Screener misses a can of pepper spray-goes off in the cabin while plane is in flight - FlyerTalk Forums (2024)

goalie

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Looks like someone will be paying a fine and someone will be sent for retaining...

Bolding mine:

https://abc7news.com/flight-to-hawai...cabin/4114705/

bitterproffit

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jkhuggins

Join Date: Nov 2008

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"Some

will be sent for retraining"? How, exactly? I find it extremely unlikely that video tape evidence will show a screener

finding a can of pepper spray.

There might ---

--- be a chance that video tape evidence might find the screener who screened the passenger that carried the can aboard the aircraft. But as we frequently point out in this forum, the passenger could just as easily have gotten that can from some other passenger after passing through screening, so the failure to discover the can on the passenger at the time of screening doesn't mean anything.

Last edited by jkhuggins; Sep 1, 2018 at 9:57 amReason: markup problems

goalie

Join Date: Feb 2004

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What we don't know is if the can of pepper spray was on the passenger's person or in their carry on bag when they cleared security or as you say, possibly given to the passenger in question by another passenger who had already cleared security but....

1. If the can of pepper spray was on the passenger's person* as they passed thru, the WTMD should have "beeped": WTMD fail
   
2. If the can of pepper spray was in the passenger's carry on bag* which then passed thru the x-ray machine-it should have been seen by the x-ray scanner operator: x-ray machine operator fail
   
3. If the can of pepper spray was given to the passenger in question by another passenger who had already cleared security, it's either 1 or 2 above

*as noted perviously, the passenger is a moron

chollie

Join Date: Sep 2006

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No.

There are millions of decent folks who fly every day - for the first time in their lives or the first time in many years. They don't watch the news or obsess about TSA - or even really know much about it. They know they're not terrorists, everyone they know knows they are not terrorists. They don't expect to show up at the airport and find that they automatically guilty of some nefarious intention - or of just not being a well-informed frequent flyer.

rolling_stone

Join Date: Jun 2015

Location: California

Posts: 50

A few observations about the story...

They use the word "can" when describe the pepper spray which leads us to believe it is something large and easy to see. Have you ever seen pepper spray containers? Most are very small and made of plastic so a metal detector is not going to alarm on it. Pepper spray does not come in a soft drink size can that would be easy to detect unless it was perhaps for law enforcement use.

it is also doubtful an agent on the x-ray will see it as out of the ordinary either. The article said the container was 1.5 ounce. Think about how little that is and the container it was in. It is way less than 3.4 ounces that agents are looking for. It would just blend right in with all the other small liquid containers. There is not much more training that can be done to identify something like that unless someone is suggesting that agents have to pull every bag with a LGA's in it and visually inspect the contents...and nobody wants that.

trooper

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Boggie Dog

Join Date: Mar 2008

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Seems not all checkpoints require removing the Freedom Baggy all the time so 1.5 oz could slip by easy enough as you noted.

der_saeufer

Join Date: Dec 2010

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Having worked behind an x-ray machine (but not for TSA), I can say with some certainty that the usual smallish pepper spray container doesn't look like anything special. It just doesn't look that different than any other metal spray bottle with a plastic top. Think travel size hair spray, shaving cream, deodorant, etc. The plastic spray apparatus is different because of the locking mechanism, but in a bag full of other stuff it's not at all difficult to see how it wouldn't stand out--especially to someone who's really looking for explosives, firearms, and sharp objects.

Having carried one in a messenger bag for a couple years and having "forgotten" it several times when my bag was x-rayed at various office buildings, I can also say that I'm not the only one that didn't think it was anything special.

FliesWay2Much

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As is the case with other TSA transgressions, we, the citizens, will pay dearly for this.

JamesBigglesworth

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ethernal

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I had a friend that kept a bottle of pepper spray on her keychain (probably of similar size - no more than one ounce or so). Flew pretty much every week and never got caught. She was never worried about it - said the peace of mind it gave her was worth whatever fine they would give her (if they didn't just tell her to throw it away). Given the amount of times that I and others fly with similar aerosol cans (shaving cream, etc) and how rarely those containers fail, we're probably talking about 1 in a million failure rate from the small change in pressurization. In other words, all this tells me is that people bring smaller containers of pepper spray on planes all the time. While it's unfortunate that this one failed and caused a flight to divert, it's really not anything to worry about in the grand scheme of things.

Unless you really think a terrorist is going to bring down a plane with a tiny can of pepper spray... but come on, really?

Boggie Dog

Join Date: Mar 2008

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If only TSA's failure rate was so good.

s0ssos

Join Date: Sep 2008

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Wow, going through Canadian airport security (domestic) I didn't know anybody could be more incompetent. They had my bag for secondary screening. She asked if I had any sharp or fragile objects (nope). Had already taken out laptop and camera. She had no idea what she was searching for. The liquid was too big? Nope, within size.
Never any issues in the US. Only had issues in Indonesia before because they didn't know what an electric toothbrush was (which makes sense, I don't think people there really use it).

The Canadians are definitely nicer but they seem even more incompetent than TSA.

catocony

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