Twice, once at O’Hare and once in Detroit, security at the airport has taken me aside after passing though the metal detectors, asking (asking?) if they could check my carryon. After wetting myself, I acquiesced, and the security person each time took a piece of fabric on a foot-long swab-holder and rubbed the handles and the feet of my suitcase. They then put the fabric into a large box, look at some spinning dials or something, and then let me go.
This seems fairly clever. If there was a bomb or drugs in my carryon, there would be decent odds that some residue would be on the suitcase, or on my hands hauling it. What are they checking for? How does the test work? What if I said “no thanks”?
I’ve had that happen to me the last two times I’ve gone to Tampa International…and once in Jacksonville International. I always suspected that it was testing for drug residue or the likes…not sure, though.
It is a random check that happened to me just today. They always tell me that they are checking for explosives. For some reason they suspect small carry-ons more than large ones.
This is a load off my mind because I was secretly that they were checking whether or not I washed my hands after using the bathroom; I’d hate to be told that I fit that particular profile on their watch lists.
How does the test work? It’s not really voluntary, is it?
The first time this happened to me, I had spent the previous day on a work-related visit to a research farm in Iowa, and as they swabbed the straps of my backpack, all I kept thinking was “ammonium nitrate fertilizer…” :eek: However, I came up “clean.”
While it technically may be voluntary, there is only one reason I can think of why you couldn’t wait 15 seconds for the check… and that’s you don’t want them to check it since they might find something bad.
Actually, although they do politely “ask” you if they can check your bag I think they can basically detain you if they suspect there might be a problem and refusing to let them test the bag would probably raise a red flag for security…
Someone needs to say “no thank you” and let was all know what happens.
The first time my backpack got swabbed, I asked the person what they were doing. You don’t have to be afraid to talk to them, and you’re well within your rights to ask what they’re doing to your personal property. Anyway, the woman who was doing the swabbing told me that she was checking for drug residue, not explosives. Was she lying, or do they check for both?
I ‘think’ that what your describing sounds like an ion mobility spectrometer type test. Anyone in the know about mass specs will more than likely have heard something about them, they use ion clusters (characteristic for each type of analyte) and a time of flight like measuring device (i.e accelerate up through a known potential, see how long they take to hit a detector, finding out their speed in the process and then working backwards to find what there mass is k.e. = 1/2mV^2 (also assuming all energy is converted to speed)
anyway back to the point you can use them to detect different explosives (TNT, nitrocellulose etc etc), drugs and even chemical weapons. mini ones were issued during the gulf war to act as detectors for chemical weapons in the atmosphere.
That has not personally happened to me, but I did see a passenger in line with me in Charlotte, that refused. She was detained and back-up was called in. I didn’t hang around to see what happened since I was late for my flight.
My understanding is that it is to test for explosives. (which would be far more dangerous to the other passengers than drugs!)