I can tell you exactly what they do as this happened to me ~9 months ago when I had inadvertently left an e-cigarette in a checked suitcase. I was indeed paged (I was airside) to report to a service desk, where the (quite friendly) staff led me through secure areas into the bowels of the airport, where my suitcase was awaiting me on what could be described as an "off-ramp" to the baggage roller system. I was then requested to open my suitcase and retrieve the offending item, did so, and all was well.
> I've checked batteries dozens of times and never give it a second thought
I suspect that if you start travelling through more modern airports with the kind of enhanced screening that got me you'll definitely be giving it a second thought... I also have checked them dozens of times but as screening gets updated it's looking like a thing of the past.
[No snark intended but] can you give us a definition of "modern" so I can compare against where I usually check my batteries from?
OT, but I did once attempt to get a hot chocolate brownie with ice-cream topping through gate security at FRA; the x-ray operator was fine with it but his colleague called the supervisor over. I was eating it (quickly) while she and I were debating whether ice-cream was "a liquid", she really didn't like that. I handed the last 1/10th back :)
Ah, I should have probably said "airports with modern equipment" as I presume this stuff is susceptible to periodic updates regardless of the age of the airport. I suppose it does need a fairly recent baggage management system. For reference, it happened to me at Adelaide airport in Australia, which is about 10 years old. I guess then by modern I mean any first-world airport built within the last decade or so?
As noted I've flown with li-on and everything else in checked baggage a million times too and it was the first time it happened to me, so I assume the mandate is fairly recent.
That story is ridiculous, but makes me wonder what would happen if you tried to bring through a frozen bottle of water?
Not only for stray batteries, it's screened for all kinds of things, including drugs, bombs and other non-allowed items or dangerous stuff.
To my knowledge, if they do find something, you'll have some security guards come up to you and escort you to a separate section of the airport where you will be unpacking your luggage and remove the offending item, then repackage and you can go on (or not if the offense is too great to ignore).
I'm saying I have dozens of personal counter-examples to this claim, including another one from this morning, specifically relating to travelling with checked luggage containing batteries.
Hypothesis #1: maybe the "no batteries" policy is nowhere near as strictly enforced as people think it is?
Hypothesis #2: maybe other aspects of aviation security are nowhere near as strictly enforced as people think they are?
Who knows, maybe it is mostly security theatre?
IIRC the US has the TSA but Airports can outsource to other third parties if the TSA permits it.
I don't see how that question is really relevant considering your bag will be atleast xrayed by one of the two at some point.
1. Open the luggage themselves
2. Remove the item containing the battery
3. Replace it with a note saying that the item was removed
4. Close the luggage back up
5. Put the luggage back on the plane
6. Discard the item
What are you going to do, sue them? Post bad things about them on social media?
If 'X' is genuinely dangerous, then always deal with X as if it were actually dangerous[1]; if X is however not dangerous, stop pretending.
[1] for instance the policy of confiscating >100ml bottles of liquid at airport security "because reasons" then have agents simply stuff these dangerous liquids into one large bin and leave them there at the screening point for hours.
Whether or not that is "sane" or "right" or "wrong" isn't material to my counter-point.
Not carry that bag on your flight and leave the airline scrambling to reunite passenger with luggage?
Page the passenger (who is almost certainly airside by that point) and try to get them to come (where?) to repack/deal with the contents? I've never heard of a facility where an airside passenger can temporarily get access to hold baggage once it's been screened. Wouldn't the passenger and the hold bag each have to go back through the relevant screening channel after this interaction?
I've checked batteries dozens of times and never give it a second thought. As it turns out, I had two sets of brand-new NiMH AAs in my checked luggage this morning.