Holiday Travel Tips from the TSA

Every year, the TSA provides a number of holiday tips for travelers, and this year there are a number of recent changes that will be of particular interest to families traveling with either young children or older relatives.

Shoe removal for younger and older passengers
Children who are 12 or younger, and adults who are 75 or older are no longer required to routinely remove their shoes. However, shoe removal may be required if a passenger is selected for additional screening.

Revised screening procedures for younger and older passengers
The TSA has made unspecified modifications to screening procedures for children who are 12 or younger, and adults who are 75 or older. These changes will reduce, but not eliminate, the pat-downs that happen after a passenger causes an alarm with the metal detectors or full-body scanners used by the TSA.

Some snow globes are now allowed
For quite some time, all snow globes were banned from the passenger cabin and from carry-on baggage. The TSA has relaxed those rules, allowing snow globes containing less than 3.4 ounces (100 ml) of liquid in your carry-on bags. Snow globes typically don't come with volume indicators, and the TSA suggests that globes up to about the size of a tennis ball will be acceptable.

TSA number for passengers with special needs
Travelers with questions about screening policies can call TSA Cares at 1-855-787-2227 to have their questions answered about what to expect at the security checkpoint. If you or someone who is traveling with you has a disability or medical condition that may cause a problem during screening, a TSA Cares a representative will answer your questions and can also provide assistance that is relevant to the passenger’s specific disability or medical condition.

How to fly with gifts
Some TSA regulations have not changed. The TSA has to be able to inspect any gift or package, whether in checked or carry-on bags, so if you have any gifts in your luggage, you should either wrap them after your arrival, or wrap them in such a way that they can be easily opened and inspected.

Additional Resources
AirSafe.com provides extensive travel advice resources, with information that is useful at any time of the year. Some of those resources are on the following pages:
Baggage.AirSafe.com - Checked and carry-on baggage advice
Security.AirSafe.com - Airport security basics
TSA holiday travel checklist

AirSafe.com Travel Books
AirSafe.com has published a number of guides filled with air travel advice, including a guide on baggage and security, and another on how to make complaints. If you subscribe to the AirSafe.com mailing list at subscribe.airsafe.com, you can download free PDF versions of these books, as well as buy ebook versions of the guides. If you sign up today, you will be notified when the newest guide for traveling with families comes out later this month.

How to prevent thefts by TSA employees when you fly

Several recent media reports highlighted a number of alleged and admitted thefts by TSA employees, and these stories serve as a reminder to passengers that while most TSA employees are honest and fully dedicated to protecting the public, a rare few will steal from passengers.

TSA employee sells stolen items on craigslist
A January 20, 2012 Miami Herald story described the arrest of a TSA employee who allegedly stole items from checked luggage, smuggled them out using a hidden pocket added to his TSA uniform jacket, and sold several items, including at least one iPad, on craigslist. This scheme reportedly had been going on for about three years. This TSA employee's wife was also charged.

How to prevent this from happening
Do not pack expensive and easy to sell valuable items such as laptops, money, or jewelry in your checked bag. On US flights, checked baggage must either be left unlocked, or use approved locks that can be opened by the TSA, so that the TSA can inspect checked luggage. This same advice would apply to a couple who had $500 stolen from their checked bag in December 2011 at the Punta Gorda, FL airport, though it is not clear if a TSA employee was involved in that theft.

Laptops stolen from screening area by TSA employee
A New York Post story reported a January 10, 2012 incident where a college student who forgot his laptop in a screening area at New York's LaGuardia Airport and had the laptop allegedly stolen by a TSA screener. The now-fired TSA employee was reportedly seen seen on a surveillance video taking the laptop and later admitted to the theft when confronted by a TSA supervisor.

Last October, another former TSA employee was convicted of stealing a laptop left at the screening area at the Memphis airport. Like the LaGuardia theft, this one was aslo caught on surveillance video.

How many TSA employees are theives?
A May 2011 New York Press stated that about 500 TSA employees had been fired or suspended because of thefts from passenger luggage. A February 2008 blog post on the TSA web site stated that the TSA had fired or sought prosecution for 200 TSA employees accused of theft. Some of those theft victims were other TSA employees. This means that on average, about 50 thieves had been discovered within the TSA each year.

How to prevent this from happening
If you travel with a laptop, make sure that you retrieve it after you pass through the TSA screening area. There are several things that you can do, including having some kind of reminder that you packed a laptop. For example, you can open up your backpack or laptop bag so that it is clear that something should be put back into it.

If you travel in a group, have the first person to make it through screening make sure that everyone's valuables are accounted for. Also, TSA lets you keep iPads, Kindles, and smaller notebook computers like the 11-inch MacBookAir in your carry-on bag when you go through screening.

