CHARLESTON, W.Va. — As spring and summer travel approaches, the Transportation Security Administration wants to remind everyone about what to expect upon boarding a plane.
TSA held a press conference at West Virginia International Yeager Airport (CRW) Thursday morning to discuss their compiled list of updated rules to help make the flight uptick as smooth as possible. Federal Security Director John Allen said that keeping it simple is key, and that travelling with the bare minimum of items on your person helps make the process go smoothly for everyone. 
“It helps keep the process flowing, nobody wants to stand in line an extra 30 minutes because somebody shut down the checkpoint because they brought something they shouldn’t have brought,” Allen said.
To help ease the process, TSA advises people to remove all items from their pockets and place them in their carry-on bags, which includes even the lightest of items such as tissues and breath mints. They also advise people to put their cellphones in carry-on bags, as well, to avoid having to place them in a bin, potentially causing a major transference of bacteria. In addition, they say to never place small items onto the X-ray belt.
Wearing shoes that one can easily slip on and off through the security check also helps to ease the process, but socks are suggested so that bare feet do not have to touch the floor.
A major item not to bring at all, however— a bottle of water. Supervisory Transportation Security Officer, Jennifer Bennett said this is a regulation that applies to all containers holding liquids that do not comply with their 3.4 ounce or 100 milliliter rule.
“We have a lot of people who think it’s okay to carry large containers of sun block, or sunscreen through the checkpoint,” Bennett said.
They said it is however acceptable to bring an empty bottle to fill up with water once through the checkpoint.
Some more obvious rules officers say are never to joke about having an explosive device or claim to have a bomb, and to never attempt to bring a firearm through the security checkpoint.
However, trying to bring a gun proved to not be as clear to some, as it was reported that over 6,000 people were stopped by TSA because they brought a gun just last year alone.
While the rules TSA compiles changes from year to year, Allen said that changes in security have become the most significant alterations, as threats to that safety have increased over recent years.
“There are varying threats throughout the world, and as threats change, we adapt to ensure that we can catch those threats,” Allen said.
Covid-19 also became a threat that altered the rules in the past couple of years, and avoiding using one’s mouth as an extra hand became a major health regulation that the TSA started to include. They often see cases where people put their ID in their mouth’s while fidgeting with other items and then hand the ID to airport workers.
Allen added that it’s a regulation that had never been quite as obvious of an issue before the pandemic.
“Even though they have seen it for years and years, and this is why we wanted to do like a local ‘what our folks have seen’ type event today, because, like I said, that would have not come up,” said Allen.
Finally, another very obvious rule that officers want to make clear is to never put a pet or a child through the checkpoint X-ray unit, which TSA reported had actually happened before.
While TSA is available for any questions travelers may have, Bennett added that following the rules is simply a matter of listening carefully and paying attention to one’s surroundings as they move on to their next flights.
“If you just listen to the officers, the officers will let you know what we need from you to make it a quick procession through the checkpoint to get to your gate to be able to take off and enjoy your vacation,” said Bennett.
In addition, they want to remind people to enter their first full names as they appear on their ID’s when purchasing a plane ticket online, not any kind of nickname.