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TSA defends confiscating a passenger's cupcake
The Transportation Security Administration defended the decision of one of its workers to confiscate a passenger's cupcake Monday, saying the pastry that was taken was not a normal piece of dessert.
During the Christmas travel season, when between 1.6 million and 2.3 million people were estimated to have taken a trip by airplane, TSA was heavily criticized for reportedly not allowing a passenger to carry a cupcake through security at Las Vegas's McCarran International Airport.
On Monday, the agency said the cupcake in question was in a jar, which gave the screeners pause because of a 2006 plot involving liquid bombs.
"I wanted to make it clear that this wasn’t your everyday, run-of-the-mill cupcake," TSA's blogger Bob Burns said in a post on the agency's blog. "If you’re not familiar with it, we have a policy directly related to the UK liquid bomb plot of 2006 called 3-1-1 that limits the amount of liquids, gels and aerosols you can bring in your carry-on luggage.
"In general, cakes and pies are allowed in carry-on luggage, however, the officer in this case used their discretion on whether or not to allow the newfangled modern take on a cupcake per 3-1-1 guidelines," he said. "They chose not to let it go."
The passenger who carried the cupcake, a Massachusetts resident named Rebecca Hains, told The Associated Press in December that she had flown through Boston's Logan Airport with two of the cupcake-in-a-jars.
TSA has been criticized for its airport security procedures, including patting down an 8-month-old baby and allegedly strip-searching elderly passengers, which the agency has denied.
The agency has recently released a series of reports of weapons it discovered that were concealed as such common items as a credit card, a belt buckle and a cellphone.
