The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has a tough job. The agency is tasked with securing transport within the United States that travels across roads and marine travel as well as pipelines. But it’s perhaps best known for its work in airports, where it works to ensure the safety of air passengers. Formed in the wake of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, the TSA uses cutting-edge technology to scan travelers for dangerous or illegal objects that may pose a security risk. It tracks around 2 million passengers a day across the United States’ 440 airports, securing around 22,000 flights a day.
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The priority is preventing weapons, potential explosive material, and other possible dangers brought to the airport — either intentionally or not — from making their way into airplane cabins. Every day, the scanners check almost 5 million carry-on items. And as the TSA’s social media accounts make clear, it encounters some very strange luggage, including many unexpected items that are nevertheless banned from travel.
Snakes on a plane
Many people have a fear of flying, and the last thing they want is the addition of another common phobia. But that was what travelers at Tampa International Airport faced back in 2023, when a woman attempted to board a plane with a 4-foot boa constrictor smuggled in her hand luggage. The animal was not properly declared, and she insisted that the animal was a pet, describing it as her “emotional support” snake (per Fox 13 Tampa Bay).
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Live animals, including snakes, are not banned from travel entirely. As the TSA notes, the decision to allow an animal onboard is made by the airline, and having a boa constrictor in the cabin would likely panic other passengers. So if an airline were to allow one onboard, it would likely require the reptile to be properly contained in the hold. With so many people afraid of snakes, this is definitely reasonable.
This wasn’t the only recent case of a passenger trying to smuggle a snake onto a plane. In 2018, a python was found hidden in a hard drive at a Miami airport, and in 2024, a passenger in China was caught trying to smuggle more than 100 snakes in his pants. The following year, in March 2025, the TSA found a man attempting to smuggle a turtle in his pants at Newark Liberty International Airport.
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A cache of tropical fish
It isn’t just reptiles that airline travelers have tried to smuggle past the TSA in recent years. In 2012, agents at Miami International Airport intercepted a passenger who had attempted to check-in a bag that contained a huge variety of tropical fish. Among the haul were a number of eels that were held in a plastic bag full of water. In total, the case contained 163 tropical fish and 22 invertebrates, which may have been shrimp, crabs, starfish, or other sea creatures. Though no details of the passenger’s motivation were made public, the size of the collection suggests that they planned to sell the animals in their destination country, Venezuela.
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The unfortunate creatures were subsequently surrendered to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Illegal animal trafficking is an ongoing problem, and the TSA is tasked with preventing the smuggling of rare fish and other species alongside other agencies such as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The practice is highly destructive — it leads to the deaths of countless endangered animals and irreparable biodiversity loss in ecosystems around the world. However, as with other pets, you’re generally allowed to travel with live fish as long as they are properly declared and screened.
Oversized scissors
Most people know that the TSA bans blades, such as knives and large scissors, from being taken in carry-on luggage, along with other potential weapons that might represent a security risk. Unfortunately, some travelers pack blades innocuously for work or outdoor pursuits and find that they too must be confiscated at airport security. In 2018, the TSA at Nashville International Airport posted on Instagram that it had encountered a passenger who had attempted to travel with an enormous pair of ceremonial scissors in their hand luggage. Though it was a novelty item intended for public events, it did have sharp blades and therefore constituted a security risk. “Please don’t get snippy when our officers tell you that you can’t pack these ginormous ceremonial ribbon cutting scissors in your carry-on,” the TSA account quipped.
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The TSA’s ban extends to virtually all blades except for pairs of scissors with edges under 4 inches. Unsurprisingly, the agency confiscates thousands of knives, large scissors, and other sharp objects per year. So much so that sculptor Christopher Locke created a series of spider sculptures using the contraband, with the blades functioning as legs.
A shark in a jar
As well as live creatures, the TSA has also had cause to turn away luggage containing dead animal specimens. In 2020, a traveler at Syracuse Hancock International Airport in Washington, D.C. was stopped after attempting to board a flight with a dead baby shark preserved in liquid in a large glass jar. An odd and macabre object on paper, the shark may have been a sample intended for scientific study.
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It wasn’t the shark itself that the TSA had a problem with, though. Like marine specimens you might find in jars in a natural history museum, this animal wasn’t held in water — it was immersed in a chemical preservative used to keep the remains of the animal from decomposing. The TSA decided that the liquid was too hazardous to be taken on a commercial flight, and so the shark was rejected.
Antique weaponry
Most travelers know not to travel with weapons, whether they be firearms, knives, or other dangerous arms. But it seems that some antiques collectors expect there to be something of a gray area when it comes to the transportation of old pieces of weaponry that are no longer considered serviceable. In 2012, the TSA at Kahului Regional Airport had to intervene when a traveler was discovered with two antiques that they deemed potential weapons.
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One was a flare gun, which had a large barrel and looked intimidating enough to start a potential panic on the plane. The other, somewhat bizarrely, was a cannonball. They do not typically have explosives in them, so why the TSA took exception with this one is unclear. A couple of years later, in 2014, TSA agents had to alert a bomb disposal crew after two 77mm World War I artillery shells were found in the luggage of two teenagers who were transferring to Seattle after a field trip to France.
