Baggage check security?

Last Wednesday I had to fly up to San Francisco to do a New Years show. Since I haven't flown for 4 years and I knew there was a high alert status and that I was bringing a bunch of electronics, wires, and batteries I decided that it was best to check my baggage in rather than have them freak out at the Xray machines.

Still I was under the impression that there would be some type of Xray even for checked baggage so I told them that I had a bunch of weird electronics and stuff and did they want to check it in case there was a problem. I certainly couldn't afford a problem as this was my costume and I would not be able to perform without it. "As long as it doesn't blow up." they told me. I explained again that I hadn't flown for 4 years and that I was sure that my gear could easily freak out security so I was just being sure in case I needed to show how it worked. So finally he opens my bag. "Yep. Looks pretty weird. Have a nice flight."

And that was it. Now I know if I had tried to carry it on it would have been all kinds of freaking out which is why I decided to check it. But still I figured there was at least some minimal checking. What would have been your reaction to find this in some baggage?

Don't get me wrong. I really didn't want to get hassled. On the other hand it seems that I could have checked almost anything and they wouldn't have bothered. And this was when they were at a very high security level.

Mutech

The checked bags get 'sniffed' by an Explosives Detection System (EDS) or an Explosives Trace Detection (ETD) machine.

If explosives (or fertilizer or gunpowder or....) gets detected TSA will open up your bag and inspect it. They will break the locks to do so if you locked your bag.

The carry-on bags get scanned by an X-ray machine.

yeah.. it's nice that you got thru hassle-free, but i mean, damn, it would've been THAT easy to carry a bomb on or something? sheesh.

[ QUOTE ]
ksbman said:
The checked bags get 'sniffed' by an Explosives Detection System (EDS) or an Explosives Trace Detection (ETD) machine.

If explosives (or fertilizer or gunpowder or....) gets detected TSA will open up your bag and inspect it. They will break the locks to do so if you locked your bag.

The carry-on bags get scanned by an X-ray machine.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do all airports have these expensive sniffers, and what good is the carry-on xray against C4?

Brightnorm

All major airports have them.

I'm not sure if all of the smaller airports have them yet. Eventually all airports that have scheduled airlines will have this level of security.

The X-ray Screeners are trained to look at shapes and densities to find unauthorized items. If you shaped C4 to look like a bunny it would show up as a dark (dense) bunny.

Whether it would get found depends on how well the Screener was trained and how well they do their job.

oh /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif i knew that.

I flew Burbank to Oakland so I don't think they had the sniffers in place. It just seemed like it would have been way too easy to get something bad through the system.

Mutech

My dad and I traveled to France last summer. On our way back, he forgot his knive in his bag and got detected and was searched for fifteen minutes. On the plane, I realised I also had a knive in my backpack which nobody noticed... I guess the security system isn't perfect yet.

just kinda goes to show you just how poor the security is don't it. I remember a day not so long after That Day and had to pick up a friend at the regonal airport, they still had cops stopping you as you drove into the airport, (we're not all that far from the Handford Nuke Reservation and the Umatilla Chem Storage/disposal facility) I had a full 5 gallon gas can and a (empty) rifle case in the trunk, they checked the trunk, asked me "is that gas?" I said Yup, they just waved me to park right in front of the terminal (handcap tag), never asked about the rifle case.

I wonder if thats why thefts from bagage have gone up since they improved security......