TSA is on the ball

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rstought

Passed Away Nov 11, 2016
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I flew home to NY this past weekend for a family affair, and had the good fortune to find some small maple burls and spalted maple (in relatively good shape) in my father's woodpile. I cut the spalted wood into slabs (about 2x4x6) and, thinking nothing of it, carefully wrapped them and packed them in my suitcase (checked baggage) for the return trip home.

Upon arriving home, I unpacked them and found that several of the previously pristine spalted slabs had what appeared to be holes drilled through them (note that these were straight, smooth holes, unlike what I believe any type of insects might make). Given that it also looked like my bag had been opened and the other contents disturbed, I believe they must've seen something they didn't like (on the xray during some random checking - the blanks DID look alot like plastic explosive, come to think of it...)and decided to take a closer look...

I'll have to take a closer look myself this evening to see if they are salvageable, but it's comforting to know that they are, in fact, looking out for us...
 
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Originally posted by kent4Him
<br />I agree with Frank. One thing you may want to do is lable what the pieces are just in case it happens again.
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Maybe,

PLASTIC (non-explosive)[:D][:D][:D][:D]

That should reassure them!!!
 
Most unfortunate. While they cost you nothing, try replacing them for that. I'd be thinking about sending my legislator a little note with a bill for replacement costs to TSA. I'm all for tighter security, but why can't we educate those inolved? Sheesh![V]
 
Packing items that are "strange " to the TSA people can cause a problem. I was out west and stopped at Grizzly and picked up a few small items, I was going to pick up a couple of their polishing compounds but they were red and green and looked like a 2x2x8 inch bar . As I placed them in my shopping basket, my son asked me if I REALLY wanted to have those in my luggage since they looked like some type of plastic explosive. I decided it was probably better to order them and have them shipped UPS!
 
Items that are questionable to put in your bags, may be better to mail back to yourself instead. I'm sure that burl is worth more than a 8 buck flat rate box.

While I'm all for better security, the TSA needs to be educated properly on NON leathel items.
 
I travel internationally at least once a year to the States and back. I always bring pen blanks and pen parts or tools in my luggage. As such, and being prepared for inspections, I place related parts in plastic freezer bags and label the bags. I also write on the blanks the kind of wood and the words "pen blanks". I write with a permanent ink magic marker on the plastic freezer bag what the contents are, and what the purpose is - i.e. for making wood pens. I often throw a slim line pen and or pen kit in along with the ink refill for them to have a reference. Some of you might think that this is overkill, but with my travels, I don't leave anything to chance.

Not leaving anything to chance - I do the same for tools and anything else other than for clothes. Some TSA people let most things go, but If I am traveling on a bad day just after a national incident that I may not be aware of, I know that everything can be and will be checked. I never assume that everything will be OK just being packed in a suitcase, even wood or plastic blanks.
 
I deal with TSA 5 to 6 days a week. Yes I work for an airline.(Southwest) They are the biggest aggravation known on earth. Yesterday for example I worked 14 hours and in that time on the one concourse I was on we only had 10 on-time departures. That was for 8 gates and usually a plane every hour on a gate. The rest were security delays, at departure time we were missing up to 30 passengers and decided to give them some extra time to get through TSA. We found out that TSA reduced the screening lines to ONE operating line. Every delay counts against the airlines even if its due to TSA, and they did a number on us and our passengers.
 
My wife and I fly more often then we want but anytime our luggage was opened there was a card with the info that the luggage was opened for inspection inside the suitcase maybe we were just lucky at least none of my reels ever disappeared (YET)
John
 
I don't fly often and am very grateful for that. I hate the airport routine and cramped seating on stuffy planes with smelly people practically in your lap. Enneyhow, I have a large luggage bag that is camouflage in color. It is guaranteed to get searched every time. Pure, unreasoned paranoia. No other explanation.
 
I dont mind the luggage search, I hope they are searching the luggage, But I dont see the point in destroying items by drilling a hole into them, Being ex military myself it would not be a very smart way to find out if it is or is not some type of explosives!
 
Originally posted by Mark4583
<br />I dont mind the luggage search, I hope they are searching the luggage, But I dont see the point in destroying items by drilling a hole into them, Being ex military myself it would not be a very smart way to find out if it is or is not some type of explosives!
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I agree. They just don't seem to care. They can do their job without acting like idiots. It just shows that they don't know what they're doing. Who doesn't recognize a piece of wood when they see one? Even if you don't know what kind of wood it is, you can still recognize that it's a piece of wood. I'm all for checking everything that looks suspicious, but for crying out loud, use some common sense when you're inspecting it. It doesn't exactly inspire alot of confidence in airport security if they can't tell the difference between plastic explosives and wood upon visual inspection.
 
Originally posted by babyblues
<br />
Originally posted by Mark4583
<br />I dont mind the luggage search, I hope they are searching the luggage, But I dont see the point in destroying items by drilling a hole into them, Being ex military myself it would not be a very smart way to find out if it is or is not some type of explosives!
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I agree. They just don't seem to care. They can do their job without acting like idiots. It just shows that they don't know what they're doing. Who doesn't recognize a piece of wood when they see one? Even if you don't know what kind of wood it is, you can still recognize that it's a piece of wood. I'm all for checking everything that looks suspicious, but for crying out loud, use some common sense when you're inspecting it. It doesn't exactly inspire alot of confidence in airport security if they can't tell the difference between plastic explosives and wood upon visual inspection.
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Completely agree. Also, when your bag gets opened the TSA is supposed to put a tag on your bag letting you know that it was inspected. I would call and complain to someone ASAP and figure out what happened.
 
Originally posted by babyblues
<br />
Originally posted by Mark4583
<br />I dont mind the luggage search, I hope they are searching the luggage, But I dont see the point in destroying items by drilling a hole into them, Being ex military myself it would not be a very smart way to find out if it is or is not some type of explosives!
Click to expand...
I agree. They just don't seem to care. They can do their job without acting like idiots. It just shows that they don't know what they're doing. Who doesn't recognize a piece of wood when they see one? Even if you don't know what kind of wood it is, you can still recognize that it's a piece of wood. I'm all for checking everything that looks suspicious, but for crying out loud, use some common sense when you're inspecting it. It doesn't exactly inspire alot of confidence in airport security if they can't tell the difference between plastic explosives and wood upon visual inspection.
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Take a piece of burl and drill a plug hole in it. hollow it out, insert explosive and a time delay or radio fuse. put in a plug so that it is barely noticeable. On an airplane all you need to do is breach the hull and chances are high that you will bring it down.

Sometimes the easiest way to hide something is to put it in plain sight.
 
funny thing. they recently banned radio control cars. "they could be used to trigger a device".

yet, cell phones, laptops, and other devices that could just as easily be used to trigger a device are not banned.

they have no sense of logic.
 
Originally posted by MudderTake a piece of burl and drill a plug hole in it. hollow it out, insert explosive and a time delay or radio fuse. put in a plug so that it is barely noticeable. On an airplane all you need to do is breach the hull and chances are high that you will bring it down.

Sometimes the easiest way to hide something is to put it in plain sight.
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Yeah, but they should be able to see that when your bag goes through the x-ray machine. They x-ray checked luggage. Something made them suspect something or they wouldn't have gone through the bag. If they did suspect that it was explosives, they should have just disposed of it as they would any explosive. Just makes you wonder exactly what they thought it was. Maybe they were just testing a new drill bit or something. [:D]
 
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