October 2002

Vol. 17, No. 10     What's this?

Hawaiian Hassle

from the October, 2002 issue of Undercurrent  

After a side trip to Kauai, upon returning to Honolulu, I found that they had detained my checked bag containing my pony tank at the last (Lihue) airport. Aloha Airlines had x-rayed my bag, determined that it contained “hazardous cargo,” and refused to send it through. Eventually they returned the bag and pony tank (which I had packed empty, with the valve cracked open) to me on the mainland, complete with broken lock.

I convinced the security people in Honolulu to handinspect my undeveloped film rather than put it through the x-ray machine, but I wound up waiting for them to swipe each film canister with a small piece of paper and then analyze each wipe for any trace of explosives. The inspector decided to wipe and analyze each roll of unused film individually, as well as all twenty-five canisters of exposed film.