What you can take in carry-on luggage - and tips to make sure nothing is confiscated

Honey, Marmite and butter are the three most popular food items confiscated from Kiwis' hand luggage when they fly overseas.

After a Kiwi grandmother shared her story of being fined more than $3000 for a chicken sandwich she forgot was in her backpack when she arrived in Australia to visit family, Jane Phare tells of having soft cheese and a dip confiscated at Auckland Airport. She seeks advice for travelling Kiwis on what not to take in their hand luggage.

I can understand guns, hand grenades, knives and fireworks not being allowed on board a plane, but my camembert cheese? I watched in dismay as it was taken out of my hand luggage and set aside, with a shake of a head. So was the ripe blue, and a beetroot and feta dip.

I had just joined the Confiscation Club, that elite group of passengers who don’t read the Civil Aviation Authority website before packing their hand luggage - or checked-in suitcases for that matter - and get caught by security staff.

The biggest haul comes from Kiwis taking treats like butter, Marmite and honey to expat friends and rellies overseas, according to Karen Urwin, group manager operations with Aviation Security Services (AvSec). Her staff regularly confiscate “‘bucketloads” of the spreadable no-nos, she says.

And each year New Zealanders become the unwitting donors of wheelie bins full of pocketknives, tools and scissors that have been spotted in their hand luggage.

Pocket knives like this one are confiscated from hand luggage at New Zealand airports and donated to community organisations.

Urwin is astounded by some of the stories she hears from her airport security staff, like passengers about to board wearing belts with fake ammunition rounds attached as decoration. It hasn’t occurred to them that bullets might be a red flag for airport security.

“We had a guy turn up with a can of petrol that he had decanted from his rental car because he didn’t want to leave it behind,” she says.

Another packed a fun gift for a mate - a coffee grinder that looked like a hand grenade.

“You can imagine the chaos that that caused.”

AvSec staff have seen it all: Fireworks, chainsaws, flare guns and flares, and butane gas cylinders for camping stoves. And they find plenty of concealed weapons - knuckle dusters, flick knives, walking sticks and belts with knives hidden inside them, both in carry-on and checked-in luggage.

And then there was the suitcase containing what looked like a severed human leg being smuggled out of the country. Although it turned out to be a lifelike prosthetic medical training leg, it caused quite a stir at the airport.

“Let’s face it,” Urwin says. “Body parts do turn up in suitcases.”

She admits to once causing alarm at an airport before she started working for AvSec. Her sister had given her a wrapped gift, a cookie press that squirted out different-shaped biscuits.

“But on the x-ray it looked exactly like a firearm.”

Hard cheese will get through

I’d packed my pre-dinner nibbles in a chilly pack in my hand luggage so that it would be easy to show customs in Rarotonga after the flight. As it happened I had little left to show – just a small block of hard cheese and some crackers.

Soft cheeses are likely to be confiscated from hand luggage on international flights. Photo / Dean Purcell.

So why was camembert on the hit list, and not the cheddar? Urwin admits the possibility is a bit extreme but because some types of explosives are malleable, or spreadable, they could be moulded to look like a wrapped soft cheese. Basically, security staff are on the lookout for liquids, gels, aerosols or powders that can be disguised to look like innocuous items.

The other issue was the size. Liquids and gels are restricted to 100ml, roughly 100g in weight. If my camembert had weighed less than that, it would probably have been allowed through. If you can spread it, spray it or smear it, the 100ml rule applies.

So forget the large, near-empty tube of toothpaste with just enough left in it for the flight. It won’t make it on board. Similarly, if you’ve decanted that special hand cream from a large bottle into a smaller one, that will also go unless it’s in an approved 100ml travel bottle.

Urwin points out that Avsec staff, who are trying to get passengers through as quickly as possible, can’t be expected to measure or weigh every liquid or spreadable.

I petulantly thought that my unopened soft cheeses and dip would be divvied up at the end of each shift as a perk for security staff. But no. For health and safety reasons everything goes into landfill.

Urwin says wheelie bins full of confiscated items like pocketknives are donated to organisations like Boy Scouts, and scissors to daycare centres.

Eyebrow tweezers and small nail scissors will get through as long as the blade is no longer than 6cm. But hundreds of passengers don’t check.

Lithium batteries can catch fire

Airlines have become increasingly cautious about the dangers of fire caused by lithium batteries. There’s no point in buying a hoverboard or electric scooter as a gift for a favourite grandson. They won’t be allowed on board.

Urwin refers to some “spectacular” fires caused by lithium batteries and, she points out, that includes cellphones.

“There have been a number of evacuations from planes caused by cellphones bursting into flames.”

Flight attendants instruct passengers who have accidentally dropped their cellphone under a seat to leave it for an attendant. Photo / 123rf

That’s why flight attendants instruct passengers who have accidentally dropped their cellphone under a seat to leave it for an attendant to retrieve rather than risk damaging the battery with some impatient yanking.

Lithium batteries found in checked-in suitcases will be confiscated and destroyed. Spare lithium batteries can be carried in hand luggage but they need to be secured in their original packaging or with tape over the exposed terminals. Power banks, air pods and hearing-aid batteries must also be carried in hand luggage, rather than checked-in luggage.

Angry and abusive

Most people accept they’ve made a mistake and take an “oh, bugger” attitude when they have items taken off them, Urwin says. But there are plenty who don’t.

“Some people get really angry and unfortunately get quite abusive to our staff. Unfortunately yelling and screaming is not going to change matters.”

There’s no point in becoming irate, Urwin says. New Zealand airports have to abide by international aviation regulations otherwise airlines wouldn’t be allowed to fly here. And security officers have no leeway to make exceptions.

However, she says they will try to help out if the confiscated item is of sentimental value. They’ll allow a passenger to go back through security to call up a family member or friend to come and pick up Granddad’s antique pen knife that was at the bottom of their toilet bag.

For security reasons, most airports don’t have lockers but AvSec staff will often agree to hold on to a precious item until it can be picked up.

If in doubt about what’s allowed and what’s not, there is plenty of information on the CAA’s website.

Urwin has a final piece of advice for Kiwis travelling internationally and planning to catch connecting domestic flights in a foreign country. New Zealand’s domestic flight restrictions are relatively relaxed because the internal security risk is low. But not so in other countries.

Items like alcohol and perfume bought at the airport duty-free won’t be allowed on as hand luggage on connecting domestic flights overseas. If Kiwis don’t want to have their Chivas Regal whisky or Giorgio Armani perfume confiscated as they’re about to board a flight to Vegas, Urwin suggests they leave a few spare kilos of baggage allowance in their suitcases so they can repack before boarding the domestic flight.

Jane Phare is a senior Auckland-based features and investigations journalist, former assistant editor of the Herald and former editor of the Weekend Herald and Viva.