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TSA cifiscates a "grenade-shaped" perfume bottle and closes lane at PHX

TSA cifiscates a "grenade-shaped" perfume bottle and closes lane at PHX

Old Mar 17, 2014, 2:26 pm
  #16  
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Originally Posted by eyecue
Think outside the box, the bottle caused a lot of delay at one checkpoint. If it was put back in the bag, it could have caused it again at a different airport.
More proof that you don't read:

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.
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Old Mar 17, 2014, 2:29 pm
  #17  
 
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Strawman allert!!

Originally Posted by eyecue
Think outside the box, the bottle caused a lot of delay at one checkpoint. If it was put back in the bag, it could have caused it again at a different airport.
Please stop grasping at straws, eyecue. That is NOT WHY THE BOTTLE OF PERFUME WAS CONFISCATED!!!
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Old Mar 17, 2014, 2:32 pm
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Originally Posted by DeafBlonde
Please stop grasping at straws, eyecue. That is NOT WHY THE BOTTLE OF PERFUME WAS CONFISCATED!!!
And I suppose that you pretend to know the real reason why? If so please tell us.
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Old Mar 17, 2014, 2:37 pm
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Originally Posted by petaluma1
More proof that you don't read:
It only takes once! The fact that it did not cause a problem before could have been related to several things but since you despise speculation, I wont go there.
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Old Mar 17, 2014, 2:42 pm
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Originally Posted by eyecue
And I suppose that you pretend to know the real reason why? If so please tell us.
@:-)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.
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Old Mar 17, 2014, 2:42 pm
  #21  
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Originally Posted by eyecue
And I suppose that you pretend to know the real reason why? If so please tell us.
Again, had you read the article, you would know that:

"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."
The above "reason" seems to be a replacement to the TSA's "out of an abundance of caution" statement that we've been hearing for years.
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Old Mar 17, 2014, 2:46 pm
  #22  
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Originally Posted by eyecue
Think outside the box, the bottle caused a lot of delay at one checkpoint. If it was put back in the bag, it could have caused it again at a different airport.
The bottle had been through many checkpoints without a problem. The lack of consistent training or experience is what led to the problem at this checkpoint. It should have been a training opportunity for the TSOs involved and she should have been allowed to keep it, IMHO.

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.
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Old Mar 17, 2014, 2:48 pm
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Yea, I can hear the ominous threat now:

"Come any closer, and I'll make this whole airplane...er...smell really good!"
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Old Mar 17, 2014, 2:56 pm
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So they closed just one lane because they figured it was a really, really small green-aid??
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Old Mar 17, 2014, 3:07 pm
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Originally Posted by TheGolfWidow
So they closed just one lane because they figured it was a really, really small green-aid??
The azFamily.com news article states:

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.
I wonder who this "bomb expert" was. Was it a TSA "bomb expert"? Was it the local law enforcement "bomb expert"? I doubt it was local law enforcement as they would have laughed in the TSOs faces.

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.
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Old Mar 17, 2014, 3:33 pm
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Originally Posted by DeafBlonde
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.
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.
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Old Mar 17, 2014, 3:35 pm
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Originally Posted by eyecue
Think outside the box, the bottle caused a lot of delay at one checkpoint. If it was put back in the bag, it could have caused it again at a different airport.
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.
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Old Mar 17, 2014, 4:43 pm
  #28  
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Originally Posted by sirdatary
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.
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?
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Old Mar 17, 2014, 6:00 pm
  #29  
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Originally Posted by FredAnderssen
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?
I've been in the same situation, and I wondered the same thing.

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.
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Old Mar 17, 2014, 7:20 pm
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Originally Posted by eyecue
Speculate at will... None of you know what that looked like on the x-ray.
Neither do you.

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.

Originally Posted by eyecue
Think outside the box, the bottle caused a lot of delay at one checkpoint. If it was put back in the bag, it could have caused it again at a different airport.
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.
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