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Odd items find their way into Northerners' luggage

Adam Johnson
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, January 23, 2008

YELLOWKNIFE - With tighter flight rules in place, it's not usual to have the odd item confiscated at the Yellowknife airport.

Lotions, water bottles, shaving cream and arrows are just a few of the items that passengers forget to remove from their carry-on luggage.

NNSL Photo/Graphic

Steve Loutitt, regional manager with the Yellowknife airport, shows off some of the items that have been confiscated by security over the years, including bear spray and a pair of arrows. He said most Northerners know the rules when it comes to flying, but they don't always remember them. - Adam Johnson/NNSL photo

Wait a second, arrows?

"I don't know why anyone would try to bring these on-board," said Steve Loutitt, regional manager of the Yellowknife Airport, as he held up the two projectiles.

In the airport authority offices near Gate 3, Loutitt has a small - but amusing- collection of unusual items that people have tried to take on planes.

"Let's see," he says, rifling through a pair of boxes on his desk.

To top off the two target arrows, he pulls out a kerosene stove tank, some bear bangers, a bottle of lighter fluid, a bottle of camp fuel, a box cutter and the coup de grace: a can of bear spray.

"If this went off in the cabin of a plane, it would injure a lot of people," he said.

With half a million people coming through Yellowknife Airport every year (that's 66,000 take-offs and landings), Loutitt said very few problematic items find their way into people's carry-on luggage.

"Generally, Northerners are very smart travellers, because we fly so much," he said. "We don't have a huge volume (of confiscated items)."

Those that are taken away are usually destroyed, though Loutitt said exceptions can be made for valuable items like an heirloom knife, for example.

"Sometimes we hold valuables, and people can come and get them."

However, some banned items still make it into luggage, though often by accident or misunderstanding.

"Ninety per cent of people are really good," he said. "(These items) are not brought on maliciously."

In many cases, he said passengers either didn't know they couldn't bring the items on-board, or simply forgot they were carrying them in a long-unused parka or summer coat.

"We have a lot of people coming through from camps," Loutitt said, holding up a pressurized air horn that was confiscated.

As he packs up his box of goodies, he said that, at the end of the day, he'd prefer to see people keep problematic items (such as tools, liquid and gels) in their checked baggage, and dangerous goods (such as fuel) off planes entirely to avoid problems.

"It certainly does lend itself to a better travelling experience," he said.

A full list of banned items is available from the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority online at www.catsa-acsta.gc.ca.