A few months back, I had taken a vacation to one of those wonderful warm Caribbean locations.  I’m not going to name names in order to give any bad guys reading this any ideas, but the island has a beautiful & new airport that has opened in the last couple of years.  It supposedly has all the security updates & screening of the most modern of airport facilities.  I was bound back to NYC on a totally packed American Airlines flight.  The unamed island airport, while new and modern, was packed with tourists bound for the world over.  We passed through airport security, took off our shoes, belts, emptied pockets and pulled the laptop out of its case.  I placed it & everything else into several plastic bins and walked on through.  My boyfriend at the time had his lighter confiscated.  Otherwise, it was uneventful.  Or was it? 

    Once in the air, I grabbed the laptop in its case from the over head bin.  Thinking I’d get some work done, compose a few posts, and generally organize my life, I opened the front pocket of the laptop case & searched for a device.  That’s when I felt something long, hard, cold and metallic.  This was no stubby Swiss Army Knife where you need the use both hands to get at the corkscrew, this was a 5″ switchblade knife with a good grip handle that I forgot to pack in my checked luggage.  You may be saying, so why does a lady need such a tool of destruction?  Well … I like it!  It is really cool, it has a closed lockback, partially serrated blade with ambidextrous thumb studs and a pocket clip.   I don’t break a nail when I open it.  It’s a great size and long enough to cut thick stuff like a hunk of cheese or a loaf of French bread.  Plus, I hope I never have to use it to defend myself, but it certainly gives me a secure feeling to have it on the bedside if you’re in doubt of your hotels’ security.  It’s an all purpose device and it can do oh so much more damage than merely open a box. 

    Needless to say, I quietly gasped when I saw it.  I held open the laptop case front pocket and told my boyfriend at that time to take a peak in. This knife clearly has a sillhouette that should have been hard to miss in the airport screening process. He turned white. Good thing we’re good guys, because you could have used this implement of destruction to cut down the door to the cock pit.  Or like an old fashioned movie, fling it into the back of an “unwanted”.  Did I report it later?  No.  I thought there might be some sort of ramification of having it on me well after the fact if I did.  I’m cleansing my soul by reporting this to all of you now.

    In a Nov. 2007 report by the US government on aviation security, many breaches in our TSA system were found.  Keeping bad people out of the air who have bad stuff is not an easy task.  I just wonder what my fate would have been if this switchblade knife had been found at the security line.  After all, I was a foreigner in their country.  I know a 65 year old guy in Dallas with a concealed gun permit who forgot his legal hand gun in his brief case and was arrested on the spot at DFW at TSA screening.  He’s been appearing in court now with lawmakers for months, incurring lots of attorney fees and ultimately paying some heavy fines.  If I recall, he was also grounded for a length of time and not allowed on any flight until it was cleared up.  Very unlucky when you must travel for business.  But, he’s lucky to not be serving time for this at this point.  He’s a good guy and this happened in his own country.  LUCKY me that I stumped that island’s TSA I guess.  But it makes me think, SCORE ONE for the bad guys, since it was so easy to do.