Per the Transportation Security Administration of the United States Department of Transportation, travelers are permitted to bring the following items onto aircraft:
- Pets (if permitted by airline; check with airline for procedures)
- Walking canes and umbrellas (once inspected to ensure prohibited items are not concealed)
- Braille note taker, slate and stylus, and augmentation devices
- Nail clippers with nail files attached
- Nail files
- Tweezers
- Safety razors (including disposable razors)
- Eyelash curlers
- Diabetes-related supplies/equipment (syringes, insulin, insulin pump, blood glucose meter, etc. Medication and professionally printed label identifying medication or manufacturer's name). Please make sure insulin (vials or outer box of individual doses), jet injectors, pens, infusers, and preloaded syringes are marked properly (professionally printed label identifying the medication or manufacturer's name or pharmaceutical label).
The following items will not be allowed through the security checkpoint. Please note that this list is not all-inclusive. In addition to items specifically listed here, other items that may be deemed to present a potential threat may also be prohibited.
Passengers should be aware that there are no provisions for returning banned items to them when they are left at the security checkpoint. In addition, those who attempt to bring banned items through the checkpoints are subject to civil penalties of up to $1,100 per violation in addition to criminal penalties.
The items most commonly left at the checkpoints include: scissors (of all types), pocket knives, corkscrews, and mace. Please be sure to leave these items at home or in your check-in luggage.
While the above items are strictly prohibited from being carried into the aircraft cabin, many may be transported in checked baggage with these important exceptions:
- Firearms and starter pistols may be transported in checked baggage so long as they are unloaded and declared to the airline at the ticket counter before you go to the screening checkpoint.
- Small arms ammunition for personal use may be carried in checked baggage but only if securely packed in fiber, wood or metal boxes, or other packaging specifically designed to carry small amounts of ammunition.
- One self-defense spray (pepper spray or mace) not exceeding 4 fl. oz. may be carried in a checked bag if it has a positive means to prevent accidental discharge.
- Compressed air guns, fire extinguishers, flare pistols, and gun lighters are regulated as hazardous materials and may only be transported as cargo on passenger planes under strict limitations in quantity and packaging.
- Other items listed above are entirely forbidden in air transportation. These include disabling chemicals or gases, dynamite, gunpowder, hand grenades, plastic explosives, road flares, and tear gas.
- Passengers should also note that there are many items not referred to here that are restricted or forbidden as hazardous materials.
For more information, you may also call the Hazardous Materials Information Center at 1-800-467-4922. Violations of the hazardous materials regulations may result in fines of up to $27,500 per violation, as well as criminal fines and/or jail.
- "Travelers & Consumers: Items Permitted in Aircraft Cabins,"
http://www.tsa.dot.gov/trav_consumers/permitted_items.shtm
- "Travelers & Consumers: Items Prohibited in Aircraft Cabins," http://www.tsa.dot.gov/trav_consumers/aircraft_prohibit.shtm