Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Security Continues to Discover Prohibited Items.

By Bryon Okada, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Mar. 12--More than 20,000 items, ranging from guns and explosives to box cutters and fireworks, have been confiscated at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport security checkpoints since July 1.

Nationally, the Transportation Security Administration reports it has seized 4.8 million prohibited items at airports -- including 1,101 firearms -- since February 2002.

"The number of items that we've intercepted isn't important. What's important is, none of these items got onto an airplane," TSA spokesman Ed Martelle said.

The TSA and the aviation industry have made a concerted effort to educate the public about items banned from flights after 9-11, but statistics show that passengers still routinely attempt to bring such items through security checkpoints at the nation's 429 commercial airports.

Aside from firearms, the TSA has found 1.4 million knives, 2.4 million other sharp objects including scissors, 39,842 box cutters, 125,273 incendiary or flammable objects, and 15,666 clubs.

"Although intercepting most of those items resulted from inadvertent violations by passengers, keeping dangerous items off flights is a top priority, and we must err on the side of caution," TSA chief James Loy said.

The TSA assumed responsibility for airport security on Feb. 17, 2002. After a slow start, the first TSA screeners began working by the end of April, and screening was fully federalized by the Nov.19, 2002, deadline set by Congress.

Previously, most airlines had contracted screening work to private companies, and security was often considered shoddy. While the quality of screening is still criticized in some circles, and the more cumbersome process irks passengers, the TSA has steadily worked to improve customer service in the past six months.

When banned items are intercepted, passengers have several options.

They can take the items back to their vehicles, give them to someone they know who is not traveling, mail them home, store them in checked baggage or abandon them at the checkpoint, Martelle said.

"You tell us what you want to do with it," he said.

To take advantage of an established method of disposing of seized items, the TSA follows General Service Administration regulations, TSA spokesman Brian Turmail said.

In most cases, metal items are sent to a scrap facility, Turmail said. But some airports have arrangements with state governments to dispose of the items in other ways. Some Bay Area airports in California have sold items through a state agency via the Internet.

ONLINE: www.tsatraveltips.us Bryon Okada, (817) 685-3853 okada@star-telegram.com

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(c) 2003, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.