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As any seasoned traveller will tell you, one of the greatest joys of only flying with carry-on luggage is being able to escape the airport before the scrum begins at the carousel. The downside of course is that you have to queue at security screening, with your laptop and toiletries in hand, while passengers who have obviously never been through an airport before struggle to understand why certain items are not allowed on a plane.
Well imagine being stuck in the queue behind the Ford employee who rocked up to the x-ray machine with an engine block in his carry-on. Now the fact that an engine can fit in a small suitcase is easily explained by the fact that the one in question was Ford's tiny little 1.0-litre EcoBoost unit, the block of which will comfortably sit on an A4 sheet of paper. But how, in God's earth, did the passenger in question think an engine would make it through security?
Well it seems somebody in Ford logistics did their homework, having contacted the America's TSA (Transport Security Administration) to check that carrying an engine onto a Detroit to LA flight was ok. Though the TSA has a list of banned items including snow globes and cranberry sauce, once the engine was removed from the suitcase and placed into a plastic tub for x-ray then it had no issues with the engine.
While the TSA had no problem with it you can be sure Michael O'Leary is screaming at his computer about them not levelling an 'engine administration' charge on it.