TSA to lift ban on most lighters on planes
TSA administrator Kip Hawley says “Taking lighters away [from passengers] is security theater,” and agency will allow most lighters on board as of 4 August
The 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by nineteen hijackers who carried box cutters on board. It is thus understandable that much of the emphasis since 9/11 on improving avaiation security has been placed on banning potentially risky items from being carried on board by passengers. During the past year, however, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has relaxed some of the rules governing banned items. This is partially the result of improving safety on board (for example, installing impregnable cockpit doors, having air marshals on some flights), and partially the result of placing more emphasis on baggage screening. The most recent rule relaxation by TSA: Passengers on U.S. flights will be able to bring many types of cigarette lighters on board flights again starting next month, as federal authorities found a two-year-old ban on the devices did little to make flying safer. “Taking lighters away is security theater,” TSA chief Kip Hawley told the New York Times yesterday. Starting 4 August, air travelers will be allowed to carry on disposable butane lighters, such as Bics, and refillable lighters, including Zippos. A prohibition on torch-style lighters, which have hotter flames, will continue.
Lighters have been barred from checked bags for decades because of concerns that the lighters might start fires in cargo holds. Congress decided to stop air travelers from carrying lighters aboard after Richard Reid used matches to try to light explosives hidden in his shoes while on a Paris-to-Miami flight in 2001. Lawmakers worried that Reid might have succeeded if he had had a lighter. The lighter ban took effect in April 2005. Security screeners now collect an average of 22,000 lighters a day, and it costs about $4 million a year to dispose of them.
Hawley said confiscating lighters did little to make flying safer, as other items could be used to detonate bombs. “The No. 1 threat for us is someone trying to bring bomb components through the security checkpoint,” the TSA administrator said. “We don’t want anything that distracts concentration from searching for that.”
