Correction: (Updated November 10, 2009): After a phone interview with Mr. Alexandre Furtado, TACV General Manager in the U.S., FORCV decided to re-edit the story about the incident with TACV passengers last Friday at the Boston Logan airport with a more accurate account. This update also includes clarifications about the guidelines to carry mosquito repellents, hand sanitizers, and medicines on plane.
Mosquito repellents confiscated from TACV passengers (Photo: tsa.gov/blog)
BOSTON – According to Alex Furtado, the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) officials at Boston Logan Airport prevented some passengers from carrying large quantities of inflammable mosquito repellent in checked baggage last Friday on the flight to Cape Verde due to safety reasons. Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) regulations state that 'Personal Care Items containing hazardous materials (e.g., flammable perfume, aerosols) totaling no more than 70 ounces may be carried on board. Contents of each container may not exceed 16 fluid ounces.' However, according to a follow-up article posted on the TSA blog, "The repellent was in 6.5oz containers (approximately), and most bags contained more than the limit of 10 or 11 cans ranging from 2-128 cans over the limit. Most 'luggage' were large suitcase bags completely full of just bug spray." Thus, alarmed by the large amount of flammable products, which fall under the category of “dangerous goods”, the TSA checkpoint personnel had to intervene. According to FAA, dangerous goods are not allowed in commercial passenger planes. Large quantities of dangerous goods can only be transported in appropriate cargo planes. Consequently, the TACV aircraft is not considered a cargo plane. Therefore, for the protection and safety of the passengers, and the TACV aircraft, TSA officials removed many suitcases that contained over a thousand cans and bottles of mosquito repellents all together. The agency proceeded to inform the TACV staff on duty of the occurrence and asked them to return the luggage to their owners. The passengers of the flight intended to bring those products to Cape Verde due to a recent epidemic of the deadly Dengue fever caused by Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes, which has led to widespread panic and fear in the country.
Mr. Furtado also assured FORCV that TSA did not delay the TACV flight, nor carried any extensive search of passengers’ luggage. In his words, the flight was late due to other issues. In addition the highest representative of TACV in the U.S. argued that TSA agents did not confiscate any medical supplies such as Tylenol and Vitamin C. He stated that reasonable amounts of those medicines are allowed by TSA in commercial passenger planes for personal care or to bring to relatives. He went on to say that small amounts of any non-flammable medicines can be carried on board. However, flammable products are under the strict scrutiny of TSA.
After urgent calls from families in Cape Verde stating that stores had run out of supplies to fight dengue, many immigrants with relatives in the country rushed to pharmacies in Massachusetts and Rhode Island to buy large amounts of mosquito repellent, hand sanitizer, rubbing alcohol, Vitamin C, and Tylenol to send back home. According to the latest reports from Cape Verde's Ministry of Health, 6 people have died from dengue fever and 12,001 have been infected in less than two weeks. These numbers led José Maria Neves, Prime Minister of Cape Verde, to declare a national emergency on Thursday followed by a day of a nationwide campaign to kill Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes and clean potential breeding grounds for those deadly insects.
Related topic from (TSA blog): TSA Stops Medical Supplies for Cape Verde?