Laptops are not the only things stolen
Last July, the the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that a former TSA employee at the Ft. Lauderdale airport admitted to taking a passenger's $450 pen. According to a statement by the former employee, the theft didn't happen at the screening area, but after the pen was set aside by the TSA, presumably as an item that was headed to the TSA's lost and found department.

Change the TSA can believe in
Sometimes the money left by passengers as they go through TSA screening isn't stolen, because the TSA can legally keep it. According to a December 2011 Los Angeles Times article, loose change left behind by passengers can be kept by the TSA and used to help fund the agency's operations. In the 2010 fiscal year, this spare change added up to more than $375,000.

What can you do to prevent theft?
While passengers can't do anything to prevent a rogue TSA employee from stealing from you, there is quite a bit that you can do to prevent thefts from happening in the first place. For more details, download out the AirSafe.com Baggage and Security Guide, which includes a number of articles on how you can pack your carry on or checked bag so that you reduce or eliminate the chance that you will be a victim of theft the next time you fly (available as a PDF file, or as an ebook for our iPad or Kindle). You can find similar advice at the baggage resources page at AirSafe.com

Revised AirSafe.com Baggage and Security Guide Published

A revised and greatly expanded version of one of AirSafe.com's most popular downloads, the AirSafe.com Baggage and Security Guide, has just been released. Bringing together some of the most popular content from the AirSafe.com network of web sites, podcasts, and published articles, this book provides airline passengers with advice on how to deal with many common problems they may face when it comes to dealing with baggage problems, airport security issues, fear of flying, and travel with children.

Multiple versions available
The original download was available only as a PDF file. The revised version is available as a PDF as well, but also in MOBI format (used on Kindles), and EPUB format (used with iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Nook). If you want to use different formats on different devices, please feel to download different versions of this book at http://www.airsafenews.com/p/downloads.html. You can put different formats on different devices so you can try them out to find out what works best for you.

Download MOBI
Download EPUB
Download PDF

Since 1996, AirSafe.com has provided the public with insights and advice about a wide range of airline topics on its web sites, blogs, podcasts, and downloadable documents, and many of the most popular topics are included in this ebook.
This ebook puts a lot of useful information in one convenient place. Combining information from the AirSafe.com network of web sites, this book covers the following areas:

• Things you should not bring on board
  
• Advice for checked and carry-on baggage
  
• Dealing with lost or delayed luggage
  
• Travel with children or pets
  
• Security and identification requirements
  
• Advice for special travel situations
  
• How to complain about your treatment
  
• Fear of flying information and solutions

Getting the ebook version of this Guide

Get a Kindle reader for your computer or smartphone
If you don’t have a Kindle, but want to download and use the Kindle version of the AirSafe.com Baggage and Security Guide, please visit AirSafe-Media.com to find out that describes how to read Kindle books without buying a Kindle.

How to Fly with a Sex Toy

Last month, writer and attorney Jill Filipovic was on an international flight from Newark, NJ to Dublin, Ireland, and upon arrival found in her checked bag a printed advisory from the TSA stating that her bag had been opened and inspected by the TSA. In the margin of the note, a TSA screener added an extra message saying "Get your freak on girl." The checked bag had contained a sex toy, and presumably the message was related to the presence of that device.


The extra inspection of a checked bag was a normal TSA procedure. The additional comments were not part of a normal procedure, and TSA representative Kawika Riley later apologized for that screener's behavior and described it as "highly inappropriate and unprofessional." That TSA screener was later fired.

Issues brought up by this incident
This incident brings up two important issues for passengers. First, the legal rights passengers have when it comes to traveling with sex toys, and second, how passengers can travel safely travel with these items.

What is a sex toy?
A sex toy is an object or device that is primarily used to enhance or facilitate sexual pleasure. Sex toys include things like dildos and vibrators, and can be made from a variety of materials, including glass, wood, plastic, silicone, or latex. While some sex toys are designed to resemble male or female human genitals, many are not. Also, while many other common items may have a secondary use as a sex toy, this article is focused on those items that have been designed to be used primarily as a sex toy.

What are the laws or rules concerning air travel with sex toys?
The laws, rules, and regulations concerning travel with sex toys depend on where you travel. In general, when you travel domestically within a country, you should observe the appropriate laws and regulations of that country. When you travel between countries, you have to consider the laws of the country you are traveling from, the country you are traveling to, and any country you may be passing through on the way to your destination.

In the US, when it comes to flying on airliners or going through TSA security, the only limits that matter are the normal limits on hazardous or banned items. While there may be local or state laws restricting the possession of sex toys, there are no federal restrictions on ownership. If you review AirSafe.com's page on prohibited and restricted items, you will see that the TSA would likely not have a reason to ban most sex toys.

