WASHINGTON — Editor's Note: The video above originally aired on Feb. 23.
A man was stopped at Reagan National Airport and issued a citation after TSA officers discovered a stash of 23 weapons in his carry-on bag. The nearly two dozen items included nine disposable scalpels, a dagger, a pair of brass knuckles and a switchblade.
The officers were initially tipped off by the checkpoint's X-ray machine. Afterward, they searched the bag and ultimately confiscated the items.
“When passengers have prohibited items among their carry-on items, it slows down the screening process,” John Busch, TSA’s Federal Security Director for the airport said in a statement. “Travelers play a role in the efficiency of checkpoint screening by knowing what should and should not be packed in a carry-on bag."
He shared that travelers can take advantage of the myTSA app, tweet a question to @AskTSA or send a question to the social media team through Facebook Messenger in order to double-check if what they want to transport is allowed.
"TSA would have had no issue had all 23 of these items been packed in a checked bag, but passengers certainly cannot carry these types of weapons into the cabin of an aircraft," the agency wrote in a press release.
The public can also go to their website, www.tsa.gov, and click in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage to use the ‘Can I bring?’ feature.
“Even in the sometimes-chaotic environment of the screening checkpoints, the TSA officers at our airport do an amazing job every day by keeping dangerous items out of the aircraft cabin,” Busch added. “It’s important to acknowledge them and the significance of their mission.”