Surrendered items -- including a grenade-shaped bottle of hot sauce -- fill a table at Jacksonville International Airport on Tuesdasy, march 12, 2024. | Dan Scanlan, WJCT News 89.9
Published on March 12, 2024 at 4:24 pm
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The contraband ranges from a grenade-shaped bottle of hot sauce to a set of kitchen knives and a plethora of blades hidden inside keys, flashlights and even pens.
That’s not to mention the set of shock absorbers amid the toy guns, a pickaxe and switchblades.
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All are items passengers at Jacksonville International Airport surrendered in recent months, and now spring break and the Players Championship are hitting town, doubling the normal number of passengers.
The Transportation Security Administration is warning travelers to double-check what they pack in their pockets or carry-on luggage.
“Pay attention to what you are bringing with you,” TSA spokesman Mark Howell said Tuesday. “Whenever we have to go through the options of getting rid of a prohibited item with a passenger, that’s going to slow things down. We will have to effectively screen them a second time, like another person in line in front of you.”
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TSA Supervisor Alexander Vargas stood at a table full of knives, pepper spray, miniature Tasers and pens with hidden knives, plus prohibited sizes of everything from sunscreen to wine. Vargas said passengers brought most of those items by mistake.
“The ones that we do encounter that we consider artfully concealed — those are the ones that we deem to be intentional,” Vargas said. “Someone who is trying to conceal it on purpose, utilize different methods to conceal a prohibited item. And when we do encounter that, that’s when we do escalate a little more to the point of where we get law enforcement involved.”
Many surrendered items could have gone in checked luggage legally, or they could be taken back to the passenger’s car before boarding, Vargas said.
Surrendered items usually are boxed up and sent off to be auctioned, Howell said.
Crush of flyers
The spring break travel season will bring an average of 12,500 passengers a day at the airport, and sometimes as high as 13,500, TSA said. As Howell and Vargas spoke to reporters Tuesday, a heavy stream of passengers lined up behind them to go through TSA screening.
TSA projects it will get even busier in the next two weeks — an estimated 6% increase in flyers nationwide and 8% more at Jacksonville International.
Passengers need to focus on what they pack and carry before they hit the airport, TSA says.
Tips for travelers
TSA offered these tips:
- Start packing with an empty carry-on bag, then carefully pack to make sure nothing in there is prohibited. Any liquids, aerosols, gels, creams and pastes carried on board a plane must be 3.4 ounces or less. They have to go in one — and only one — quart-size sealable plastic bag.
- Unloaded firearms must be packed in a locked, hard-sided case in checked baggage only, and it must be declared to the airline. TSA agents in Jacksonville confiscated 74 guns last year and 10 so far this year.
- Check your children’s carry-on bags just in case a toy gun or pocket knife slipped in.
- Review TSA’s “What Can I Bring?” webpage.
- Get to the airport two hours ahead of flight time. Add extra time to find parking, as well as check a secured handgun or even a golf bag, since some Players Championship fans might want to play a round themselves.
“We recommend that you clean your golf clubs and equipment before you come to the airport. A lot of times those environmental things that get on your bags and shoes can alarm our technology,” Howell said.
Finally, passengers must have a valid ID like a driver’s license to board a commercial plane, TSA said.
