TSA finds 28 knives in passenger carry-on bag

The man tried to take 28 knives in his carry on. Photo / 123rf

A passenger was caught trying to bring 28 knives through a TSA checkpoint at Alaska’s King Salmon Airport.

Lead TSA Officer Cathy Stiles was the first to realise something was wrong when she saw the bag go through the X-ray machine.

“Toward the bottom (of the bag) was an area of concern,” said Stiles, who said the X-ray showed up very dark.

“However, I saw one small area that looked like it could be a pocket knife. I annotated the area and pulled the bag for search.”

From there, the bag was handed to TSA property search officer Oran Caudle, who asked the passenger if the bag contained anything pointed, fragile or sharp.

The man confirmed there was nothing sharp in his carry-on bag however, this was far from true.

After opening the bag, Caudle found, not one or two but 28 knives.

“As I opened the bag, I began to see several objects, little boxes, appearing from behind a canvas cover,” said Caudle.

“I carefully pulled out one box, which had a knife inside. I checked the next box, and it also had a knife inside. I began pulling out knife boxes and some knives that were not in boxes.”

When confronted with the knives, the passenger appeared unaware he could not carry them with him.

“That is my knife collection,” he said. “Can’t I take those with me on the plane?”

Since there was not enough time to move the knife collection to his checked bag, the man was forced to hand them over to TSA.

“I guess I’ll have to let them go,” he said.

After working with TSA for almost four years, Caudle said this event was one of the more memorable.

“This was one of the most unusual searches I had ever conducted,” he said. “I had never seen anything like this, and certainly not a situation in which the passenger admitted being aware of the items in their bag.”

Stiles, who was operating the X-ray at the time and joined TSA in December 2020, said it wasn’t too unusual considering their location, in Alaska.

“We have a lot of hunters, commercial fishermen, cannery workers and labourers who fly in and out on a regular basis, and they just forget they have that one pocket knife or Leatherman in the bottom of their bag,” she said.

“After I screened my last passenger, I went over to (Caudle) who had a pile of knives sitting on the table. He turned and looked at me as he pulled more out. I was shocked by the quantity.”

Before this, the most knives Caudle found in one carry-on was three. It wasn’t just the quantity that surprised Caudle but the passenger’s behaviour.

“I am still puzzled by him responding ‘no’ when I asked if there was anything sharp or pointed in his bag,” he said.

“By the passenger’s own admission, he knew he had his ‘knife collection’ with him and didn’t see a problem with that,” he said.

AKN TSA Manager Rebecca McKinley had also never seen a passenger try to carry so many knives onto a plane and commended Stiles and Caudle for “an outstanding job identifying and finding this huge knife catch.”

“(Officers) Stiles and Caudle excel at teamwork,” McKinley said.

“They take great pride in what they do. I couldn’t be prouder of (Officers) Cathy Stiles and Oran Caudle and Team AKN.”