Airlines Still Finding Unsafe Carry-Ons

WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite reminders that potential weapons aren't allowed in airliner cabins, people are still trying to bring tens of thousands of knives, dozens of guns and thousands of box cutters on board planes every month.

Airport screeners have seized more than 4.8 million items - including guns, knives, a kitchen sink pipe and a circular saw - in the 13 months the federal government has been in charge of security.

Transportation Security Administration spokesman Brian Turmail said more education is needed to alert the traveling public to the items barred from aircraft cabins.

Since February 2002, TSA screeners confiscated 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.

The TSA on Monday released those figures, its most thorough accounting of seizures at the nation's 429 commercial airports.

Turmail said the agency is working with airports to put passenger information on airport radio stations, but some people seem never to learn.

``If you don't know by now that box cutters are inappropriate, no amount of public education is going to make a difference,'' Turmail said.

Local police arrested 922 people at checkpoints, though how many of those resulted in convictions is not known.

Among the more unusual items collected by screeners: a 15-piece cutlery set, a machete, a trailer hitch, horseshoes, that kitchen sink pipe and circular saw and metal wall hangings depicting the Greek god Apollo.

``Those are found with some regularity,'' Turmail said, referring to the wall hangings. The sharp points around the figure's head make it similar to a throwing star used in martial arts, he said.

Paul Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, an airline safety and security advocacy group, called the number of confiscated items mind-boggling.

``If that's how many they've found, how many still got through?'' he asked.

A test last spring by the Transportation Security Administration showed screeners found knives only 70 percent of the time and missed one in four guns.

Turmail said the TSA tests screeners regularly, and he's confident that screening has improved.

David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, said the vast majority of confiscated items are things people simply forgot to leave at home. Even frequent travelers sometimes forget to go through their bags for scissors or cigarette lighters before leaving on a trip, he said.

He credits the TSA with making air travel safer.

The agency has changed the list of forbidden items over the past year, now allowing tweezers, nail clippers and toy transformer robots that once were prohibited. The agency posts the list on its Web site.

During March, the first full month the TSA was in charge of screeners, 409,801 items were confiscated, including 4,711 box cutters and 55 guns. Last month, 326,793 items were taken, including 1,132 box cutters and 61 guns.

The number of so-called incendiary devices, which include butane lighters, nearly quintupled from September and October and stayed above 10,000 a month ever since. Turmail said it's because screeners now know better what qualifies as an incendiary device.

People do seem to be getting the word about box cutters, which were banned from aircraft cabins after Sept. 11, 2001, because authorities believe the 19 hijackers used them to commandeer the planes.

Last month, screeners confiscated only about a fifth of the record 5,145 taken from passengers in April.

Airports have various ways of getting rid of items taken from passengers. Washington Reagan National Airport sends them to a metal grinder before they're melted down, while several California airports - including San Jose Mineta International Airport and Oakland International Airport - offer them on the eBay online auction site, Turmail said.

Chris, Well at least no more bricks were reported! I'm amazed that anyone that travels these days would still bring these items into an airport. There must be a great deal of variety from airport to airport in how effective screeners are. The one I usually fly out of is really excellent and thorough in their screening and search techniques at least as far as I can tell. I'm not quite as impressed by some of the bigger ones though.

Barbara