"Passengers lose their booze as TSA alcohol rules are ignored"

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Passengers lose their booze as TSA alcohol rules are ignored 
By Ken Kaye
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel


Every day, the Transportation Security Administration stops about 150
bottles of rum, scotch and other kinds of liquor from being carried onto
flights departing from South Florida's three major airports.

Then all those spirits, federally classified as low-level hazardous
material, are destroyed, be they cheap wine or fine cognac.

As much as $200,000 worth of booze each month may be being poured down the
drain -- or incinerated into smoke -- because not all passengers observe the
TSA rule limiting carry-on containers to 3 ounces of liquid. And that
happens not just in South Florida, but nationwide, as well. Because of its
large number of cruise and international passengers passing through
duty-free shops, each month Miami International sees more than 41/2 tons of
alcoholic beverages, or more than 4,000 bottles, blocked at its checkpoints,
among the highest total for any airport in the nation.

"It varies month to month. But it has steadily increased," said Rick Thomas,
TSA security director at MIA.

The problem, he said, is that finding and removing the liquor from carry-ons
creates delays and longer lines.

"And if we have to get into verbal discussion with a passenger, who doesn't
understand the policy, that slows down the process even more," he said.

At both Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and Palm Beach International airports, one
to two bottles per day are the usual catch, TSA officials said.

The 3-ounce restriction was imposed last August, after authorities said they
thwarted a terrorist plot to blow up 10 airliners flying from London to the
United States with liquid explosives disguised as beverages and other common
products.

Since then, most of the intercepted alcohol has been purchased on cruise
ships, in Caribbean liquor stores or on international flights, none of which
provide passengers with much warning that it cannot be stuffed into carry-on
bags. In addition, gallons of perfume are intercepted, the TSA said.

To get on a flight legitimately, liquor must be packed in checked luggage.

However, by the time travelers arrive at the checkpoint, it's usually too
late to slip a bottle into a checked bag, said Greg Meyer, spokesman for
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International.

"It's really a situation where the consumer has to educate himself what he
can or can't do," he said.

In TSA jargon, the alcohol is "intercepted," not confiscated, because
passengers have options with what to do with the bottles, rather than just
surrender them. They could leave the security line to try to check them with
other baggage, or hand them off to a friend or relative who dropped them off
at the airport, but officials say that happens rarely.

Diego Romano, general manager of Libation the Joy of Wine in Weston,
estimated the TSA nets 4,500 bottles of liquor a month in South Florida,
based on the agency's estimate of about 5 tons of product stopped monthly.

"Depending on what it is, it could be worth anywhere from $80,000 to
$200,000," he said.

TSA officials said most of the alcohol tends to be expensive brands.

"What a waste," lamented Sherry Friedlander, executive director of A Child
is Missing, who would like to see the alcohol donated to a charity like hers
for sale at auction. "It's just throwing away dollars. It doesn't make
sense."

Friedlander said her Fort Lauderdale-based organization, which helps police
find missing children, Alzheimer's patients or even college students, needs
about $500,000 a year to keep running. She said donated liquor sold at
silent auctions would help.

But the TSA says it can't take the risk of donating liquor because a bottle
could be tampered with or improperly sealed. And it doesn't want to deal
with recovering bottles passengers may toss into the trash at security
checkpoints.

The best solution, TSA officials said, is for travelers to be better
educated about the "3-1-1" guidelines for carry-on items, which call for
3-ounce containers to be placed in a 1-quart-size clear plastic zip-lock
bag, with a limit of one of those bags per passenger.

Veteran travelers John and Margaret Koegle of Cincinnati took heed of the
TSA regulation when they bought several bottles of liqueurs on a recent
Caribbean cruise. They then cushioned the bottles in air-filled bags, packed
them in their checked luggage and sailed through security at Fort
Lauderdale-Hollywood International.

"We pay close attention to the rules," John Koegle, 81, said.

Although it might seem the discarded liquor could end up in the hands of TSA
or airport workers, the agency says it is tightly controlled.

If liquor is thrown out before a passenger reaches the security checkpoint,
janitorial companies at South Florida's three airports are not allowed to
scavenge the bottles under county contracts. For instance, at the Fort
Lauderdale airport, workers for Sunshine Cleaning Systems could be fired if
they go through trash bins for liquor, said Bruce Walker, the company's
project director.

He noted that passengers toss out very little liquor before they reach the
checkpoint anyway.

"It's pretty much been a moot situation here," he said.

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