Ever wonder why your carry on gets searched

[divezonescuba]

I had a security agent in the Dominican Republic refuse to allow me to take my regulator set onboard in carry luggage. He did offer to let me check them in and go thru another three hours of security when my plane was leaving in an hour or just plain give him the regulators so I wouldn’t miss my flight.

He claimed not to speak English well and had no supervisor when I refused to do either of those options.

Only after making a huge scene in a very loud voice calling for supervisor who spoke English, did a supervisor come over and let me pass with my regset in hand.

First and only time in the Dominican Republic. Corruption triggers it in that country.

 

[Doc]

…they want to cut open my soft weights because they show up as black blanks on the machine...

The do technically contain “…or any components of ammunition…”

It’s bird shot.

 

[JohnN]

The do technically contain “…or any components of ammunition…”

It’s bird shot.

Actually old-school bird shot. The modern stuff is steel

 

[Jcp2]

Actually old-school bird shot. The modern stuff is steel

Or lead.

 

[divinh]

My scuba gear usually gets acknowledged as scuba gear, but I have one of those little handy credit card-sized tools, which is just a flat piece of metal with built-in ruler, bottle opener, and flathead. (It was convention swag.) It usually gets flagged, then cleared. I've since removed it from my carry-on.

 

[broncobowsher]

One of the guys I worked with (now retired) was coming back into the states and in line as customs (or immigration, doesn't matter really). And officer was walking up and down the line and stopped to talk. He was pulled out and had a special screening done. They detected high levels of radiation. Come to find out that a week or so before he had one of those medical exams that they give you a mild radioactive stuff to make things easier to see. There was still enough of that radiation in him to trip the alarms as he came back into the country. Strange part was he didn't have any issues leaving the country. this was probably 10 years ago.

 

[ThatDogDontHunt]

Big hunks of brass (regs) and lithium show up as a solid mass on the scanners.. they have to search to see what it is... as they can’t see ‘around’ it.

If you take them out and place them in the bin, the X-ray tech can see what they are visually to (usually) avoid a search.. or make it easier...

Lots of the connecting airport techs are pretty good at judging if your a diver or not before you get there to verify what it is..

_R

Years ago I got a personal tour of the "backroom" where TSA does baggage inspections. Part of the reason was because I was tired of having my bags unpacked to be inspected and then half-arsed repacked. As such, I was invited out by the TSA FSD of local airport for a tour and chat. I was asked to bring along a "problematic bag."

It was good exchange and even humorous when the problematic bag went through the scanner. They let me look at the screen but said they could not tell me why what being flagged via the color coding as it was secure information. I said, no problem and started pointing out everything and why it was colored accordingly. They looked surprised, then I told them my Ph.D. was in medical image analysis I developed algorithms to detect features in images so I knew exactly why thing were being highlighted.

That aside, one thing I did learn is to pack everything in a series of separate smaller bags and not to have anything loose in the main bag. That way when they inspect they will inspect a smaller bag, and (hopefully) repack it, before going to the next.

These 2 are why.

The "inspector" does not actually make any decisions. They do not need too understand what any of the objects in the xray are. The machine analyzes the xray and color codes stuff. The inspector simply reacts to the color coded areas of the xray. The do not "know" what is in your bag, just that part of the image is the wrong color.

If you have a solid blob the xray in that area is useless - so they want the solid blobs scanned all by themselves so they do not occlude other items. Too many layers of wires also causes problems.

That is about all my buddy at Smiths would say when I asked about the xray machine he programs...

His explanation corelates with my experiences when the xray inspector flags my carryon. The inspector does not know why or what. They have to open the bag and try to find something causing the machine flag. Worse case happens when they can not find what is causing the issue - then they generally resort to sending the contents through in ever smaller batches until the machine stops flagging.

The only intelligence is in the machine.

 

[Pressurehead]

I have been pulled aside so many times and checked most flights, I must look a bad dude.
A scan of my gear in Bucharest Romania had me in a room with my pants around my ankles arms in the air trying to explain I am no threat as a guy with three stripes who did the "full" search , a guy with four stripes came in and said [I think, in their lingo] 'send him on his way' with a pat on my back .
Almost missed my flight again [last on], my wife said [also on the flight] 'what's it with you?'
Been saved with no overseas flights with Covid the last 18 months , interstate is out as well for now.

 

[Nemrod]

I think we are talking about the scuba gear here..... Not that "other" stuff. or is that just me?

I was thinking of weird things like strobes and wires and double hose regulators, not sure what sort of "other" weird stuff you might be thinking on, !

James

 

[LarryG2]

Often questioned about gear, but it is far easier to explain regulators and other gear. I have had the security dogs and "residue checks" not to mention the onslaught of security, when I traveled with poker chips and unopened Blue Diamond Almonds