Can you take ice on a plane?
I was on a plane earlier today and was really thirsty. I thought about how I wished I’d taken an empty water bottle in my bag, but I didn’t like the thought of warm tap water later, after the chill of the water fountain wore off.
This leads me to my question. I thought it would be a good idea to freeze water in a water bottle, but wondered if they would allow it through security. My friend who is training to screen bags said it counts as a liquid, but it doesn’t seem right to me because it violates science! After all, ice is a solid, right?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
11 Answers
Why would you just not ask the attendant for ice water once you’re on the plane?
On today’s flight, there was a lot of turbulence, so the captain didn’t allow the flight attendants to serve us for a while. Boarding was also really chaotic and late. Anyway, my point is sometimes you can’t ask for water, hence I was dreaming of ice water.
I think you would have to purchase the ice water in the terminal; TSA won’t allow you to take canisters or other items through security checkpoints. I think that you would be able to do a water bottle purchased in the terminal, with ice added while in the terminal.
I dunno about frozen water, but we just successfully went through security with frozen, cooked, yams and squash (Thanksgiving leftovers). They weren’t exactly thrilled about it, but they let us get through. I guess yam and squash puree is in the gray area between solid and “gel”-type foods (yogurt and applesauce aren’t allowed through security). I’m not sure if it helped that they were frozen, but we had a good argument that they were a “solid”.
Yes, but no snakes. (Actually, no, they probably wouldn’t let you take it aboard. You might try to clunk somebody over the head with it.)
Like everything else, it depends on the specific TSA agent that happens to check your bags. Some are more vigilant than others. They shouldn’t let you, because the whole theory of not allowing liquids is that it could be some sort of explosive – that wouldn’t change if it was just frozen, and could be thawed. But with all the stuff the agents let through that aren’t supposed to be allowed, I’d say you have about a 50% chance.
(worse that’s going to happen is the agent will say “You can’t take this” and they’ll throw it away.)
@sndfreQ – I’ve taken empty water bottles through before with no issue. Actually, they let me through with a (sealed) cup of applesauce today.. and I’m pretty sure it’s more than 3 ounces.
@MissAnthrope And tomorrow they might strip search you for trying to do the same thing!
No offense, but I’m not sure how a bottle of frozen water would help your immediate thirst problem.
The idea was to have some ice in a bottle, then once through security, fill the remainder up with water from a fountain and make ice water. I thought of it because I could always fill a bottle from the fountain, but once it gets warm, it tastes very crappy to me. Warm tap water tends to attain a metallic taste I don’t like.
Answer this question 
This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.
Composing members:
0
