Strange Airport Security Experience - TSA needed to swab my Z 100-400 zoom

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MartyD

MartyD

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I have been traveling fairly regularly back and forth from Denver to Nashville and I have always taken some camera equipment. This time I decided to take my Z9, Z 24-70 f2.8, and Z 100-400. I had it packed in my Peak Design backpack and it was packed pretty securely and snugly since I had no plans to remove it during the trip. I didn't have any issues in Denver but coming back from Nashville my backpack triggered some sort of alarm. It was pulled aside and they had to remove the Z 100-400 and swab it for residue. What made me really nervous is that they do not let you assist with the unpacking and the agent didn't seem too interested in listening to my instructions on how to safely remove it. They then had to try to repack the equipment safely. I have had situations when they couldn't identify something during the security scan and needed to see the suspicious item but never have I had them remove something to swab it. It just made me really nervous watching them trying to unpack the backpack to access the Z 100-400.

What is interesting is that Nashville has updated their security screening areas in the last few months and airport security scanning is always changing but has anyone else had security eager to swab a piece of equipment? Is TSA in any way responsible if something is dropped or broken during their inspection?
 
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Replytoken said:
I have had my hands and clothing swabbed on occasion, but not any equipment or luggage. Not sure if they are liable, but would hate to try and find out if it happened.

--Ken
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I have been swabbed several times as well and I have had bags swabbed, but in this case they very specifically needed to scan the Z 100-400.
 
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I am not sure about liability on the TSA's end, but I've had my equipment swabbed at least 75% of the flights I've been on in the last few years, and I'm honestly surprised that that might be the exception
 
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Years ago on a trip to San Fransisco, I had my bag opened and the TSA agent swabbed to prism and top cover of my F4s. But they didn't remove anything from the bag.
 
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I've had gear swabbed before, but very rarely and it seems random. Usually my wife gets swabbed much more often than I do or my equipment.
 
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I guess a big lens can be used to carry quite a lot of stuff …. So a hand swab would be a very good indicator.…better that than pulling one’s lens apart
 
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Wow. I've never had anything swabbed, just taken out and looked at a couple of times. Are they looking for explosive residue, drug residue, both?
 
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Some years ago we were in Vancouver BC's airport headed home. Bags checked. When we finally got thru the long line to US Customs passport check desk we were told by the agent to go into an large adjacent room, be seated, and wait to be called. Uh oh.

After several minutes another Customs agent called me up to the counter where he had our luggage. After I got to the counter the agent said "nice tripod!" as he zipped a bag closed. Had packed a lightweight Manfrotto carbon fiber tripod in the bag that must have raised suspicion during checked baggage scan.
 
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I had camera equipment swabbed recently, and they almost always swab my CPAP machine for some reason. It doesn't bother me.

A couple of weeks ago when leaving New Zealand I went through a security line I thought was for the international gates (turns out it wasn't) where they opened my pack to look at my spare batteries that were in a soft case made for that. I ended up have to go back through the security for the International Terminal then, and they did the same thing. Both times they were satisfied with them in the case, they just wanted to make sure they weren't loose. I told the second one they are very thorough when it comes to lithium batteries, since they got me at both security lines. They were both very friendly.

They are just doing their jobs and it doesn't bother me at all.
 
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Interesting. I‘ve carried on a photo backpack on every flight I’ve taken in the past 10 years and I’ve never been swabbed nor had my backpack opened. Most of those flights have been domestic, not sure if that lowers the odds or not. Maybe my time is coming though…
 
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It’s nothing new at all. I’ve had insides af camera bag swabbed many times, even as far back as 2004 and that was on internal flights within Aus.
911 changed everything globally and the recent increase in drug trafficking just adds to it.
 
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I once flew from China to Sydney via Melbourne. The excellent people at security took my nail scissors from my pencil case. They did offer to post them back to me for Aus$25 but I told them to keep them. It was only when I got home that I realised they had not taken the small box cutter I had in my pencil case for sharpening pencils. I guess they were incompetent dippoops or just bored.
 
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philippe said:
Not unusual at all. The last time I flew, I just opened up the rear of my camera bag to expose the lenses rather than take them out and have them rattle around in the tray. It would seem that security found my reluctance to take 15k of glass out of the bag a bit odd so I was subjected to an extra rigorous examination. I guess my nervous appearance as I watched a young guy manhandle my lenses carelessly didn't help me. Which leads to the obvious question, what if they let the tray fall and destroy 15k of glass in one go? Who pays for that?
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You may file a claim if you are injured or your property is lost or damaged during the screening process.
https://www.tsa.gov/travel/passenger-support/claims
 
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Member's gallery
MartyD said:
I have been traveling fairly regularly back and forth from Denver to Nashville and I have always taken some camera equipment. This time I decided to take my Z9, Z 24-70 f2.8, and Z 100-400. I had it packed in my Peak Design backpack and it was packed pretty securely and snugly since I had no plans to remove it during the trip. I didn't have any issues in Denver but coming back from Nashville my backpack triggered some sort of alarm. It was pulled aside and they had to remove the Z 100-400 and swab it for residue. What made me really nervous is that they do not let you assist with the unpacking and the agent didn't seem too interested in listening to my instructions on how to safely remove it. They then had to try to repack the equipment safely. I have had situations when they couldn't identify something during the security scan and needed to see the suspicious item but never have I had them remove something to swab it. It just made me really nervous watching them trying to unpack the backpack to access the Z 100-400.

What is interesting is that Nashville has updated their security screening areas in the last few months and airport security scanning is always changing but has anyone else had security eager to swab a piece of equipment? Is TSA in any way responsible if something is dropped or broken during their inspection?
Click to expand...
File a claim

Claims | Transportation Security Administration

www.tsa.gov www.tsa.gov
 
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I have had my camera gear swabbed only once as I recall and it was at a European airport. I forget which one; I have been to Europe seven times. I have flown in the USA on average once or twice a year (three times in some years) for over two decades and I do not recall my camera gear being pulled out or swabbed in USA. I think they know enough not to drop an expensive lens, but as per the link others posted, yes they will pay for it if they damage it. There are high resolution security cameras at checkpoints (for obvious reasons) so it is easy enough for them to review footage to see it was dropped by them. But I have never known anyone who had their camera gear dropped or damaged by security. Normally, though, once they are done they ask if you want them to repack it or if you want to do it.
 
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Normally, no swabbing (except the time that I was shooting at a plant nursery just before a flight. Fertilizer dust got their attention and was something I never imagined. Duh!). Last week at RDU my bag got opened and some lenses swabbed. As near as I could tell, my tightly packed bag resulted in less than stellar imaging and they wanted to check. They were careful and I was fine with it all.
 
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As an ex-TSO, I can tell you that it is up to the xray operator to call out anything that they feel uncomfortable with. There are standards to determine what gets pulled for further screening, but the operators are humans and there is variation. Heavy glass looks black on an xray screen and to a newby it can be intimidating. The bag checkers do get miffed when overzealous xray operators call out nonsense and make them pull bags for no good reason. There is also random testing that occurs with various protocols, like every third bag for instance. They should ask whether you want them to repack or do it yourself.
 
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