Thread: TSA Week in Review: Black Powder, Grenades, Line Charge, Stun Guns, and More…

Friday, January 11, 2013

TSA Week in Review: Black Powder, Grenades, Line Charge, Stun Guns, and More…

If you haven’t seen it yet, make sure you check out our post from earlier this week. It’s a look at the dangerous, scary, and downright unusual items our officers found in 2012.

Black Powder (CLE)

Black Powder At Cleveland – Over nine ounces of black powder was discovered in a carry-on bag at Cleveland (CLE).

Garrote (BOS)

Garrote Discovered After BDO Referral – Behavior Detection Officers at Boston (BOS) referred a passenger for additional screening. During the screening, a serrated wire garrote was discovered in the passenger’s carry-on bag.

Inert Ordnance and Grenades Etc. – We continue to find inerthand grenades and other weaponry on weekly basis. Please keep in mind that if an itemlooks like a realistic bomb, grenade, mine, etc., it is prohibited - real or not. When these items are found at a checkpoint or in checked baggage, they can cause significant delays. I know they are cool novelty items, but it is best not to take them on a plane. Read here and here on why inert items cause problems.

Bandolier Line Charge (ORF)

• A bandolier line charge was discovered after it alarmed in checked baggage at Norfolk (ORF). It was determined that the item was inert and used by a contractor who conducts demonstrations for the military. As I’ve said before, we’re all too familiar with instructors and other people in this type of business needing these sorts of items for their jobs. As with all inert training items and replicas, we don’t know they’re not real until we’ve checked them out. This can include evacuated baggage areas and closed checkpoints which lead to delays and missed flights. People that need to travel with INERT items should plan ahead and contact their preferred shipper about mailing the training aids to their destination. Read here and here on why inert items cause problems at checkpoints.
• Eight replica/inert grenades were discovered this week, one in a carry-on bag at Salt Lake City (SLC), and five others in checked baggage – three at Harrisburg (MDT), three at Anchorage (ANC), and one at San Diego (SAN). The three grenades at MDT caused a 1-hour, 8-minute evacuation of the checked baggage area.

Items in the Strangest Places –It’s important to check your bags prior to traveling. If a prohibited item is discovered in your bag, you could be cited and possibly arrested by local law enforcement. Here are a few examples from this week where prohibited items were found in strange places.

• A knife was discovered in a laptop at Denver (DEN).
• A saw blade was discovered under the sole of a shoe in a carry-on bag at Ellis (OAJ).

Stun Guns – Eight stun guns were discovered this week in a carry-on bags around the nation: One each at San Francisco (SFO), Sacramento (SMF), San Juan (SJU), Pittsburgh (PIT), Akron (CAK), Seattle (SEA), and two at Denver (DEN).

What Not to Say at an Airport – Statements like these not only delay the people who said them but can also inconvenience many other passengers if the checkpoint or terminal has to be evacuated:

• A passenger at Miami (MIA) asked the gate agent: “What if I have a bomb?”

Miscellaneous Prohibited Items - In addition to all of the other prohibited items we find weekly, our Officers also regularly find firearm components, realistic replica firearms, bb and pellet guns, Airsoft guns, brass knuckles, ammunition, batons, and a lot of sharp pointy things -- to mention a few…

Firearms - Here are pictures of some of the firearms our Officers found in carry-on baggage since I posted last Friday. See a complete list below.

You can travel with your firearms in checked baggage, but they must first be declared to the airline. You can go here for more details on how to properly travel with your firearms. Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality. Travelers should familiarize themselves with state and local firearm laws for each point of travel prior to departure.

Unfortunately these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our officers are finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item, the throughput is slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up with a citation or in some cases is even arrested. This is a friendly reminder to please leave these items at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on an individual does not mean they had bad intentions, that's for the law enforcement officer to decide. In many cases, people simply forgot they had these items.

*In order to provide a timely weekly update, I compile my data from a preliminary report. The year-end numbers will vary slightly (increase) from what I report in the weekly updates. However, any monthly, midyear, or end-of-year numbers TSA provides on this blog or elsewhere will not be estimates.

Bob Burns
TSA Blog Team

If you have a travel related issue or question that needs an immediate answer, you can contact us by clicking here.

http://blog.tsa.gov/2013/01/tsa-week-in-review-black-powder.html

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

A Look at the Dangerous, Scary, and Downright Unusual Items our Officers Found in 2012

Inert Mortar Round (ELP)

After screening 637,582,122 passengers in 2012 (around 1,746,800 a day), here are some of the more dangerous, scary, and downright unusual items our officers found in 2012. This post is a reflection of the outstanding work our officers are doing in the field thanks to their vigilance and attention to detail.


1,543 firearms have been discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints across the country. That’s a little over fourfirearms per day! Of those, 1,215 (78.7%) were loaded. Firearms have been found at a total of 199 airports with Atlanta (ATL) on top of the list - 95 in 2012.

