Former TSA agent here, you have to surrender your water because bad people pretend to bring water on board but it actually an explosive and they use it to kill everybody on board while its in mid-flight. My favorite explanation is that they pour a flammable liquid on toilet paper, and due to nature of airplanes and PRESSURIZED AIR, this method would turn the whole passenger cabin into a inferno in a moment and if somehow you don’t die from fire the smoke will choke you to death like it does to the pilots. This is a thing they have done.
We do not allow people to prove its water by taking a sip because it doesn’t magically prove your water is water and the reason being is because if we allowed water on board this way the bad people would bring “disposable people” along with them to drink it so the main baddie can continue the mission. This ALSO something the bad people have done.
I hope this explanation sooths your frustration in navigating thru a checkpoint. Happy travels.
There are actually a few airports now trialling new technology to allow you to take liquids. I found this out at Heathrow last year when I downed about 3/4 litre of drink, I had about 100ml left in a reusable litre bottle and I asked for somewhere I could dispose the liquid and they said no need I was being scanned on a new machine that needed nothing removed (including the liquids from travel – like travel minis, shampoo, perfume etc.). Looking forward to that being the new standard tbh. I’m sure they’ll find something else to examine instead.
A long time ago (right after 9/11) there was a credible threat about liquid explosives. See, what makes hidden explosives difficult is that combining the innocent stuff together is pretty complicated and hard to do on an airplane. A lot of bomb attempts were thwarted when other passengers saw what the attacker was trying to do. But with liquids it’s really quite simple and fast. Just mix, and boom.
This was quietly demonstrated to the appropriate officials: two drinking bottles full of innocent seemingly liquids (one was probably peroxide; which means the other could be one of dozens of options) when mixed would easily take down the whole plane.
They didn’t want to ban these SPECIFIC liquids and give terrorists any ideas, so they just banned ALL liquids. That way they don’t have to give the secret away. And enforcing these bans needs to be performed by someone who isn’t going to understand the issue anyway, so it’s safest just to say “no liquids” and leave it at that. It’s infuriating to passengers, but OTOH you don’t want your front line agents making judgment calls when you have absolutely no intention of explaining the threat to them.
So, no liquids. Easy to enforce, no explanation given. Done.
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