As of Aug. 4, disposable butane lighters, such as Bics, and refillable lighters, like Zippos, will be allowed in your carry-on luggage. The reason given for the change in policy is apparently that it takes too much time and costs too much money to deal with the lighters:
"Explosives remain the most significant threat to aviation," said TSA administrator Kip Hawley. "By enabling our officers to focus on the greatest threats, we are using our officers' time and energy more effectively and increasing security for passengers."
Lighters are the leading item seized at airport checkpoints, an average of more than 22,000 a day. It costs TSA $4 million a year to dispose of them because they contain hazardous materials.
I just experienced this insane world of "airport security," and let me tall ya, I didn't see any lighters being confiscated, but I saw a whole lot of shampoo, lotion, water bottles, and two full cups of perfectly good Dunkin Donuts coffee bought mere feet from the security checkpoint. (And I'm still mad about that coffee!) So I'm not sure I buy this argument that the lighters are such a hassle. My cup of coffee is more dangerous than a lighter?
I'm sorry, but I see no reason for lighters to be allowed on a plane. What possible use would a passenger have for a lighter on a plane? They cannot smoke on the plane, or even in most airports. If there is no public outcry about this, I think I will just move to Canada or something. I mean, there we all are, standing in line at the security checkpoint: barefoot, a quart-size baggie in our hand with 3.4 oz of shampoo (I also must "declare" my bottle of saline solution), moving through the line like sheep.
Kurt Vonnegut, god rest your soul.
3 comments:
If you've never been a smoker then you wouldn't understand how loooong a flight can be. Then to finally get off a flight and have to go track down someplace they sell lighters or have matches is even more frustrating. They're just letting the smokers keep their lighters instead of throwing them away at every airport.
I personally think all the recent security measures are BS. Smaller bottles of shampoo and all that nonsense... having to drink your own breast milk to prove it's "real". I'd like to know how many dangerous substances they've confiscated since starting these new procedures. I'd venture to say NONE! They'll spin that as a success because the terrorists know they can't and blah blah blah. Whatever.
I swear I almost get arrested every time because I am a total wench in those lines and I loudly complain about the stupidity of it all. I mean... they just make you throw it into a big trash can. Is that how we treat possibly harmful/explosive substances?
Okay, so my kid gets the bejesus scared out of him this past Sunday at the San Juan Airport because we accidently left a tube of sunscreen in his backpack, which triggered a major conniption by the local constabulary, BUT NOW we'll be able to take LIGHTERS on an airplane because the TSA folks are TOO DAMN BUSY TO STOP US from doing so?
I know, right? You can't carry on sunscreen but you can carry on a lighter?
I say we start a movement whereby we all pack multiple bottles of cheap shampoo, making it so inconvenient to the TSA that they lift the ban on that, too!
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