How I brought aboard a bottle of water...
 

SFO UA terminal. The day after the new restrictions were implemented. No long lines at security. Barkers everywhere.

I decided to test how thorough the screening would be. I had on a pair of cargo pants with pockets all over. I followed the rules and checked everything that was prohibited except a bottle of water. I usually get very dehydrated and I was worried that the new rules would crap me out on the flight to KOA...

Anyway... my carry-on had my GPS, my iPod (which I ended up using for 1 hr during my 10-day vacation), various chargers/adapters, noise-cancelling headphones, cell phone and some other stuff.

I put the bottle of water in a pocket of my pants (around the knees).

Had I been caught, my very plausible excuse would have been that I simply forgot that I had a bottle there and was going to drink it before the checkpoint.

Long story short, nobody noticed my bottle of water, but they did pull aside my bag with electronics and swabbed everything in it. (The cute TSA girl was extremely nice about it and packed the bag better than it was originally :) - no gripes there)

I drank the water in the 'sterile' area, and filled the bottle up again. Not knowing whether secondary checks were being done at the gate, I used the same method to bring the bottle aboard the aircraft. There were, however, no secondary checks being done at the gate.

I decided not to risk it and did not display the water in view, but did move it to my carry-on. After take-off there were repeated water runs by the FAs throughout the entire flight (thanks UA and the FAs!) and there was no need to drink my water from the 'sterile' area of SFO (after learning about the UA flight from the UK I was glad I didn't display the water in plain view :)).

On the way back, I thought that wearing long pants would make me look suspicious in 80-degree heat :D plus the FAs had plenty of water onboard so there really wasn't a need for anything else. The redeye back was probably my best one ever.

In any event, I may be making too big a deal about this, but you should draw your own conclusions.

If I could carry on a bottle of water undetected, a couple of smaller, non-metallic tubes, could be brought aboard without alerting suspicion in a similar manner.

BTW, I think some toothpaste containers have very little if any metal in them.

Don't worry, I've heard various pundits say (quite seriously) that full body cavity search is coming next. It may be in the form of walk-through low-energy X-ray machines, which have already been prototyped, rather than a TSA agent with his hand down your pants, but it's probably coming one way or another.

Very clever.

So if a plane with 100 people on board is delayed or cancelled, you'll think your experiment is a what, success or failure?

I have to admit I did the same thing to bring on a 1/2 ounce bottle of eye drops the day the changes happened. My eyes get dry, especially in an airplane. A common side effect of lasik.

I checked in my rollaboard and of course USeless Air (thru Philly) misplaced it for a while. It showed up on the later flight, which was supposed to be the earlier flight but got delayed 4 hours. Weird day.

AA40 LAX-JFK was delayed for an hour last Friday morning because too many pax had brought aboard their own beverages. According to the LA Daily News (the Valley paper), the Captain ordered the plane emptied and searched, and all the pax re-screened by the TSA.

This lunacy has to stop. I can't wait until the adults are once again in charge instead of delusional, paranoid morons.

If enough planes with 100 people on board are delayed or cancelled because of people trying to bring on board water they got out of a water fountain in the sterile area of the airport, maybe we'll get these idiotic rules changed? Just a thought.

Anyway, the scenario you describe did not happen, and if it had, it's the idiots who over-react that are to blame, not the OP.

Unfortunately, it looks like it did: http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_4207167

Though I agree that the blame lies with the FAs and cockpit-crew for their absurd overreaction to harmless household objects.

I did, successfully, bring a bottle of water aboard a plane from the non-sterile area without it being screened. There is no clear success or failure in my "experiment" only the facts. If a flight had been delayed as a result of my actions, it simply would have been a side effect.

But let's look at the matter more closely. Why would have my flight have been delayed if the bottle was not detected? Technically, the bottle should've been detected before I was allowed to board the plane, so the plane wouldn't have been delayed. The only way that it could be detected onboard is only if I was stupid enough to show it to others.

All I'm saying that security is set up in such a way that it's possible to bring prohibited items on board without too much trouble. I'm not trying to debate whether there's (not)enough security or if the prohibited items should be allowed. That's for another thread.

Again, that stuff was in plain sight in the cabin... My intent was not to openly drink the water :)

Amen!

Keep bringing those beverages and other liquids/gels on board, people.

Those responsible for implementing and supporting this stupid, paranoid overreaction need to be told to go pound sand: we're going to travel with our liquids and gels.

AA should fire this fool for delaying a flight and costing them (and taxpayers) thousands of dollars. The Captain has no right to order people re-screened by the TSA - I can just say 'screw you' and take my refund, thanks. If he doesn't want to fly me or anyone else onboard, then it's mutual and I will take my business elsewhere. He can't force me to leave the sterile area and be rescreened - he can only refuse to fly me.

I am surprised that someone from AA operations didn't call him on this and tell him to take the flight or an alternate Captain would be called.

How did those beverages get onboard in the first place, anyway? How did he even see them?

The Flight Attendants saw them and called the Captain - having made the big catch by spotting the obvious terrorists they wanted to know what to do next. :D

bocastephen's gonna tell 'em what to do:

once you are past the TSA it is clear sailing
 

Once your bags are screened by TSA, they are never looked at again. You can buy all the water etc you want at one of the airport stores and bring it aboard with you.

Plus, my girlfriend wore her waterbra as her own personal protest.

Instead of not allowing 5 year olds to carry their juice boxes aboard a plane, why don't they screen the baggage handlers and the people who supply the on board food carts?

At BUR last Friday (Aug 18), WN was doing random checks of carry-on bags at the gate......