Guns, Chain Saws Seized from Air Passengers

[DWS1117]

Are people really this stupid?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. airport baggage screeners, displaying seized chain saws, machetes and knives, warned travelers to check their luggage for offensive objects before boarding a flight.

Officials of the Transport Security Administration, speaking ahead of this weekend's Labor Day holiday -- a busy travel time -- said that since February 2002 more than 7.5 million prohibited items had been seized.

They included 50,000 box cutters -- a weapon said to be used by the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers -- and 1,437 firearms as well as 2.3 million knives.

The TSA officials told a news conference most people with such items in their bags intended no malice but advised passengers to consult the Web site www.tsatraveltips.usa for advice on what to leave behind when making a trip.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks screeners have confiscated seemingly harmless items like nail clippers and cigarette lighters from passengers.

But some carry more obviously dangerous items. Chain saws, a weed cutting machine, hand saws and machetes, steak knives, bottles of camping stove fuel and perfume bottles shaped like hand grenades were among items displayed as a sample of objects seized at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

While some carry-on items may have been innocent -- a hockey stick or a child's plastic sword -- other discoveries by TSA have yielded razor blades in tennis shoes and a bayonet hidden in a hollowed-out artificial leg.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=583&ncid=583&e=8&u=/nm/20030828/od_nm/security_dc

 

[mattk]

Actually all those items listed on fine in checked baggage. Even the Chainsaw as long as its electric and not gas powered. Me Thinks the writer meant Airport PASSENGER screeners (The guys that hassle you going through the metal detector). And yes people are that stupid.
Someone tried to carry a SpearGun onto a Plane in Orlando. Yes a loaded speargun.

 

[Ringer]

If anyone is interested here is a list of what is OK and what is not, provided by the Tranportation Security Administration. It covers carry on and checked baggage.

 

[DF357]

on a recent flight

out of St Louis, they tried to grab a gavel used by the head of a veteran's association at his reunion and they wanted to take the Eagle Scout ribbon from my son - it is a pin with a red/white/blue ribbon and an silver eagle hanging from it. REALLY dangerous !!!! IDIOTS !!!!

 

[willyjixx]

i had to fly down to vegas recently. i didnt want to carry my big backpack i usually take so i dumoed out my range bag into the safe an used that instead.................WHOOPS.....................

got popped for a .223
kinda funny the screener said "do you mind if we keep this?"
I said "do i have a choice?" he laughed an i left

later in the hotel i found some .22Lrs in a side pocket loose.


oops. note to self DONT USE RANGE BAG!.

took a C130 back

 

[HankB]

Since the Sept. 11 attacks screeners have confiscated seemingly harmless items like nail clippers and cigarette lighters from passengers.

There's a word for these items . . . "Stocking Stuffers."

After all, TSA screeners don't get paid much, so they have to make it up where/when they can.

 

[TallPine]

This is why I don't fly anymore, and drive my pickup instead.

That way I always have my chainsaw with me in the toolbox in back.

You never know when there will be a tree down across the road ....

 

[jsalcedo]

Amen. I've logged 8000 highway miles on my pickup this year.
Flying is for birds (who like cavity searches.)

and perfume bottles shaped like hand grenades were among items displayed as a sample of objects seized

I don't recall seeing those in the AVON catalog... I do have the pepperbox cologne though:



I wonder if I could carry it in my shaving kit?

 

[4v50 Gary]

A perfume bottle shaped like a hand grenade? So why take it? It's bottle of perfume. OK, I hate the stuph, but what justifies the seizure?

Actually, should we expect higher standards from security guards who are now federal employees? Nahh.

 

[Quartus]

Gary, I had the same reaction to the perfume grenade. THen I looked at it from their point of view.


If it looks, or can be made to look, real, it could be used in a hijacking. A phony grenade is just as scary as a real grenade to someone who THINKS it's a real grenade.


So, as much as it pains me, I see their point on this.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Thank you Quartus. I look at one and see a bottle of smelly stuph.

 

[jhisaac1]

I heard on the news this AM that somebody tried to bring a clear bowling ball that had a grenade (I assume a dummy) in the center.

 

[TallPine]

the perfume grenade

"Take this plane to XXXX or I'll open this bottle of perfume!"

"Ooooooooh, YUK!"




So, I wonder if they can catch a grenade disguised as a bottle of perfume ....?

 

[Quartus]

Thank you Quartus. I look at one and see a bottle of smelly stuph.

Yah, I know. But they have to allow for idiots. How many soccer moms would panic at the sight of a perfume grenade on a plane, in the hands of a man shouting, "I have a grenade!"


YOU would laugh at him, and so would I, but I'll bet you at least 10% of the passengers would need to change their pants. And you would only have to fool ONE steward/ess to get a good panic going.

Especially if he brought a few sheets of innocent looking tissue paper with him. A trip to the head, a little water, and that clear bottle of perfume is now a black (or OD green) grenade.



Same with the bowling ball. It's the Idiot Factor.

So, I wonder if they can catch a grenade disguised as a bottle of perfume ....?

That's what the sniffers are for. Concealing it from visual inspection wouldn't be difficult at all.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Fire Mineta!