Gun and Ammunition Concealed In Stuffed Animals

Here are a few of the more notable firearm incidents:

Gun In Book (HNL)

• A Portland (PDX) passenger put a pistol in potted plant, presumably in an effort to sneak it past us.
• A passenger at Providence TF Green Airport (PVD) had a disassembled gun and ammunition concealed in three stuffed animals.
• A pen pistol was discovered at Allentown (ABE).
• A 22 caliber magazine was discovered wrapped in aluminum foil inside a DVD player at Fresno (FAT).
• A BB gun in a book was discovered at Fargo (FAR).
• A gun in a hollowed out book was discovered at Honolulu (HNL).

While the number of firearms discovered this year might shock you, here are some explosively dangerous items that passengers attempted to travel with this year:

Live Blasting Cap (RDM)

Live 40mm Grenade (DFW)

• A live 40mm high explosive grenade was discovered at Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW).
• A bottle wrapped in black electrical tape and filled with flash powder, and three M-80 fireworks was discovered at Philadelphia (PHL).
• A black powder flask filled with 5oz. of black powder was discovered at Syracuse (SYR).
• An explosively-viable cannonball was discovered in checked baggage at Ft Lauderdale (FLL).
• A live blasting cap was discovered in a passenger’s carry-on bag at Redmond (RDM).
• Seal Bombs were discovered in a carry-on bag at Seattle (SEA).
• Gunpowder was discovered in a checked bag at Boston (BOS).
• 22 black powder pellets were discovered in checked baggage at Salt Lake City (SLC).
• Officers discovered a 16oz. can of black powder in checked baggage at Anchorage (ANC).
• Six lbs. of black powder, detonation cords, and timing fuse were discovered at Grand Junction (GJT)
• 15 tubes of black powder were discovered in checked baggage at Denver (DEN).
• A powder horn with approximately three ounces of black powder was discovered in a carry-on bag at Little Rock (LIT).
• A live flash bang grenade was discovered in checked baggage at Northwest Florida Regional Airport (VPS). Along with the grenade were 20 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition.

In addition to the live explosives items mentioned above, we also find a lot of inert items that look like the real deal. The problem with these types of items is that we don’t know if they are the real deal until we call out the bomb experts, and sometimes even they have a hard time figuring it out. Inert items can lead to closed terminals and checkpoints, which usually result in canceled or delayed flights. Here are some of the more interesting inert items we’ve found so far this year:

Inert IED (CSG)

Watch Resembling IED Component (OAK)

Inert Detonator (CHS)

• An inert IED with a block of simulated SEMTEX-H, and a simulated blasting cap were discovered in checked baggage at Columbus (CSG).
• An inert detonator was discovered in a passenger’s pocket during a pat-down search after a Charleston (CHS) passenger alarmed the body scanner.
• A strange watch resembling an IED component was discovered at Oakland (OAK).
• An expended AT-4 rocket launcher was discovered in checked baggage at Latrobe (LBE).
• A grenade launcher was discovered in checked baggage at Seattle Tacoma (SEA)
• An M147 firing device with blasting cap taped to it was discovered in checked baggage at Reno (RNO).
• Several replica Claymore antipersonnel mines were discovered at Newark (EWR), Guam (GUM), and Tulsa (TUL).
• More inert grenades than you would ever imagine. Seven were discovered in just one week last December.
• Several inert warheads were discovered this year at Salt Lake City (SLC), Providence (PVD), NYL (Yuma) and Richmond ( RIC).
• Inert mortar and bazooka rounds were discovered at ElPaso (ELP), Dallas/ Fort Worth (DFW), and Tucson (TUS).
• Inert explosive components were discovered in a golf club case in checked baggage at Austin (AUS).
• Simulated Semtex-H was discovered in a carry-on bag at Fort Walton Beach (VPS).
• A passenger at Norfolk (ORF) had simulated detonating cord, simulated sheet explosives, and two 3.5 ounce cans of propane in his checked bag.

And of course, there are those items that fit into the odd/interesting category. A few examples would be bear mace in a sock, a spear gun, dead venomous snakes, a chastity belt, more cane swords than you could shake a cane sword at, a shocking amount of stun guns, a gassed up chainsaw, an 8oz. bottle of vodka discovered in a passenger's pants, a knife mounted on a walker, eels, prohibited bling, a marijuana filled grenade, another speargun, samurai swords, a stun cane, and jingle bell shotgun shells.

While this doesn’t fall into any of the categories above, it deserves to be mentioned that last August, two Behavior Detection Officers (BDO) at Miami (MIA) thwarted a kidnapping. Read more about it here.

You can check out our archives of TSA Week in Review poststo see pictures and read about many other instances where dangerous, scar, and odd items are found. Our Week in Review posts are published every Friday evening.

Bob Burns
TSA Blog Team

If you have a travel related issue or question that needs an immediate answer, you can contact us by clicking here.

http://blog.tsa.gov/2013/01/a-look-at-dangerous-scary-and-downright.html