TSA: Fliers get more savvy on what to carry

WASHINGTON -- Airline passengers may get more frustrated by increasing delays, but they're also getting smarter, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

Passengers bring fewer guns, knives, machetes, chain saws and other dangerous items to airport security checkpoints, the TSA says.

"People are understanding it better," TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said.

TSA screeners spend less time pulling pocket knives out of passengers' carry-on bags, Howe said. They're more focused on looking for explosives, detonators and other bomb parts that are considered the biggest threat to airplanes.

"It allows us to focus on things of real concern," said A.J. Castilla, a screener at Boston's Logan International Airport.

TSA screeners intercepted 6.4 million prohibited items from 760 million U.S. air travelers in 2007.

That's a steep drop from 2005, when 16 million items were taken at the nation's 800 airport checkpoints, TSA figures show.

Most of the decline followed two policies implemented by TSA Administrator Kip Hawley to help screeners focus on finding bombs. In late 2005, passengers were allowed to start carrying small scissors and blunt tools such as pliers. In August, the TSA lifted a ban on carrying lighters in airplane cabins.

Screeners confiscated 11.6 million lighters in 2006 and 5 million of them in the first seven months of 2007.

Allowing lighters "has to have helped speed up the process of going through the security checkpoint," said David Castelveter of the Air Transport Association, which represents major U.S. airlines.

Most intercepted items are pocket or hunting knives — about 3,000 a day — that travelers forget to take out of their bags or pockets or don't realize are barred, Howe said.

Screeners also have found a baby alligator strapped under a traveler's pants, a boa constrictor coiled in someone's shoe going through an X-ray machine and numerous tarantulas. The animals were pets that owners wanted to carry on board.

Travelers have hidden knives in canes, baby carriages and wheelchairs — not with the intent of hijacking an airplane but simply to get a valuable object through security. In some cases, the items are souvenirs bought at overseas ports.