TSA holiday advice: Check your pockets (and put your belt back on)

With Thanksgiving around the corner and nearly 25 million travelers expected to take to the skies for the holiday, the Transportation Security Administration is asking fliers to check their pockets, luggage, and handbags before arriving at airport security checkpoints.

No grenades - real or fake. No drills or saws. No knives or blades. No toy guns or ammunition. No pepper spray or hammers. No baseball bats or hockey sticks. Leave the brass knuckles at home.

Knitting needles are OK; a corkscrew with a blade is not.

The ban on small knives and other sharp objects on planes has been a reality for travelers since after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Still, passengers show up with them every day.

TSA public affairs manager Michael McCarthy showcased for reporters at a news conference Monday some of the hundreds of items confiscated at Philadelphia International Airport security checkpoints in the last month.

In addition to prohibited items, the public this year has left behind more than 12,500 personal objects - belts, cellphones, keys, sunglasses, driver's licenses, and nearly 600 laptops.

"We get about 200 pounds to 250 pounds per month," said Anna Pappas, who runs TSA lost and found at the Philadelphia airport. "These are items that are lost, not ones that are prohibited and confiscated."

Nationwide, TSA screens 1.8 million passengers and their luggage every day.

"We have an increase in passenger volume at Thanksgiving," McCarthy said. "We want to remind passengers to double check what's in your pockets, in your bags, before you get to the checkpoint, because we know you want to get through as quickly as possible."

In March 2013, the TSA proposed allowing small pocket knives, golf clubs, toy baseball bats, ski poles, and some other previously forbidden items on U.S. flights. But after a firestorm of criticism from passenger advocates, flight attendants, pilots, and law enforcement officials, the agency dropped the proposal.

TSA had maintained that relaxing restrictions on small knives and other banned objects would align the United States with international standards and free security screeners to focus on a greater threat: explosive devices.

TSA keeps lost and confiscated items for 30 days before sending them to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where they are donated to charitable organizations, Pappas said.

Personal items, such as laptops, go to TSA headquarters in Washington, where the owner's information is wiped out, she said. The number for TSA lost and found at the Philadelphia airport is 610-521-7206. The airport lost and found is 215-937-6888.

"Not everyone knows about this office," Pappas said. "We donate and get rid of items a lot more than reunite the items."