When you approach a check-in counter, the airline employees ask you several questions to help you think about what you packed and with whom you could have spoken. Items such as flare guns and gunpowder cannot be checked or carried. They ask about items that are made of explosive materials, that are flammable and any other dangerous chemicals. Items of this nature cannot be transported on an aircraft for any reason.
Never accept any package or item from a stranger, even if they ask you to hold it for just a minute. You do not know what may be in that package. If you see luggage or packages that are unattended, they need to be reported to security. These measures help prevent anything from getting onto the airplane that should not be there. This is very true in this post 9/11 era of travel.
Another list of items that you can check with or in your baggage includes guns, tools and sporting goods. Once your luggage has been tagged and checked in, you then carry it to the TSA screening area. Personnel in the TSA area will place your luggage on the conveyor belt. This takes your bags through screening and from there, it will make its way to the airplane. To help insure that harmful materials are not inserted into your luggage, it is kept in secure areas. You cannot access your luggage once it has passed into the TSA screening area until you have reached the end of your flight.
To prevent someone from carrying harmful materials into the passenger compartments of the airplane, everyone must pass through a security checkpoint. At this point, you must have a boarding pass to reach the gate. Passengers go through a screening that checks for metal items on their person. Your carry-on items are also screened through an x-ray machine. Laptops and other electronics have to be turned on before clearing security. They and other items may have a swab taken and that is checked for explosives residue.
Security screeners may pull someone over to the side for extra screening. This usually involves a hand wand and a pat-town. Someone might be upset about this, but random checks like this are very useful for preventing items that are hazardous from getting on the plane, even by accident.
One final procedure that is used to protect passengers is a security program that collects information on persons traveling and checks it against government lists. This program has gone under different names and is currently under review.
