Posted on: Sunday, September 23, 2001
What not to bring in your bag on your trip
Advertiser Staff and News Reports
It make no difference if you are flying Hawaiian Airlines from Moloka'i or Japan Airlines to Narita, in the brave new world of airline travel the rules are the same.
"Nail files, clippers, embroidery scissors, disposable razors, they're all banned," said Michael Burton, Hawai'i Department of Agriculture inspector. "People are still not aware that if they pack these items in their carry-ons, they will be seized and they won't get them back.
"Yes, it's inconvenient, especially for men who might want to grab a quick shave en route to where they're going, but these are the rules."
All last week, passengers at airports across the country dug through their carry-ons and surrendered tweezers, nail files, corkscrews, disposable razors and other everyday items that were so seemingly innocuous they'd been forgotten.
The Federal Aviation Administration has banned knives and "cutting implements of any size" from being carried aboard airliners. But because individual airlines are responsible for security-screening areas, interpretation of the new rules may vary among airports.
FAA spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler advised travelers to assume regulations will be strictly enforced. "If you have anything that you think could be interpreted as a dangerous item, leave it home," she said.
Still, thousands throughout America were caught off guard. Among them: Diana Tracey, an architect who was on her haunches last week, rummaging through her carry-on bag outside the security scanner at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. In response to a guard's query about sharp objects, she excavated nail scissors, a sewing kit and a minuscule pocketknife, handing them over.
"I'm happy to do this," she said, as the guard deposited them in a rapidly filling cardboard box.
On Tuesday, Los Angeles International Airport officials reported confiscating 5,000 offending implements a day. At Tampa International Airport, hundreds of what a spokeswoman called "innocent knives," many of which were attached to key chains, were taken from passengers. In San Francisco, security people asked the carpentry shop to build special containers to store the contraband.
And in the what-were-they-thinking department, a passenger in Los Angeles was relieved of a meat cleaver. Security officials at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport confiscated a metal spatula. At Dulles, a claw hammer was confiscated.
At most airports surveyed, officials said confiscated objects are destroyed. But in Tampa, Fla., spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan indicated that some of the more useful objects would be placed with lost-and-found items, which are periodically auctioned off in lots.
Even in the shell-shocked atmosphere of last week, some passengers were surprised at the level of caution. Most, however, took it in stride. For example, communications specialist Jennifer Spatig, was headed home to Salt Lake City when a guard at the Miami airport seized the tweezers from her makeup bag.
"(The guard) pulled them out and said, 'No good,' and she took them," she recalled.
