Pocket knife cuts holes in airport security

Its blade was only 3 inches long, but the small Swiss Army knife I keep in my medicine kit also had an awl, rasp, corkscrew, tweezers and tiny pair of scissors. The knife certainly was not expensive. In fact, I had received it as a promotional item. Kept in the bottom of my medicine kit, it had come in handy on numerous trips, to open boxes and wine bottles, to slice cheese and peel fruit. Once while hiking through the African bush, I used the tweezers to extract a painful thorn that had embedded itself in my leg. Normally I pack the medicine kit in my suitcase, which I generally check when flying, so it was never an issue clearing airport security. Recently, however, I took a trip to San Antonio that involved a 7 a.m. departure from Pittsburgh and a change of planes in Atlanta. Because my departure was so early, my connecting time in Atlanta was less than an hour, and I was bringing materials to hand out at a conference, I decided to travel light and fit everything into my briefcase and a small carry-on bag. I sailed right through security in Pittsburgh, wondering only why it was now necessary to show my boarding pass and ID a second time before I entered the metal detector. The rest of my trip to San Antonio went just as well, both planes departing and arriving right on schedule. In fact, it wasn't until I was shaving early the next morning that I spotted the little knife at the bottom of my medicine bag. Three days later, however, when I showed up at the San Antonio airport for my return flight to Pittsburgh, my carry-on bag elicited extra attention as it went through the TSA X-ray scanner. Perhaps it was the knife; perhaps it was the small, metal multi-purpose tool I had been given as a promotional item at the conference. At any rate, after several TSA agents had studied the X-ray image for several seconds, one of them pulled my carry-on bag off the moving belt and asked me to follow him to a nearby counter. First, he politely asked me if I was aware of any sharp objects in my luggage. I immediately confessed to having the knife. He nodded, then said he would have to search my bag and asked me not to touch anything while he did. Pulling on a pair of latex gloves, he zipped open the bag and carefully removed its contents, neatly patting down each item of clothing and rummaging through the plastic bag with my dirty laundry. Zipping open my medicine kit, he checked through its side pockets, ignoring my shaving razor, tweezers and nail clippers. Within a minute or two, he found the knife and the square multipurpose tool, one side of which was a blade, and set both aside. After neatly re-packing the contents of my carry-on, he called over his supervisor. I was presented with four options. I could take the offending items back out to my car, if I'd had one. I could re-pack them in my suitcase and send it through the checked luggage. I could get a package and have them mailed to my home address. Or, I could just give up the two items and pass right through in time to catch my plane. Even better, my infraction would not result in my name being added to a no-fly list. I told him to keep my knife. Were the TSA staff and system in San Antonio more careful than those at Pittsburgh International, or were they just less busy that day or more lucky? According to Laura Snell, the TSA's local spokesperson, passenger screening procedures at various U.S. airports have been standardized. While no system is perfect, screeners have been collecting a monthly average of 3,500 sharp metal objects and items otherwise prohibited, such as mace and pepper spray canisters, from passengers boarding in Pittsburgh since the procedures were implemented. Metal items are collected in bins and periodically sold and melted down. To review the security regulations, if you arrive at the airport and remember you're carrying something you shouldn't and can't take it back to your car or check it in your luggage, just drop it in the amnesty bins located outside the security area. If offending items are discovered during the screening process, there's usually no repercussion as long as the passenger agrees to forfeit them on the spot. The primary exception is for items such as loaded handguns and knives with blades longer than 3 inches. In these cases, passengers may be detained and interviewed to determine their intent. Should the situation warrant it, an investigation may be opened. In extreme instances, civil fines and penalties may be involved, although Snell did not know of any cases at Pittsburgh International that had involved nefarious intent. However, it's also important to ask whether my fellow passengers on the flights down were at any more risk than those who sat on the same plane with me on the way back. Not really. If not, what are the benefits of the security developed to ensure I didn't carry 3-inch knife on an airplane? Other than to the companies that replace all those destroyed items, of course. We clearly live in a more dangerous world. The 9/11 Commission Report points out the need for vigilant screening of passengers and luggage at airports, although their primary concern is to keep terrorists from entering the country or carrying explosives on planes. The report doesn't actually mention scissors or knives. While freight, packages and other items shipped on passenger planes aren't as rigorously examined as the passengers, the TSA has implemented a "known shipper" system to qualify that items have come from a known source. But does all this security make us safer or only feel safer? There can be no absolute guarantees in so complex a system as modern airline travel, not without making it so onerous that no one will want to fly. Clearly there is a need for security, but how much is enough and how much is too much? Maintaining the appropriate balance will be a constant challenge. Sacrificing basic freedoms for true security is one thing. Sacrificing them for a perception of security is another. In the meantime, pay attention to what you try to take onto a plane. Otherwise, it might end up in the smelter.
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