A colleague of mine flew from our main office to the east coast to run a test. As part of the test, he needed a large battery to power some equipment. He had no problems taking the battery on the plane to his destination, but on the way back, the battery not only couldn’t be carried on, it was pulled off the plane when it was checked as the TSA wouldn’t let it fly. There are 2 issues here; one is that we can’t find any regulations prohibiting the battery from flying and second, why was it allowed one way, but not the other?
This kind of inconsistency between airports must drive people crazy. When I travel, I travel with the same set of “gear” and haven’t had a problem going through any airport (knock on wood). Now if I had to bring more and varied equipment on different types of trips, this would frustrate me to no end. Years ago when I worked for QUALCOMM, I travelled to a conference and had to take a box of cables with me. This was way before tightened security, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I got there early, had QUALCOMM stickers put on the non-descript box and had no problems getting through security. Now, if I did that today, would I get searched and extra scrutinized? I guess it would depend on the airport.
I’m so glad that all the money we’ve spent on protecting our airports by standardizing procedures has helped.