪ A bottle of lighter fluid at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
▪ Fireworks at the Orlando International Airport.
▪ And five replica mortar shells at the Orlando International Airport. TSA noted that workers had to halt baggage screening operations “until an explosives specialist could respond and declare the items safe.”
Do’s and Don’ts
Some items aren’t allowed in carry on bags, but they are allowed in checked bags although some require special instructions. Among them: ammunition, axes, baseball bats, billy clubs, bowling pins, box cutters, cattle prods, compressed air guns, corkscrews with a blade, darts, firearms, hatchets, ice picks and knives.
Some items aren’t allowed in checked or carry on bags, including alcoholic beverages over 140 proof, bang snaps, bear spray, blasting caps, butane, chlorine for pools, CO2 cartridges, cooking spray, flare guns and gun lighters.
And some items travelers are allowed to have in their carry on bags include antlers, airbrush make-up machines, artificial skeleton bones, bicycle chains, bobby pins, disposable lighters, crochet hooks, disposable razors, knitting needles, crutches, EpiPens and inhalers.
And just a holiday tip:
“Prepare for security when packing and ensure that there are no prohibited items in baggage,” a TSA statement notes. “As always, passengers can bring pies, cakes and other baked goods through the checkpoints; however, liquids such as eggnog and maple syrup, and gels such as preserves and jellies, should go into checked bags.”
