If You Plan To Fly Over The Holiday, Know What Not To Take

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INDIANAPOLIS – 500 weekend also marks the start of the busy summer travel season. Don’t make it busier by packing your carry-on with stuff you’re not allowed to have.

The Transportation Safety Administration seizes 100 pounds a week of knives, tools, and other items classified as potential weapons. Spokesman Mark Howell says that doesn’t even include the tons of liquids, from alcohol to toothpaste, which get flagged for going over the T-S-A’s three-ounce limit.

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For the 500, one common offender is souvenir bricks from the Brickyard. They’re heavy enough that the T-S-A considers them a potential bludgeon.

Technically, the T-S-A doesn’t confiscate items. You’re allowed to go back and check a bag instead of carrying it on, and the T-S-A has a supply of mailers to ship items to yourself. But Howell says most travelers don’t leave themselves enough time to do that, and those items have to be surrendered.

The agency expects 18-thousand people to fly out of Indianapolis on Memorial Day, a day after the 500. Howell says every pocketknife or over-sized shampoo bottle is the equivalent of an extra passenger in terms of making the security line longer.

Liquids are the most common prohibited item, but one passenger tried to board with a three-foot samurai sword in his bag. And Howell says the airport is averaging one seized gun every five days, up from once every nine days last year. He says novice travelers may not know the rules, while even experienced travelers may forget what they have.

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