Screeners Have Discretion Concerning What To Allow On A Plane

Around the holidays, a story about a woman who had a cupcake confiscated in an airport security line in Las Vegas caught the attention of the national media, including those of us here at ANN. The cupcake had been a gift from a student to a teacher, who had taken it with her on her holiday travels.

TSA caught a lot of flack for confiscating the cupcake, and on its blog, apparently still feels compelled to defend its self in the matter

"This will be short and 'sweet',” writes TSA's "Blogger Bob". "Like many of you, when I think of a cupcake, I don’t think of it being in a jar. However, the photo below shows the “cupcake” that was prohibited from being taken into the cabin of a plane last month.

"I wanted to make it clear that this wasn’t your everyday, run-of-the-mill cupcake. 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. Icing falls under the “gel” category.  As you can see from the picture, unlike a thin layer of icing that resides on the top of most cupcakes, this cupcake had a thick layer of icing inside a jar.

"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. They chose not to let it go.

"Every officer wants to finish their shift and go home with the peace of mind that they kept potential threats off of airplanes. They’re not thinking about whether their decisions will go viral on the Internet – they’re thinking about keeping bombs off of planes. This incident may seem like a silly move to many of our critics, but when we can’t be exactly sure of what something is, every officer has the discretion to not allow it on the plane.  This is done purely for the safety of everyone traveling." (Image provided by TSA)

FMI: www.tsa.gov