What's a forgotten item a security has found in your bag?

Last month FCO - bottle of water I forgot about.

August MEL - roll of duct tape. Silly as I needed it for a legitimate medical purpose but obviously you can't take devices with possibility of restraint through, no idea why I didn't realise.

I do recall a passenger checking in a suitcase and then being called back down to security as it failed the screening on the way to the ramp. Turns out there was 24 cans of aerosol spray paint in the bag. Legitimate explanation, but was (rightly) refused on safety grounds.
 
I do recall a passenger checking in a suitcase and then being called back down to security as it failed the screening on the way to the ramp. Turns out there was 24 cans of aerosol spray paint in the bag. Legitimate explanation, but was (rightly) refused on safety grounds.

Legitimate? They're on the dangerous goods list. Made a false declaration and should have been charged and fined accordingly.
 
Legitimate? They're on the dangerous goods list. Made a false declaration and should have been charged and fined accordingly.
Legitimate as in, they weren't trying to smuggle something or bring anything down, it was an obvious case of lack of brain cells.
 
Read our AFF credit card guides and start earning more points now.

AFF Supporters can remove this and all advertisements

In Kyrgyzstan we were travelling with avalanche airbags- these have a tiny bit of explosive along with compressed gas cylinders. Huge debacle getting on board with them, which resulted in us cutting it quite close and an escort to the plane through the airport, security etc.

Anyway, one of my mates turns out to have a full size screwdriver in his bag. But before we can tell them to just chuck it, the airport offical escorting us talks to the screeners and they chuck it back in the bag and let us through.

I assume the conversation was something like “these crazy foreigners are already flying with explosives and gas tanks, if they’re taking down the plane the screwdriver doesn’t matter” 😂
We also travelled with avalanche airbags In our checked luggage but we did have the approval paperwork. Only one was picked up each time we went through customs. The best was when we were in transit in Hong Kong and my husband was called to the Cathay desk. He was taken down stairs to the runway where there was a truck with only his bag in it. Once they realised it wasn’t a bomb and they saw the paperwork, they made him unpack it. The Supervisor arrived. He took lots of photos and asked how it worked etc as they were going to use this as a training manual!
 
Yeah, we’ve always had approval. I went through enough random airports that we sold them as soon as electric came out.
Had hassles at Osaka, Denpasar, Bishkek, Dubai, Singapore off the top of my head. And of course couldn’t take them to the states at all, no matter what.

Now up to iteration 3 of the electrics and the alpride E2 is decent
 
I must admit to somewhat doubting the story as described … but my father in law reckoned he took a bowie-knife (?sp?) through security about a half-dozen times before realising mid-flight while rifling around in his bag looking for something else. So of course this 70yo bloke pulls it out & walks up to the FA and waves it around while handing it over to avoid the trouble he thought might occur if security were to find it …
 
I was carrying around a few plastic bags of individual protein powder as a test to see what would happen as it would look really suspicious.

Went all through asia and never got asked until arriving back in melbourne one of my bags had a a circular drill blade that i didnt even know was there, that was picked up by the scanner
 
Both are not 'forgotten' but unexpected.

1. I recently pulled aside for not taking my aerosol out of my bag at MEL - my Ventolin inhaler. I have never removed it from my bag in all the years that separating aerosols have been a requirement.

2. I was pulled aside because of the scissors in my bag and told to dispose of them. A small one in my travel sewing kit with blades as long as a button. I travelled with these for years and they had a problem with them at SYD.

sewing.jpg
 
O R Tambo Airport in J'burg, forgot I had a bottle of water and after going through security was handed it back and told to throw it out as should not have it.
 
Gatwick last year and had left my Swiss Army knife in my carry on. The guy was fantastic and I said if I get to Italy and can't open a bottle of wine because I don't have a corkscrew then you're in big trouble. He said it was only one of the knives the blade was too long so he offered to break it off for me which he did. I raised a glass to him when I got to Italy
 
Both are not 'forgotten' but unexpected.

1. I recently pulled aside for not taking my aerosol out of my bag at MEL - my Ventolin inhaler. I have never removed it from my bag in all the years that separating aerosols have been a requirement.

2. I was pulled aside because of the scissors in my bag and told to dispose of them. A small one in my travel sewing kit with blades as long as a button. I travelled with these for years and they had a problem with them at SYD.

View attachment 350687
Ditto re the inhaler
First time ever I had it taken out of my medicine bag at Manchester Airport abd told it was a pressurized device (which it is not). Anyway they hold all the aces - but he gave it back thankfully to continue as I was HLO.
As for the sewing kit I have never been able go make those itty bitty snippy things work - but again 🤷‍♀️
 
Still Little Miss then had a bottle of tomato sauce in her bag, found at security at CDG.

I had a huge brain fart at ATL earlier this year. I took nothing out of my carryon, as other conference attendees the day before commented about not needing to for their flights home (and we were all flying non-Delta domestic flights, so that means you usually use a particular screening point). Got pinged for the LAG bag or laptop first, then baggage rescanned.
Then the next thing was picked up iPad or Kindle or whatever.
After that, the security guy gave up. Whoops.
 
A slight tangent to the thread, but I forgot my whole bag after putting it on the conveyor…… I just walked off…… it wasn’t for about five minutes afterwards that I realised I had to pick it up after scanning…….. unfortunately for me I was also totally unaware of the requirements (1990 and it was my first flight by myself and first time security scanning existed for me). I had packed a very large “pig” knife and wrapped it in about 10kg of lead sinkers then taped everything together with duct tape - why? I was going fishing in NT and was re-distributing my large amount of weight and was adding protection to the large knife from cutting through the bag…… needless to say, this was during the first Gulf War and I had considerable amount of security pouring over the bag when I got back to it…… and I lost a great knife…… 10kg of lead was all good though 😀
 

Become an AFF member!

Join Australian Frequent Flyer (AFF) for free and unlock insider tips, exclusive deals, and global meetups with 65,000+ frequent flyers.

AFF members can also access our Frequent Flyer Training courses, and upgrade to Fast-track your way to expert traveller status and unlock even more exclusive discounts!

AFF forum abbreviations

Wondering about Y, J or any of the other abbreviations used on our forum?

Check out our guide to common AFF acronyms & abbreviations.
Back
Top