Air travelers had to fly dry yesterday as new security regulations banned passengers from taking any fluids on board.
Fearing that bomb-making ingredients could be hidden inside water bottles or toothpaste tubes, the Transportation Security Administration banned all beverages, lotions and shampoos, and other cosmetics from carry-on bags on all domestic and international flights.
“No liquids,” read signs posted at security checkpoints.
As a result, the city’s airports looked like massive medicine cabinets as passengers tossed their toiletries in a series of large yellow bins.
“People were throwing things from their purses onto the floor because they worried they were going to miss their flights,” said Khalid Mahmood, who runs a newsstand at the Continental Airlines terminal at Newark Airport.
Exceptions are made for baby formula or juice for small children, and prescription medication as long as the name of the passenger is on the bottle, said Ann Davis, spokeswoman for the TSA.
Last December, the TSA loosened some of the restrictions instituted after 9/11 on items such as nail clippers. There are no plans to reinstate these prohibitions, Davis said.
But until yesterday, screeners had never been on the lookout for shampoo.
“I feel like the soap police,” one screener at La Guardia Airport said. “Usually we’re concerned about guns and knives, not moisturizer.”
All of the items can be taken on checked baggage, Davis said.
Although traces of explosives can be detected in the scanners used for carry-on as well as checked baggage, the separate ingredients pose less of a threat if they are in the cargo hold and cannot be mixed, officials said.
British Airways went even further than the U.S. government. The airline would not allow passengers to take any carry-on baggage at all: no books, laptops or iPods, just a small plastic bag with their ticket, identification, and essential items such as medication.
“Our feeling is that this way, we are consistent with the U.K.,” said John Lampl, an airline spokesman. “It’s safer, and actually makes for fewer delays at the checkpoints.”
Some passengers checked their bags only to learn that the contents of their purses would not be allowed on board.
Told she would not be able to take her new tube of lip gloss on her flight, Christina Fraga, opened it up and put some on.
“What can I do?” she said. “I have to throw away my money, but it’s for our protection.”
Mike Schonka, 53, was forced to part with a new bottle of vodka before taking a flight from Kennedy to Houston.
“I guess it’s worth the inconvenience,” he said. “I’m glad to do it if security has to be stepped up.”
Parents were initially told they would have to taste any baby formula before being allowed to take it on the plane, though TSA officials later backed off this measure by opting to merely “inspect” the bottles.
Gail Kohlmann, 44, who was taking her infant son, Cole, on a flight from Kennedy to Phoenix, said she had no objections to the regulations.
“I’ll gladly throw away his milk, I’ll taste it, I’ll do anything,” she said. “Let the military do their thing. The extra precautions are necessary to make us feel safer.”
At Newark Airport, New Jersey state Senate President Richard Codey said he thought the restrictions were worth the trouble.
“I think they’d rather be safe than smelling good,” he said.