What have you (accidently) taken through airport security?

Caporegime
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18 Oct 2002
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Flew back form Edinburgh to Virginia via Newark, NJ yesterday and had a yet another funny airport security failure. At EDI my wife's bag was picked up for having an ipad in it, in the US you are allowed to leave your ipad in your bag and you get shouted at if you take it out since it slows down security.

Anyway, get to Newark and then through security again for our internal flight back home. My Bag gets picked up because there is some forgotten suntan lotion and muzzy repellent that i couldn't find the entire week of vacation hidden in an unknown pocket of the backpack.

So how incompetent were EDI security if they just let 2 large liquid bottles through a trans-Atlantic flight?


This wouldn't be the first time I've accidentally exposed flaws in airport security. I once flew form Geneva to EDI with a large pair of scissors in my carry on. Found it when unpacking my bag at home. My Dad flew Heath-row to JFK with a Swiss army knife in his jacket pocket. Only found when going through security for Empire state building. Wife flew to settle last year with a large water bottle in backpack that she forgot to empty before going to security.


Any other tales of incompetent airline security?
 
I have taken a Screwdriver through Heathrow to Schipol, where it was screened and i had to leave it there.

I also took my pocket ninja tool on many flights before being told it was not permitted and having it taken off me in Heathrow
 
I had a second wallet on me with loose coins and a small multitool/penknife thingy - forgot all about it entirely so didn't put it in the tray, etc. and went on several domestic flights in the US - right through metal detectors and everything without a problem (this was before 9/11, etc.) - was only stopped when it came to getting on the international flight home.
 
I got the third degree from security at Hahn (Mainz) for having a small bottle opener on me. They let me keep it eventually :rolleyes:
 
I got the third degree from security at Hahn (Mainz) for having a small bottle opener on me. They let me keep it eventually :rolleyes:

I got hell in Paris CDG for having a camera monopod in my carry on that they said they would have to confiscate because I could use it as a weapon. I asked for information that listed a monopod as a prohibited item. As they were flaffing around an OAP with a waking stick came through so i said they better take his walking stick away. They conceded eventually and let me carry on with the monopod.

Airport security guards can be some of the lowest forms of human existence, only beaten by traffic cops.
 
I got hell in Paris CDG for having a camera monopod in my carry on that they said they would have to confiscate because I could use it as a weapon. I asked for information that listed a monopod as a prohibited item. As they were flaffing around an OAP with a waking stick came through so i said they better take his walking stick away. They conceded eventually and let me carry on with the monopod.

Airport security guards can be some of the lowest forms of human existence, only beaten by traffic cops.

That's quite funny I got through CDG with a litre bottle of water about 4 years ago. I completely forgot to put it in the bin. Although with everything that's happened in France over the last couple of years I'm not surprised they've stepped up security.
 
Had a folding knife in my "ticket/condom" pocket (if you're old enough to know what that is :p) last time I flew. Left it in there through a wash. Odd really as it's a lump of hardened steel and sharp as ****, not peep from the scanner
 
Had a pair of sharp kitchen scissors once and didn't actually know I had them until I was on the plane and stabbed myself looking for something in my bag!
 
The wife tried, "accidentally", as in completely didn't expect it to be a problem, to take some poxy little metal nail scissors through at Stanstead. Cue instant confiscation because we could stab someone to death with them.

We walk less than 5m from the security point to a shop (airside). First thing we see. A pair of metal nail scissors exactly like the ones we had confiscated.

Sometime you have to wonder if anyone actually thinks these things through.
 
Stupidly has a lock knife in my pocket that I forgot was there from work. Went back to security and gave it to them as I really didn't want to fly with it.
 
Heathrow to Moscow I didn't know I had a big folding knife under the thing at the bottom that keeps the bag in shape :eek: she gave me a naughty boy look showing it to me, I told her I didn't know it was there and told her to keep it, I guess I look so sweet :o

Budapest to Heathrow I managed to keep my Dragunov bullet shells without getting noticed.
 
i once (although not accidentally) took a 2kg block of cheese in hand luggage.

obviously it looked hella suspicious on the xray, so they went to open and i just said "it's the cheese isn't it?" and they just looked at me funny and let me go, without checking that it was in fact cheese and not c4/heroine/cocaine/whatever other illegal stuff comes in vacumn packed bricks.
 
When I was three years old, I picked up a toy in a toy shop at Toronto Pearson airport. My parents didn't realise what I was playing with until we were halfway across the Atlanic.

And so began my life of crime.
 
They scanned my bag which had nothing suspicious in it, but they failed to notice the utility belt I was wearing with grenades, knives and guns on it!
 
Budapest to Heathrow I managed to keep my Dragunov bullet shells without getting noticed.

were they in checked luggage? mine were in my pocket and got picked up by the scanners

one odd thing to take through are poker chips, the x ray machines have a fit at them
 
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