Recently, I've had a nice set of Faber 20s confiscated by TSA in Houston Bush International. I know the traveling requirements for cylinders and abided by them. Valves were removed. As I usually do, I loosely screwed the plastic dust caps back into the cylinders so that foreign material would not enter the cylinder. A two year old could have removed the dust caps. When I arrived on the other side of my direct flight, the bag didn't even show up. It arrived the next day which was a few plane arrivals later. I found a "love note" from TSA in my bag with general contact information. The email address provides a canned response and the toll free number does nothing really but have the person tell you to file a claim if it sounds legit. On the "love note" was a statement written in pencil that read, "air containers were plugged".
At this point, I'll be filing a claim (as was suggested by the TSA rep) because I've been informed that they were most likely sent for destruction. The point of removing the valves is so that TSA can verify that the cylinder is empty (no drugs, gas, etc). Unless the person who inspected my bag had no hands, they should have had no problem in fulfilling their task.
What a PITA.
Lesson learned: I'll be using clear tape from now on for the morons that are too lazy to remove a loose cap. Who knows if the caps really triggered the confiscation or if the screener was a diver.
