Airline Security Screening

[masterdrago]

I'll be flying to Alaska when we take our cruise. I've not flown since July '91 for the Solar eclipse in Baja. I remember putting my new film rolls inside a lead shielded pouch to force the security people to inspect by hand. I was just wondering, since I'll be carrying a backpack of photo gear, will the machines have any detrimental effect on gear? I will also carry-on all my Lithium batteries as indicated at the Alaska Air web page - do not put in checked luggage. Joy will have a pack with a lot of gizmos - small tripods, clamps, slide & stuff for the GoPro. Do others get a lot of flack from security when carrying on their ton of gear?

[pierces]

I'm kind of on the other end of that scale having flown an awful lot in the last 20 years. In all those flights I've been pulled aside maybe 10 times (only once in The last 5 years) for them to do a bomb swab on my phone. No big deal. Extra 5 minutes. 

 

As for worrying about x-ray machines harming any of your digital equipment or memory cards, I did some pretty thorough research on this and the amount of radiation necessary to do that would have everybody in the TSA glowing in the dark.

 

Set your worries aside and have a wonderful trip.

 

Dave

Edited March 13, 2019 by pierces

[masterdrago]

I thought as much but wanted to get experience from the more knowledgeable folks. Thank you.

[peety3]

I had a series of flights where I "always" got picked for extra screening, but that streak has now broken so maybe it really was semi-random. Anything's possible with the screening. On our honeymoon cruise in 2010, my wife and I had loosely identical camera backpacks, but only mine got picked for extra screening. The agent made it a point to remove the caps on all the lenses and look through them, EXCEPT the rented 500mm f/4 in the middle of the bag. Makes no sense to me, but I just shrugged and on we went.

 

Coil your cords neatly, stack things logically, and generally just make it easy for the screener to discern what you have. I think plastic shows up as one color, metal shows up as another color, etc.  I've been told that the batteries for my Canon 1Dx cameras look like they've got 3 sharp points, but when the guy looked at the battery itself he almost doubted that he pulled the right thing because it looks different in-person than it does on-screen.

[masterdrago]

Thanks peety3. I'm going to have the pack well organized (read filled to the hilt). All the batteries have either plastic cap & rubber bands or in separate plastic snap closure containers. All my cords will be in a fanny pack neatly rolled w/velcro wraps along with a couple of chargers & external HDD - things I cannot or don't want to put in checked bags. I'm sure the bags will be scrutinized closely because of all the cables and electronics. It's just been 27 years since I've flown carrying so much gear.

[Re-tired]

My experience has been that you can ask them to do your photo gear by hand, with no x-ray.  I travel with film and have had only one issue with the TSA.  Unfortunately it was at Fairbanks airport and happened at 4am.  The TSA fellow emptied my entire photo backpack onto a table and individually x-rayed and bomb scanned every body, lens, and filter. After nearly 40 minutes he lectured me on using camera gear that was too dense for the TSA and told me that if it had been busy I would have missed my 6am flight.  Despite this one guy, I have always found that a smile and cooperative attitude make screening gear a piece of cake.  I did finally break down and buy digital gear for trips involving flying.

[Heidi13]

Similar to Dave, in past 10 years we have flown extensively, including a round the world flights. I pack all cables in a single pack and keep batteries in 1 compartment of the backpack, otherwise everything else going in where it sits best.

 

I believe my backpack has been selected for further screening only once or twice.

 

Enjoy your flights & cruise.