Items banned from airliners

The following items are completely banned from any part of an airliners, and should not be brought to the airport:

Explosive and incendiary materials: Gunpowder (including black powder and percussion caps), dynamite, blasting caps, fireworks, flares, plastic explosives, grenades, replicas of incendiary devices, and replicas of plastic explosives.

Flammable Items: Gasoline, gas torches, lighter fluid, cooking fuel, other types of flammable liquid fuel, flammable paints, paint thinner, turpentine, aerosols (exceptions for personal care items, toiletries, or medically related items).

Gases and pressure containers: Aerosols (with the exception of personal care items or toiletries in limited quantities in containers sized three ounces or smaller), carbon dioxide cartridges, oxygen tanks (scuba or medical), mace, tear gas, pepper spray, self-inflating rafts, and deeply refrigerated gases such as liquid nitrogen.

Matches: All matches are banned from checked baggage, and strike-anywhere matches are banned completely from aircraft, but you can have a single book of safety (non-strike anywhere) matches with you in the passenger cabin.

Oxidizers and organic peroxides: Bleach, nitric acid, fertilizers, swimming pool or spa chemicals, and fiberglass repair kits.

Poisons: Weed killers, pesticides, insecticides, rodent poisons, arsenic, and cyanides.

Infectious materials: Medical laboratory specimens, viral organisms, and bacterial cultures.

Corrosives: Drain cleaners, car batteries, wet cell batteries, acids, alkalis, lye, and mercury.

Organics: Fiberglass resins, peroxides.

Radioactive materials: There are some exceptions for implanted radioactive medical devices. Contact your airline for details on how to ship other radioactive materials.

Magnetic materials: Strong magnets such as those in some loudspeakers and laboratory equipment.

Marijuana (cannabis): Marijuana in any form is not allowed on aircraft and is not allowed in the secure part of the airport (beyond the TSA screening areas). In addition it is illegal to import marijuana or marijuana-related items into the US.

Other dangerous items: Tear gas, spray paint, swimming pool or spa chlorine, and torch lighters.

Note: If you are in any doubt about whether your item may be hazardous, you should bring it to the attention of either your airline or the security screener.

Related resources
Items you should never put in a checked bag
How to fly with firearms
Air travel and marijuana
Carry-on Baggage Advice
Top 10 Baggage Tips
Hazardous and Prohibited Baggage Items
Dealing with security


Additional resources

Subscribe to the AirSafe.com newsletter, and download a free copy of the AirSafe.com Baggage and Security Guide which has additional details on what is prohibited and what is allowed in airports and airplanes, as well as insights on airport.

For a more complete list of banned and restricted items, download this TSA brochure. or this FAA brochure.

Items banned from airliners
http://www.airsafe.com/issues/baggage/banned.htm -- Revised 23 September 2014