ended up with one on the wrong side of security right after 9/11 and had to throw it away before i boarded the plane... they were doing random searches at the gate before boarding back then
Woof, Woof – Dawg
Hah, funny story about that. I was working at Portland International Airport about a year ago for the launch of NWA's direct European flight, and came in through the vendor gate onto the tarmac and into the terminal that way, with only a vehicle search. I had brought with me my backpack which had my laptop in it so that durring the show I could sit and browse the net, completley forgetting that I had a total of 6 knives including my two benchmade autos in the bag, which I had picked up from the sharpener two days prior. In addition to the knives in the backpack, I also had my toolbag which had a Olfa mini-razor knife, plus about 40 replacement blades. Oh, and also had a Kershaw clipped inside my pocket.
Once inside the airport, I met with Airport security to get my ID badge, but they had misspelled my name by one letter in my last name. Because security is "so tight" there, being off by one character made the badge invalid, meaning that I would not be able to do my job, and that approval for another badge would take up to 8 hours. The president of NWA decided that they would have ticketing give me a boarding pass for the inaugural flight to Amsterdam so that I could continue with my work for the ceremony.
So I go out through security out to ticketing, leaving my tool bag and backpack full of knives sitting on the concorse unattended, and completley forgetting about the knife still clipped to my pocket. I get the boarding pass for the international flight, go back through security with the knife clipped to my pocket without triggering the metal detector, and make my way back out to the concorse, now as a ticketed passenger for an international flight, with a bag full of knives as a carry-on.
I never did occur to me for the rest of the day that I had my knife on me as I am just so used carrying it, or until the following day that there were so many knives in my backpack. I felt pretty stupid and very lucky needless to say.
I just can't help but laugh about the whole thing now.