TSA cifiscates a "grenade-shaped" perfume bottle and closes lane at PHX
#16
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 3,526
she has taken her 2 ounce bottle of Jimmy Choo perfume on about 300 flights and never had a problem.
She puts the $83 bottle in a separate plastic bag and has been questioned about it 3 times in the past.
She puts the $83 bottle in a separate plastic bag and has been questioned about it 3 times in the past.
#17
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Houston, Texas
Posts: 959
Strawman allert!!
#18
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Colorado
Programs: TSA
Posts: 2,745
#19
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Colorado
Programs: TSA
Posts: 2,745
#20
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Houston, Texas
Posts: 959
@:-)The TSOs at this particular checkpoint, at this particular airport were IDIOTS! That is precicely why this innocent, harmless bottle of PERFUME (not an explosive grenade, not a "replica" of a grenade, not even CLOSE -- looks more like a decorative egg with a cap on top to me!) was confiscated.
#21
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 3,526
"They said if as a passenger you were to get on an airplane and you were to wave this around that people could maybe construe that as you making some sort of a threat."
#22
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: where the chile is hot
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Posts: 41,237
I am curious - supposedly the bomb squad was called. I suppose that means that the particular checkpoint didn't have swab/test equipment? Or the test strips used to test infant liquids and formula?
I'm not trying to beat up on you, eyecue, I just think that this was badly handled and defending it just makes the agency look foolish.
BTW - I know it's probably SSI, but surely TSA is on red alert for inflatable plastic fake 'grenades'. After all, deflated, they're probably not obvious on an x-ray, but if someone got one on the plane and inflated it, think what could happen.
#25
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Houston, Texas
Posts: 959
This time she says Transportation Security Administration agents shut down lane 6 at the Southwest Terminal for nearly an hour as they called in a bomb expert to deal with the offending bottle they said looked like a grenade.
My speculation (and this is purely speculation since the article didn't report that fact) is that the "bomb expert" was from TSA and knew someone who would like to have an expensive bottle of perfume, or he/she wanted to keep it.
#26
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,145
Of course, someone wanted the parfum and/or bottle. There was never a moment when anyone thought this thing presented any danger to the airport or to the flight. If TSA had genuinely thought it presented a danger, the item and the humans present would have all been handled in a way far different than closing down a single screening lane.
#27
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 187
A passenger should not have to try and guess whether their non-prohibited items will scare a TSA screener looking at it through an x-ray. Get better equipment and/or train your people better.
#28
Suspended
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: CPH
Programs: Delta SM
Posts: 497
Cost of doing business. It's either prohibited or it's not. "Perfume bottles that look scary on our x-ray screen, but are otherwise non-threatening" are not on the list of prohibited items - nor should they be.
A passenger should not have to try and guess whether their non-prohibited items will scare a TSA screener looking at it through an x-ray. Get better equipment and/or train your people better.
A passenger should not have to try and guess whether their non-prohibited items will scare a TSA screener looking at it through an x-ray. Get better equipment and/or train your people better.
That caused lots of problems at the security checkpoints because the x-rays saw the lead-crystal as a very dense object that appeared black on the screen. They thought it was a bomb, but upon closer examination, cooler heads prevailed, and I was allowed to board the plane.
I'm too lazy to read about this particular perfume bottle, but does someone know if it was lead-crystal?
#29
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: where the chile is hot
Programs: AA,RR,NW,Delta ,UA,CO
Posts: 41,237
I once traveled from Europe to the U.S. with a lead-crystal vase wrapped in a towel and stuffed in my carry on.
That caused lots of problems at the security checkpoints because the x-rays saw the lead-crystal as a very dense object that appeared black on the screen. They thought it was a bomb, but upon closer examination, cooler heads prevailed, and I was allowed to board the plane.
I'm too lazy to read about this particular perfume bottle, but does someone know if it was lead-crystal?
That caused lots of problems at the security checkpoints because the x-rays saw the lead-crystal as a very dense object that appeared black on the screen. They thought it was a bomb, but upon closer examination, cooler heads prevailed, and I was allowed to board the plane.
I'm too lazy to read about this particular perfume bottle, but does someone know if it was lead-crystal?
However, visual inspection clears lead crystal. The contents were within LGA limits, she had it in the protective plastic baggie. It isn't clear why the bomb squad was called instead of using an ETD swab of the bottle and a strip test of the contents 'out of an abundance of caution'.
Well, it's really as clear as the bottle label: Jimmy Choo isn't cheap stuff. There's no way that went out with the trash that night.
#30
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Baltimore, MD USA
Programs: Southwest Rapid Rewards. Tha... that's about it.
Posts: 4,330
But who cares. Once it came out of the bag, ANYONE could see that it was a glass bottle of perfume. It might have looked like a snuke on the x-ray, but once it came out of the bag it became completely visible to everybody.
I dunno what kinda MESSED UP box you're trying to think outside of, but in Rational Non-Stupid Land, the delays caused by this perfume bottle are entirely the fault of the rank, unadulterated stupidity of a group of TSOs. Of course, if you're trying to say that such immense, blind, almost unfathomably deep stupidity exists at all c/p's throughout the nation, well, I guess you have a point. So, well played, sir. Well played.