What to Know
- A device found in a carry-on bag at LaGuardia Airport over the weekend initially believed suspicious because it resembled a pipe bomb, ended up being a homemade cigar humidor, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
- TSA officers spotted the suspicious device in a carry-on bag on Sunday, as the bag was being screened at the security checkpoint.
- "The carry-on bag contained two torch-style lighters along with a homemade container made out of nine-inch long PVC pipe and end caps, which resembled a pipe bomb. However, when an end cap was removed, a partially smoked cigar was discovered inside," TSA said in a press release.
A device found in a carry-on bag at LaGuardia Airport over the weekend initially believed suspicious because it resembled a pipe bomb, ended up being a homemade cigar humidor, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
TSA officers spotted the suspicious device in a carry-on bag on Sunday, as the bag was being screened at the security checkpoint.
"The carry-on bag contained two torch-style lighters along with a homemade container made out of nine-inch long PVC pipe and end caps, which resembled a pipe bomb. However, when an end cap was removed, a partially smoked cigar was discovered inside," according to a TSA press release.
The traveler, a resident of Hopewell Junction, New York, allegedly told officials he had crafted the item to serve as a homemade humidor for his cigars.
TSA officials subsequently told the passenger that the item could easily be mistaken by the flight crew and other passengers as a pipe bomb and cause a panic. Officials, therefore, couldn't allow him to carry it onto the plane. The man surrendered the item to TSA for disposal along with the torch-style lighters.
“Our TSA officers are vigilant about looking for explosive devices, and this certainly gave the impression that it could be a pipe bomb that someone was attempting to carry onto an aircraft,” TSA Federal Security Director for LaGuardia Airport Robert Duffy said in a statement. “Fortunately it turned out not to be an explosive device, but had he pulled it out during his flight, it could have caused a panic. Replica weapons are not permitted on aircraft and this easily could have passed for an improvised explosive device. It was a good catch on the part of the officers who were staffing the checkpoint.”
