Despite top notch security at airports and the presence of rigorous checkpoint procedures that hover over the line of decency, people still attempt to sneak illegal goods and weapons onto airplanes. The TSA proves as much with their annual year in review that shows all the things they’ve captured, ranging from the frightening to the odd. From TSA Blog:
TSA had a busy year in 2014, screening more than 653 million passengers in 2014 (about 1.8 million per day), which is 14.8 million more passengers than last year.
2,212 firearms were discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints across the country, averaging more than six firearms per day. Of those, 2,212 (83 percent) were loaded. Firearms were intercepted at a total of 224 airports; 19 more airports than last year.
There was a 22 percent increase in firearm discoveries from last year’s total of 1,813.
The number of people attempting to take loaded weapons onto planes just boggles my mind, especially because the number went up. But even scarier is the number of highly explosive and illegal items that people attempt to bring on board. This includes a Mk. 2 grenade, several improvised explosives, other things that caused the FBI to act.
Aside from the frightening things, there were also a lot of odd bits thrown in to show how crafty or dumb people can be when traveling. Novelty alarm clocks and trinkets shaped like bombs or replica props and knifes are prominent here, including a Batarang. My favorite, though, is the unloaded cannon barrel that was discovered in a checked back in Hawaii:
There’s also plenty of smuggling going on. People will try anything to move drugs it seems, be it stuffing pounds of cocaine into raw meat, cutting out the insides of a book to hide bags of pills, or even just packing the things normally and attempting to check them. Weapons get smuggled too, like this knife that someone tried to hide in an enchilada:
This is why I hate to fly. Not out of fear and possible death, but because things like this force it to be the greatest of hassles. Can’t even take an enchilada onto a plane!