Transport Security Administration officials on Wednesday showed off confiscated items as a way to alert people to what’s not allowed on flights.
Since February 2002, more than 7.5 million prohibited items had been seized, they told a press conference, among them:
50,000 box cutters — a weapon said to be used by the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers.
1,437 firearms.
2.3 million knives.
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.
Other confiscated items include chain saws, a weed cutting machine, hand saws and machetes, steak knives, bottles of camping stove fuel and perfume bottles shaped like hand grenades.
Even nail clippers, cigarette lighters, fishing gear and tennis rackets have been taken.
“Many sports items have a dual purpose,†said Judy Finkelstein, customer support manager for John F. Kennedy airport in New York.
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