Keep cheese out of luggage, please
By Leslie Miller
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The government has some advice for packing that bag you plan to check at the airport: No cheese. No chocolate. Shoes on top. And by all means leave it unlocked.
Associated Press
Federal transportation officials announced new guidelines yesterday because they're ramping up luggage screening during the holiday season.
Transportation Safety Administration employees send luggage through a bomb-detection machine at Los Angeles International Airport.
James Loy, head of the Transportation Security Administration, talked about the guidelines in Jacksonville, Fla.
Loy said travelers should put toothbrushes and other personal belongings in plastic bags so screeners won't have to touch them. He said books should be spread out rather than stacked, and food and beverages are prohibited.
Books — and fruitcake — can be too dense for bomb-detection machines to read through and will set off an alarm, said Richard Lanza, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist.
Food items, such as cheese or chocolate, can be mistaken by bomb-detection machines for explosives and generate a "false positive." Federal screeners will check bags by hand that register positive readings.
Among the recommendations and requirements:
- Shoes should be packed last to make it easier for screeners to hand-search luggage.
- Bags should be left unlocked so screeners won't have to force them open to search them by hand. Loy recommended that people use cable ties or zip ties, which can be purchased at hardware stores and cut off easily.
- Don't put film in checked bags because screening equipment will damage it.
- Leave gifts unwrapped. Screeners may unwrap those that aren't.
- Put scissors, pocket knives and other sharp items in checked bags.
The security agency, created after the terrorist attacks, was given a Dec. 31 deadline by Congress to implement a program to screen all checked baggage for explosives.
