Passengers attempting to bring guns through the TSA checkpoint is a near-everyday occurrence. A grenade though? That doesn’t happen very often. But it happened in New Haven, Connecticut last week, at Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN) when a grenade was found in the luggage of a woman said to be in her 30s.
According to a post on Twitter (commonly known as X nowadays) written by Dan Velez, the spokesman for the New England Transportation Security Association (TSA), the grenade was detected during a security screening.
The woman who owned the luggage with the grenade in it, was questioned. She told authorities that the grenade was indeed hers. She was clearing out a farmhouse and found the hollowed-out grenade, which was going to be a gift.
Meanwhile, the New Haven Bomb Squad responded to the call from the airport. They confirmed the grenade was inert. With that, the airport terminal and security checkpoint reopened at 9:20 a.m.
A TSA official said the woman was interviewed and allowed to continue traveling. However, the inert grenade was given to authorities for proper disposal.
Velez said, “No grenade…real, inert, or toy is allowed to travel with you.”
Flights were delayed due to the incident.
Disney & Coca-Cola’s grenade problem
When Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge first opened at Walt Disney World and Disneyland about five years ago, Disney partnered with Coca-Cola to make specialty soda bottles shaped like “thermal detonators.”
PC: Coca Cola
Those “thermal detonators” looked a lot like grenades, and when a concerned traveler asked the TSA about them, the agency lowered the boom and banned them.
Star Wars fans on both coasts were, understandably, crushed. However the TSA did say they would review the situation.
Not surprisingly (and undoubtedly after speaking with The Walt Disney Company AND Coca Cola, who were both hoping to sell bajillions of these souvenir drinks/containers), the agency lifted the ban a little more than 2 weeks later. At the time, their statement to CNN was, “We have completed our review and instructed our officers to treat these as an oversized liquid. Because these bottles contain liquids larger than 3.4 ounces (100 milliliters), they should be put in checked baggage or emptied to be brought on as carry-on item.”
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