Comments on: You know you can’t have: liquids

By: greenstrawberries

greenstrawberries — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 09:47:31 +0000

I fly regularly, mainly because I live in China, and am not Chinese, but also because my family lives on 2 continents (not including me) and 3 countries. While the Chinese airport regulations are pretty funny (they announce every time you enter Chinese airspace, ‘Chinese law forbids the photography of China from an airplane, please refrain from taking photographs from the plane.’), my favorite stories are the ones from the US airports after 9/11. I was used to strict security in Europe, and remember that once, flying back to the US from France, my family was held up at security for a very long time. My brother got an electric train set for Christmas, and my dad locked the suitcase, then went to the bathroom with the key. My mother tried endlessly to explain what it was, but didn’t know how to say in French, ‘electric train set.’
In the US, I have had my backpack searched because I had wooden clothespins in it. They pulled everything out of my bag, and questioned me for several minutes on why I had them in my bag. (I teach 1st grade, and I use them to make phonics games. Apparently, the endless supplies of markers and paper, and other art supplies didn’t make my story credible enough- they DIDN’T confiscate my little pair of scissors, though.)
When I flew this summer, there were signs in the airport, ‘We will only provide you with a plastic bag if you are making a purchase.’

By: Yonit

Yonit — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:41:28 +0000

I have a 2-sided mirror compact in my purse that I was told looks just like a knife when it goes through the x-ray.

My husband and I were flying internationally a few months ago. Before we checked our luggage (Thank G-d) he found a manual can-opener in his jacket pocket! We have no idea how it got there, but we can only imagine what security would have thought.

When flying another time I broke a nail and it was too painful to rip off, so I asked an employee at the desk if she had a nail clipper (obviously none of my fellow travelers did). She gave me such a suspicious look and asked what I wanted it for! To take over the plane, duh! sheesh.

By: Evan

Evan — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:46:24 +0000

A couple of times I’ve made it thru security, onto the plane & to my destination before realizing I had a pocketknife in my carry-on.

On a different note, once I went thru the metal detector like normal, but my bag stayed in the x-ray for a while. The person manning the x-ray screen called someone else over, & they were both pointing at the screen saying things like, “I don’t know, maybe?” So then we have this conversation:

TSA: Sir, is this your bag?
Me: Yes it is.
TSA: Do you have anything round & metal in it?
Me: Yes, there’s a belt-buckle.
TSA: No, that’s not it. Anything else?
Me: No, but I can show you the belt buckle if you want.
TSA: No no no, just come with me.

The bomb-sniffing machine at this check-point was broken & we had to walk to the other. As I’m following him over to the other check-point, I notice there are 2 armed TSA cops following right behind me. So we get the other machine & my bag checks out, so he opens it up & looks at my belt-buckle (round & metal sure enough).

TSA: Huh, I guess it was just a belt buckle. On the x-ray it looked just like a grenade.

By: E

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:29:59 +0000

I visited France from the UK earlier this year. On the return trip I had one of my rings confiscated on the grounds that it could be used as a weapon. Though this was absurd enough in itself, I had been wearing the same ring non stop for almost ten years on many flights, including when making a number of flights shortly after 9/11 on an American airline. In fact it was during security checks for one of these flights that my father’s prodder for his pipe was confiscated, and my penknife (and ring!) was left alone.

By: SS

SS — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 01:38:50 +0000

I’ve been flying since I was 6 months old, and 9-11 didn’t slow me down. I went to Australia and England one summer, through LA, Detroit, and NYC, with no issues at all. As a matter of fact I came back with 3 bottles of wine from Sydney even though I was only 19 and the limit was 2.
But a few years later I was flying to Florida with 2 lighters in my purse that had been with me for ages, one from Australia and one from Florida. These weren’t bics, but they weren’t expensive. Just sentimental. They also happened to both be empty. I was unaware that they had just passed a rule prohibiting all lighters from going onto airplanes 2 days prior. So they search my purse, pull out my two “just for show” non-working lighters, and tell me I have 2 options: Leave the lighters with them never to be seen again, or take them to my car. Since my car happened to be parked off-lot and would’ve taken me a whole lot longer to get to and back than I had before my flight, I had to let them confiscate my lighters… Of course, I found out later I also had at least 2 packs of matches in the same purse that I did take on the plane with me… Which would have worked better than the empty lighters had I intended to do anything involving fire.

By: Sandy

Sandy — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 13:41:08 +0000

Before the 9/11 thing, we pulled off something (accidentally) that never would happen now. Kara and I were actually on our honeymoon in the U.K. in 1994. We’d driven up through England and into the highlands of Scotland and back, and were pretty exhausted after a week and a half. We tooled back into London, dropped off the rental car and grabbed a cheap hotel room in Earl’s Court.

We knew we had to rush to make the airport the next morning, so we grabbed everything and hit the train. When we got to Heathrow, we had about 20 minutes to make our plane. They grabbed our tickets, rushed us up through security, and (somehow) we made the plane.

The funny thing was when we got back to Metro Airport in Detroit. Kara’s brother-in-law was supposed to pick us up, and he was nowhere to be found. We called and he showed up about an hour later, and we found out way:

We had left the U.K. a day early. Our return trip was supposed to happen the NEXT day. And Heathrow and British Airways just rushed us through.

I seriously doubt you could pull off the same thing today. And you know? I’m glad.

By: Lesley

Lesley — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 13:20:18 +0000

The one that still gets me is that I made it through DC airports with my mace attached to my key ring but got yelled at and was forced to throw it away on my return trip through Orlando. Apparently it’s okay to leave the nation’s capital with it but don’t you dare come back from Disney with it.

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 01:37:35 +0000

Last month I was flying back to the midwest from California and forgot about the ziplock rule (I don’t fly much). I had a large assortment of lotions, calming creams, and healing ointments loosley scattered in my carryon back. Nobody said a word. On the plane, I went to write something down in my journal, and the gel roller pen I was using exploded all over my hand. I was a litte worried someone was going to accuse me of trying to mix liquids.

By the way, glass is liquid. Anybody know if TSA would give you a hard time for having a glass paperweight or something in your carry-on?

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 00:18:34 +0000

As an individual who travels on a weekly basis and usually with about 15-20 other group members, getting though tsa has become more of a game to us than anything. I recall one trip where we took a redeye home from the tournament, and most of us opted to carry on our trophies rather than pack them away. My coach went through the screener first and managed to make it trough with a trophy and scissors that while inspected passed because they were only six inches long and seven is the max. I however was not quite so lucky. In my bag was not only a quite heavey marble based trophy which sailed through security but a blush applicator along with some other various make up items. I still can’t figure this one out… but the man who searched my bag deemed my blush brush a blugeoning tool! Who knew.. maybe the terrorists are now spending their free time at MAC!

By: Q. Anonymous

Q. Anonymous — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 20:58:04 +0000

On a recent flight I packed all my liquid(ish) items in a ziploc baggie. All of them were over 4 fl. oz but I figured that if they pitched a hissy over it they could just toss everything seeing as it was all non-essential.

Not only was no hissy pitched, my bag was never searched and I sailed through with all my exceedingly dangerous goops and goos intact.

I am eternally grateful to the upstanding men and women of the TSA, making it safe again to fly the otherwise unfriendly skies.