Newly Banned Items Often Fly Past Airport Screeners

TSA officials have no way of tracking people who succeed in disobeying the ban, but screeners have caught people trying to sneak items through checkpoints, said Ellen Howe, an agency spokeswoman. Anyone caught could face fines of several hundred dollars, Howe said, although she said it was too difficult to determine whether any fines have been levied.

TSA officials point to a 20 percent increase in checked bags as an indication that most travelers seem to be complying with the rules.

"Travelers must realize this isn't a game," Howe said. "The threat is real and it continues, and we appreciate the public's cooperation. Is it the perfect system? No. But does it make it right to sneak things through security? No, it doesn't."

Security experts said the experiences of travelers interviewed at Reagan National and Dulles airports highlighted what they say are security gaps in the current product bans. A well-trained screener must notice the sometimes-subtle signatures of containers of gels and liquids on X-ray machines. The devices are much better at picking up the shapes of dense and metal objects, such as knives, guns or bomb components, security experts said.

Metal detectors at security checkpoints cannot sense plastic items that may contain liquids or gels.

"There are obviously limitations to this ban," said Clark Kent Ervin, a former inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security.

Ervin supports the restrictions but thinks they are flawed because authorities rely heavily on screeners' interpretations of X-ray images.

"It depends entirely on screeners' alertness and training," he said, "and there are problems with both."

Pilots groups have criticized the measures, saying they notice the security holes all the time. They say authorities should focus more on developing systems to identify potential terrorists, not just their weapons.

Gary Boettcher, a pilot and president of the Coalition for Airline Pilots Association, a trade group that closely tracks security issues, said he constantly sees people drinking from illicit bottles of water or putting on lip gloss when he walks through the passenger cabin. Most of the time, he said, it doesn't bother him.

"They are just doing their routines like they always did," Boettcher said. "An old woman drinking a bottle of water doesn't concern me. . . . The whole screening process is a facade to make the public feel safe, to show that the government is doing something."

Passengers said they didn't feel any safer after reaching their destination and realizing they had inadvertently left a banned item in their carry-on bags.

Libby Cole, 21, who flew into Dulles from Vermont on Friday, said she rushed to catch an early plane and didn't know until she landed that she had two lip glosses in her carry-on bag.

On a past trip, TSA screeners caught one out of two lip glosses, she said.

"I don't think this does anything, because obviously, if this can get through," she said, holding onto one of her lip glosses. "I think it's just kind of a pain."