We've heard of dive knives being confiscated at Flamingo prior to boarding AJ. The knives were in checked baggage. Any sharps are being taken out of baggage, including the multi tools we all carry to repair equipment. Anyone have any experience with this? This means we stand to lose alot of equipment in checked baggage. Can this be right?
Thanks

Carl,
The report dealt with knives and regulator repair tools (which is a broead category) and was reported as dealing with AA.. but I am not sure of the substantiation... A good point was made by Glen that part of the problem is that in some of these hubs you get reaccess to your check bags while plane is still in transit...To be safe, until this thing pans out I would suggest that you not pack items that fall into the categories... for repairs I would suggest falling back to small wrenches..the mutitools do tend to have sharps or blades in them..

also... this problem is NOT unique to Bonaire...

We just flew back from Bonaire last Sunday on American Eagle. YES, our dive knife was confiscated (as well as nail clippers & a metal nail file). Another passenger on our plane had their repair tool kit confiscated as well (the whole kit, not just the screwdrivers). These items were inside our checked luggage. Personnel at Flamingo airport opened every single suitcase and carryon and searched them (but they ignored my purse for some reason).

All they did was slap an address label on a bag we provided to hold our stuff, we received no receipts. The personnel in the airport seemed to think this was required by the FAA (that's who they quoted). When we left PR yesterday, no one searched our bags at all. We were told it is possible to walk to the plane's cargo area in the smaller planes. The inspections were not done by AA personnel, but by airport security.
Aside from that we had a bittersweet vacation (trip report to be posted soon).

We took AJ out of Bonaire on Sat. Sept. 15. They also slapped an address label on our bag of knives & tools. Ana C, if you get yours back, let me know. I will do the same for you. I REALLY don't expect to see these items again, but one can hope...

Hey there come back tonight airport on Bonaire back to it's usual laid back way but you are right about stuff not going in checked bags NOTHING that can be used in any way shape or form other than what it was intended for will be posted to you -needles for sewing nail clippers .......etc Just use some common sence and enjoy the peace of Bonaire.

Just wanted to give everyone the good news!

We received a phone message from Hartsfield International (Atlanta) that our dive knives were there! They will be getting them to us soon!

(They have been M.I.A. since our departure from Bonaire on Air Jamaica on September 15th.)