Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
One in four travelers smuggle liquids through TSA checkpoints
A new survey from Skyscanner suggests that as many as one in four travelers smuggle liquids past security - both accidentally and on purpose.Of the 1,000 poll respondents, 42% agree that current rulings are too restrictive and one in five complaining that airports tend to enforce rules differently. Only 2% believed the legislation did not go far enough.
About 4% of respondents admitted that they have purposely smuggled liquids through security – and got away with it.
We've certainly noticed airport security becoming more lax with the 3-1-1 rulings, particularly when the creams and liquids are within travel-sized containers in carry-on or gate checked luggage. Still, it probably isn't a good idea to try to smuggle in liquids that are in flagrant disregard of the rules. Anything that makes travel more difficult for you and your fellow patrons likely isn't a great idea.
Filed under: Airports, News, Travel Security
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Saruh Nov 1st 2011 5:47PM
I got through an airport security checkpoint in Atlanta with my converse tennis shoes on and a can of lemon soda in my carry-on. I was distracted and it was an accident, I meant to drink the soda on the way to the airport and was occupied with fitting all of my things in the bin when it came time to take my shoes off that I forgot to do so. But still no one noticed. I think the TSA replaces thoroughness with cruelty in some cases. This being one of them.
Virginia Nov 1st 2011 6:05PM
I am one of those folks that regularly carries a litte bag of first aid items in a baggie and a Swiss army knife in my purse in case of an emergency. On two recent trips from Milwaukee to San Francisco the Swiss army knife, with all its wonderful gadgetry, including scissors, knives, and a corkscrew, was down deep in an inside pocket of my large travel purse and I didn't think to take it out before I left for either trip. I completely forgot about it being there. Both times it made it past the TSA. On the third trip I was nabbed and my birthday gift from Menard's was confiscated and I was given the 3rd degree, rightly so, by the TSA agents. Now that should make everyone feel secure on their next flight!
JDen1952 Nov 1st 2011 6:47PM
The dreaded bottle of mouthwash! I'll never fly again!
hoffa Nov 1st 2011 8:20PM
I dont understand something...if TSA really thought my toothpaste was an explosive, why do they just throw it in a large trashcan next to a line of people? That seems like a relatively half hazard way of disposing of a "potentially dangerous" item. .
leon Nov 1st 2011 8:25PM
I have a whole bunch of travel miles I can use. I don't fly anymore. I got tired of the people in the planes and the people in the airports. They constantly bitch and want special treatment, they constantly try to bend rules and get away with stuff. I gave up and won't fly anymore. TSA for the most part has been ok I believe. It is all the people who mess up things. They try to carry stupid stuff and try to sneak stupid stuff. It holds up things and forces TSA to crack down and double and triple check everything and everyone.
Tonda Nov 1st 2011 9:34PM
While traveling with my Mother, a brain cancer victim, they caused us to miss our flight as the TSA Agent went through all her pills making comments such as "you take more medicine than 20 people, etc." My Mother looked her dead in the eye and said I am dying of brain cancer, anymore rude comments? When they made last call for us for the plane I was not permitted to run to the gate to tell them what was going on. Instead I had to find another flight while the Agent was still pilfering through my Mother's medications, while she was in a wheel chair obviously very ill, unable to sit upright. I was furious!
ekali81 Nov 1st 2011 9:34PM
It's so sad to see people talk negative things about the T.S.A , but if a horrible thing was to happen all we would hear is we need better security . And all this complaining I see is from people who would never work and take the type of abuse these people do . They are doing a job and this is what their supervisors are telling them to do , dont ever be mad at a low level worker for doing what they are told to do or the consequence is losing your job . Complain all you like but its like the police you hate them till you need them .
Larry W. Bruce Nov 1st 2011 11:19PM
A woman in front of me had 3 zip-lock bags half full of shampoo, body wash and the third had cream rinse. Since the liquid was not in a bottle or container, but only in the zip-lock bag (which was already dripping liquid) the TSA agent held it up, looked at the woman and dropped it in a near-by garbage can. Not a word was said by anyone. I cannot imagine what the woman was thinking (who put the liquids in zip-lock bags, and not in a travel bottle) that was going to pass TSA not to mention, not leak all over the inside of her carry-on bag or the overhead bin??? What an idiot.
pat Nov 2nd 2011 1:17AM
I question the need for most screening. You need to surrender a cigarette lighter to TSA but you can buy one at newstands in your concourse near your gate.
Malaycobra Nov 2nd 2011 11:01AM
Lighters are allowed, just not the "jet" kink as far as I know. I carry 2 or 3 lighters all the time and have never had them confiscated.
Malaycobra Nov 2nd 2011 11:03AM
*kind
ANTHONY Nov 2nd 2011 2:32AM
The TSA in Connecticut finds pocket knives going throught he x-ray machines and instead of tossing them into the trash cans, calls on the Connecticut State Troopers to ARREST and harass unwitting passengers; though one of their kids tosses the knife into dad's laptop bag, in an attempt to sneak it through, and though the kid admits his error; dad is nevertheless "made an example of" and yet Americans allow themselves to be exposed to this pre-flight TERROR, because "this makes flying safer" - when in FACT, the bad guys have ways to circumvent these moronic want-a-be-cops' tactics, but the rest of us suffer needlessly !
Nancy Nov 2nd 2011 4:43AM
When they ask me if I have any liquids I always say no. I have had enough things confiscated at the airport. This frenzy has got to stop one day. I was doing a dj gig and had to fly with records. I was pulled aside and suspiciously, a tsa agent asked, What are those (dramatic pause) - records?" I responded, "Yes, (dramatic pause) - they are records. I was this woman would have to open my record bag for God knows what reason. As I moved to undo the strap she screamed, "DON'T TOUCH THIS!!!" I screamed back, "IF I DON'T TOUCH THAT YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO OPEN THE BAG!!!" It was just as dumb as crap. I had told her what exactly was in the bag. After it was opened, I took her on a tour of exactly what I'd told her she'd find. Now what was the point of that?
Malaycobra Nov 2nd 2011 11:10AM
What's to stop a group of terrorists getting on the same plane and combining their little bottles into enough to d some harm? It makes the whole rule nonsensical to me.
Also, I saw an interview with an forensic scientist who specializes in explosives who said that the liquids the TSA were worried about are so poisonous that anyone mixing them in say the airplane toilet would be overcome and asphyxiated by the fumes immediately. He also said the smell would alert the rest of the plane before they could ever be mixed into a dangerous compound.
Security theater...
M Nov 3rd 2011 1:33PM
Gee,...What definition of the word "inadvertently" did you not understand? My brother "accidently" left a clip in his bag left over from a hunting trip. You said he should be "slammed in prison for years,.." From your reply, should I assume you are a TSA employee?
My simple point was that TSA gives us a false sense of security. Again, my brother walked through unabated with a loaded 45 clip in his carry-on while we watched an 80 year old woman being practically stripped searched. What,...? Did her hip replacement set off an alarm? I can sympathize. I badly broke my arm several years ago. I have three titanium plates and a dozen screws in the same. Am I going to be stripped searched and X-rayed everytime I fly? OH, BTW, the last time I flew, I had just broken that arm and had a shoulder to wrist cast. The only hassle I got was from a TSA agent "requiring" me to unlock and open my suitcase with one hand. She said I had to do it. I complied as best I could with one hand.