Search carry-on or checked baggage by hand when it is suspected to contain prohibited items such as weapons.

“Search carry-on or checked baggage by hand when it is suspected to contain prohibited items such as weapons.” is a core task performed by Transportation Security Screeners. Among the occupation's 26 rated tasks, workers place it 25th by importance (#2 most important). About 93% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Inspect characteristics or conditions of materials or products. in Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Inspect carry-on items, using x-ray viewing equipment, to determine whether items contain objects that warrant further investigation. · importance 4.9
• View images of checked bags and cargo, using remote screening equipment, and alert baggage screeners or handlers to any possible problems. · importance 4.7
• Check passengers' tickets to ensure that they are valid, and to determine whether passengers have designations that require special handling, such as providing photo identification. · importance 4.7
• Test baggage for any explosive materials, using equipment such as explosive detection machines or chemical swab systems. · importance 4.7
• Perform pat-down or hand-held wand searches of passengers who have triggered machine alarms, who are unable to pass through metal detectors, or who have been randomly identified for such searches. · importance 4.7
• Notify supervisors or other appropriate personnel when security breaches occur. · importance 4.6
• Send checked baggage through automated screening machines, and set bags aside for searching or rescreening as indicated by equipment. · importance 4.6
• Decide whether baggage that triggers alarms should be searched or should be allowed to pass through. · importance 4.6
• Locate suspicious bags pictured in printouts sent from remote monitoring areas, and set these bags aside for inspection. · importance 4.6
• Follow those who breach security until police or other security personnel arrive to apprehend them. · importance 4.6
• Inform other screeners when baggage should not be opened because it might contain explosives. · importance 4.5
• Inspect checked baggage for signs of tampering. · importance 4.4
• Ask passengers to remove shoes and divest themselves of metal objects prior to walking through metal detectors. · importance 4.4
• Close entry areas following security breaches or reopen areas after receiving notification that the airport is secure. · importance 4.3

See all tasks on the Transportation Security Screeners page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-15348,
  title  = {Search carry-on or checked baggage by hand when it is suspected to contain prohibited items such as weapons.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-15348}
}