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Here's what happens to your luggage after checking it at Detroit Metro Airport

Posted at 5:56 AM, Mar 21, 2022
and last updated 2022-03-21 06:52:00-04

(WXYZ) — As soon as you check in to the airport your bag is on a trip of its own and sometimes it gets a little more attention than you thought.

"We have layered security," Detroit TSA Federal Security Director Steve Lorincz said. "So one of the things we want to do is not just have one system in place. We have multiple systems in place."

From K-9s to cameras and x-ray machines security is tight. It's basically an organized maze.

"Every checked bag that comes down is going to come down one of these conveyer belts through the entire length of the terminal," Lorincz said.

Then it is sent into a large x-ray machine and if the x-ray flags something, "that item is sent to a separate room. It's called the resolution room," Lorincz said.

In the resolution room, your bag is put on a robot and transferred to a station where a TSA agent inspects the bag.

With about 1,100 flights per day and nearly 37 million passengers a year, agents say they inspect tens of thousands of bags every day.

They say prohibited items like pepper spray, fireworks, flammable aerosols, and lithium batteries come up often.

But one of the biggest threats or dangers is loaded firearms that are not being properly transported.

When agents find one, they notify law enforcement.

"We also notify the customer that the bag belongs to and we go to protocols to make sure we mitigate it," Lorincz said.

Those people, if caught, do not get to fly that day and are turned over to the prosecutor's office to face charges.