Contraband keeps rolling in at Honolulu airport
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer
Federal screeners discovered more than 17,000 knives, blades and other sharp objects in the past three months at Honolulu International Airport, officials said yesterday.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
The knives are part of a bigger haul of potentially dangerous objects that screeners have discovered every day since the federal government took over airport security nationwide 13 months ago, said Sidney Hayakawa, head of federal security at the airport.
Francis Tobosa, an employee of the Transportation Security Administration at Honolulu International Airport, displays seized items that passengers have surrendered at screening checkpoints.
Despite widespread publicity, travelers continue to bring a variety of banned objects to the airport, Hayakawa said. "We're kind of surprised how much stuff keeps showing up," he said.
TSA logs show that Honolulu screeners find about 6,000 knives and sharp objects a month. The screeners also found clubs, bats, bludgeons, heavy tools and flammable objects, such as butane lighters. No guns were discovered during the period, Hayakawa said.
Most items unclaimed
Technically, all of the goods are surrendered to authorities, rather than confiscated, and turned over to the airport's lost-and-found office, where they can be reclaimed within 45 days, said Deane Kadokawa, land side operations manager for the airport.
The airport lost-and-found office is in the main terminal and is open from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily. A full list of permitted and prohibited items is on the Internet at www.tsatraveltips.us.
"It's been a nightmare to deal with," Kadokawa said.
Where to go
The surrendered articles are sorted by day, but in most cases not tagged or identified with the name of the person who gave it up, he said. In cases where a name is found, the airport office tries to contact the owner, but most of the objects go unclaimed.
By state law, they can be put up for auction after 45 days.
"If people do call or write, we can go into the pile and try to identify a specific item and have it returned," Kadokawa said. The owner has to pay any shipping costs.
"Mostly, though, we don't get too many calls," he said.
Nationwide, screeners at 429 commercial airports have seized more than 4.8 million items — including guns, knives, a kitchen sink pipe and a circular saw — since federal security began.
Surrendered items at Honolulu International Airport from Dec. 1 to Feb. 28:
The tally included 1.4 million knives, 2.4 million sharp objects, 1,101 guns, 15,666 clubs, more than 125,000 incendiary items and nearly 40,000 box cutters.
Contraband breakdown
Screening procedures — and what happens to surrendered items — can vary from airport to airport nationwide.
Last month, for instance, Honolulu traveler Frankie Quinabo put an antique cigarette lighter into her luggage and had it pass through security in Honolulu, Seattle and Victoria, British Columbia, only to have it seized on her return to Seattle.
"I understand how it can be taken away, but don't know why it can pass through one place and not another," she said. Seattle officials were unable to offer any means to recover the lighter, she said.
Differing interpretations
Hayakawa said TSA officials are trying to standardize operations nationwide, but airport officials sometimes differ on interpreting directives handed down from the Washington office.
Airports also have various ways of getting rid of items taken from passengers. Reagan Washington National Airport sends them to a metal grinder before they're melted down, while several California airports — including San Jose and Oakland — offer them on the eBay online auction site.
"Eventually, TSA will come up with a policy that will make us responsible for all the objects we get, but right now we either offer people an opportunity to take the items back to their car or we can turn the items over to the airport for storage and disposal," Hayakawa said.