Tips for traveling with sex toys
There are a number of common sense things that you can do to protect your sex toys and to limit the likelihood that the TSA will cause you any embarrassment or excessive delays:

• Tell the truth: If a TSA screener asks you what is in your baggage just say what it is.
  
• Remove batteries: This suggestion applies to any battery-powered item in your baggage that won't be used in flight.
  
  
• Put your items in separate clear plastic bags: Keeping items in Ziploc type bags keeps them from being contaminated by handling by TSA screeners.
  
  
• Don't pack banned items: Most sharp items, and liquid filled or gel filled items are typically banned from carry on baggage, but can be packed in checked luggage.

Complaining about your treatment
Although traveling with sex toys is completely legal in the US, you may still encounter TSA officials whose conduct toward you may be rude or unprofessional. If this happens at a security screening area, you should immediately request to see a supervisor to discuss the matter. You also have several options for submitting a formal complaint. You could email the TSA’s Contact Center at: TSA-ContactCenter@dhs.gov, or if you believe you have been the target of discriminatory conduct you contact the TSA Office of Civil Rights and Liberties.

For detailed advice on how to complain about your treatment, you may want to review AirSafe.com's complaint resources at http://www.airsafe.com/complain/complain.htm

Resources
Listen to the podcast episode
Get the AirSafe.com Baggage and Security Guide

CBS Radio Interview about Suspicious Passengers

Dr. Curtis was interviewed by CBS Radio News about the August 2010 detention of two passengers in Amsterdam on suspicion of being involved in some kind of terror related event. The passengers were later released because they had done nothing wrong.

On August 30th, 2010, two men, Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al-Soofi and Hezam al-Murisi, who were both on their way to Yemen from the US, were arrested in Amsterdam after they had arrived on a flight from Chicago. They were arrested because they were suspected to be part of some kind of terror related activity, perhaps a dry run for an attempted bombing of an aircraft.

Al-Soofi had raised suspicion earlier in the day prior to his flight from Birmingham, Alabama to Chicago. After being chosen for additional screening, authorities found that he was carrying $7,000 in cash, and in his checked luggage were a cell phone taped to a small bottle, multiple cell phones and watches taped together, a knife, and a box cutter. Al-Soofi had violated no laws or regulations, so he was allowed to continue.

Later in Chicago, he had changed his flight, and his checked bags ended up going on a different flight. Coincidentally, Hezam al-Murisi, who also changed his flight to to one carrying Al-Soofi, also had his bags going on a different flight. US authorities asked Dutch authorities to detain the men, and they were both arrested after arriving in Amsterdam.

The CBS interview covered several subjects including whether the behavior of these passengers should have aroused suspicions. At the time of the interview, early reports suggested that they were traveling together. In fact, while the two were on the same flight out of Chicago, they did not know each other and were traveling independently, with only Al-Soofi starting his trip in Birmingham.

The Dutch authorities soon released both men, and dropped all charges. In short, although what the two men did during their trip looked unusual or even suspicious, they had done nothing wrong, and had broken no law or violated any regulation. The lesson to take away from this episode is that the US authorities, including TSA and Homeland Security, may be inclined to take all kinds of precautionary actions, including detaining passengers, if they suspect that someone is attempting to bring harm to an airplane flight.

Should passengers change their behavior to keep from being hassled? According to Dr. Curtis, that is a personal decision best left to individual passengers. In his opinion, you're free to act as suspicious as you want, just keep in mind that the price of freedom is an increased chance of being hassled or even detained.

Listen to the interview (10:19)

Related AirSafeNews.com Articles
AirSafeNews.com article on the attempted bombing
Description of four key US terrorist and TSA security databases
BBC interview with AirSafeNews.com's Dr. Todd Curtis

Phoenix area couple accused of stealing more than 1,000 airline bags - How to protect your baggage

On Monday November 1st, police arrested a Phoenix-area couple who were accused of stealing up to 1,000 bags and other items from the baggage claim areas of Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport. The arrests came three weeks after police first observed suspicious behavior near one of the airport's luggage carousels, when one of those who was arrested this week was seen parking his car, taking a piece of luggage from one of the baggage claim carousels, and getting back into his car. Police began conducting surveillance on him after he was arrested on a theft charge and released. A police review of airport surveillance tapes revealed that he may have entered the terminal at least 64 times in the previous few months, but had not taken a flight from that airport in at least a year.

Getting the stolen items back to their rightful owner may be difficult because the suspects stripped off all identifying tags. The suspects may have also sold some of the items at garage sales and swap meets. Police said people who believe they may be victims should call 602-495-7808.

