By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Some airline passengers have still not gotten the word about what they can and cannot take on planes. During the Thanksgiving weekend, security screeners seized 15,982 pocketknives, 98 box cutters, six guns and a brick.
Still, transportation officials said the chaos at airports predicted by many never occurred. Passengers waited less than 10 minutes on average at security checkpoints at the onset of the first holiday travel season since an all-federal work force took over screening.
Michael Wascom, spokesman for the Air Transport Association, a group representing the major airlines, said operations were generally smooth even with bad weather in some places.
“Passengers moved efficiently through the airports, and customer service standards were upheld,” Mr. Wascom said.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the government has tightened restrictions on what can be taken on board a plane.
Robert Johnson, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, said many holiday travelers were inexperienced fliers and did not realize they could not take knives, scissors, fireworks or ammunition onto planes.
If passengers try to do so, the prohibited items will be confiscated. The travelers could also be prosecuted, a decision made by law enforcement officials depending on the item and the circumstances.
From Tuesday to Sunday, six people who tried to carry guns onto planes were arrested: two at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport and one each at La Guardia Airport in New York, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport, Salt Lake City International Airport and Dulles International Airport outside Washington.
A man tried to carry a brick onto a plane at Reagan National Airport near Washington.
“I don’t know why he would carry a brick,” Mr. Johnson said.
The agency says that at the nation’s 38 busiest airports over the Thanksgiving holiday, 1,072 clubs or bats were confiscated, 3,242 banned tools and 2,384 flammable items, including a welding gun in Boise, Idaho.
A total of 20,581 sharp objects like scissors, ice picks and meat cleavers were also stopped at the checkpoints. Someone tried to bring a toy cannon made of live ammunition onto a plane at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.