This event was noteworthy only because of the scale of the thefts. The risks that passengers face from baggage theft are not unique to Phoenix. Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport is like many airports in the US and around the world in that once your bags arrive at the baggage carousel, there are no airline or airport employees who check to see if baggage is going to the rightful owner.

Reducing Your Risks
While every passenger is at risk of having a checked bag lost or stolen, There are a number of things that every passenger should do to keep their checked bags from being stolen or to minimize the impact of a lost bag. AirSafe.com's Top Ten Baggage Tips page has a number of suggestions, including:

• Travel with only carry-on luggage
  
• Put your contact information inside and outside every checked bag
  
• Immediately report the loss of checked luggage
  
• Don't pack valuable items in checked luggage

The kinds of things you should not put in checked bags include medicine, computers, electronic files, legal documents; credit cards, checks, or other financial documents; cash, jewelry, and items of great sentimental value.

Police reported that when they were searching the home of the arrested couple, one of those arrested was attempting to destroy a number of items, including passports, credit cards, and identification cards.

If you plan on avoiding checked baggage problems by taking carry-ons, AirSafe.com has additional advice about carry-on baggage, such as checking with the airline ahead of time to find out what their policy and limitations are for bags in the cabin. Even with carry-ons, you should make plans to check that bag. On some smaller aircraft and on very crowded flights, there may not be room for your bag and you may have to check the bag at the last minute. You should prepare for this by keeping valuable items in a smaller bag or container that you can take out of the carry-on and keep with you on the plane.

Compensation for Lost Bags
Should any of your luggage be lost, delayed, stolen, or damaged, you will very likely be eligible for some kind of compensation from the airline or even the airport, but you must act immediately after you find that your bags are missing. AirSafe.com also provides advice for how to go about the compensation process.

Related Resources
Hazardous Materials and Prohibited Items

Infomercial Celebrity Billy Mays Dies After Flight

Television infomercial celebrity Billy Mays died in his sleep less than a day after he was involved in a landing incident where he was struck in the head by one or more falling objects. US Airways Flight 1241, a 737-400, departed from Philadelphia, PA just after noon on June 27, 2009 on a nonstop flight to Tampa, FL.

The aircraft experienced a hard landing, which ruptured the two nose wheel tires. The aircraft remained on the runway and the 138 passengers and five crew members, none of whom at the time appeared to be seriously injured, were taken to the terminal. Billy Mays was interviewed by a reporter from WTVT television in Tampa shortly after the incident and stated that he had been hit on the head by something falling from the ceiling.

Billy Mays had returned to Tampa on Saturday in order to undergo hip surgery the following Monday. According to his family, he had no other significant medical conditions at the time of his death. Tampa police reported that Mays wasn't feeling well the evening of the landing incident, and he went to bed at about 10 pm. He was found dead by his wife at about 7:45 the following morning.
Listen to the 911 Call from the Home of Billy Mays (2:25)
Source: Tampa Fire Rescue

So far, a direct connection between the head strike on Billy Mays during the hard landing and his subsequent death has been neither ruled in or ruled out by local authorities. Although Mays reported that he was struck in the head, neither he or the Tampa police could confirm that he was struck by luggage. Local authorities will conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death, and the results may be available before the end of June.

If the authorities determine that Mays's death was not connected to the landing incident, then the incident will be considered minor and would likely not end up in the online incident and accident databases of the FAA or NTSB. If the death is determined to be associated with the hard landing, then this would be considered a fatal accident by the NTSB, but would not likely result in a major investigation.

The most recent significant safety event for US Airways was the ditching of an A320 in the Hudson River last January. The last fatal crash for US Airways involved a regional aircraft in Charlotte, NC in January 2003. That crash killed both pilots and all 19 passengers. The most recent fatal event involving a 737-400 was a Garuda Indonesia Airways crash in 2007.

Dangers from falling luggage have long been recognized by the airline industry. In 1998, the Flight Safety Foundation published the results of a study that estimated that worldwide, there were about 10,000 injuries every year involving falling baggage. The same study looked at 397 cases at a major US airline where a person was struck by falling luggage, and 30 percent of those strikes resulted in bruises or lacerations.

For more information on how to protect yourself from threats from falling luggage due to hard landings and in-flight turbulence, please visit turbulence.airsafe.org.

Resources
Listen to the Podcast About This Event (3:00)
Plane Crashes and Significant Events for US Airways
Plane Crashes and Significant Events for the 737

Update 29 June 2009
Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Vernard Adams stated that preliminary results from the autopsy of Billy Mays indicates that he had hypertensive heart disease. He also said that Mays was taking the prescription painkillers Tramadol and hydrocodone for hip pain, and that pill counts indicate that Mays had been taking the correct amount of the drugs. Initial tests showed no evidence of head trauma. Hillsborough County includes the city of Tampa.