hepburn
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posted on September 23, 2001 06:26:25 PM new
Banned in Flight:
New Rules for Carry-On Luggage
By George Hobica
Back in the early days of air travel, passengers carried on board nothing heavier than a small flight bag filled with something to read, essential medications and perhaps a baby bottle. Today, we're accustomed to bringing much more with us. But in light of the tragic events of Sept. 11, there are new restrictions on what we can pack in our carry-ons.
U.S. airlines now prohibit what they call, broadly, "cutting instruments" -- basically anything with which you can cut or puncture something or someone. There is no comprehensive list of what kinds of sharp or dangerous objects are restricted, so use your common sense. (Just because a bow and arrow isn't on the no-fly list, don't try to sneak it onboard.).
Here's a partial list of banned items:
Previously forbidden, carry-on or checked luggage:
-- toy guns
-- fireworks
-- explosives
-- butane lighter refills
-- paints
-- bleaches
Newly forbidden carry-on items:
-- knives, scissors or shears of any kind
-- nail clippers
-- straight-edged and certain other razors
-- box and carpet cutters
-- ice picks
-- "cutting instruments" of any kind
Banned by some foreign airlines and airports:
-- darts
-- baseball bats
-- pool cues
-- knitting needles
Because the regulations are somewhat open to interpretation by individual security agents and airports, it's better to err on the side of safe rather than sorry. And to make things even more challenging, airport and civil aviation authorities outside the U.S. may have their own set of rules.
To sum up, here's a good rule of thumb: if you have the slightest doubt that an item you're carrying might be construed as a sharp, potentially dangerous item or a weapon of any kind, then pack it in your checked luggage. Even better:Minimize what you carry on board as much as possible. As always, never put essential medications, valuables such as jewelry and expensive or fragile equipment such as cameras in checked luggage -- but now would be a great time to take a big step backward to the golden age of air travel and just bring on board a good book. This will speed you through security, and prevent any questionable items from being confiscated.
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Ok, I can see knitting needles...they are long and pointy and could do some major damage. But NAIL clippers?
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bunnicula
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posted on September 23, 2001 06:33:33 PM new
I can see some of the things on the list being prohibited in carry-ons. Banning nail clippers is a bit ridiculous.
But pens and pencils can be used as weapons (& quite effective ones)--why aren't they on the list?
edited for UBB 
[ edited by bunnicula on Sep 23, 2001 06:46 PM ]
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saabsister
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posted on September 23, 2001 06:36:08 PM new
Maybe it's the file that most nail clippers have that worries them.
And we know that the pen is mightier than the sword.
[ edited by saabsister on Sep 23, 2001 06:37 PM ]
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plsmith
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posted on September 23, 2001 06:43:58 PM new
A properly trained commando could make a lethal weapon out of a shoelace. Are bags being withheld if found to contain piano wire? Wayyyyyy too many means of killing people in this world, Hepburn, for our government or airlines to catch them all. Personally, I'm with Barbara Walters, chronic dieter, who went out to dinner recently and had steak, a baked potato, and two slices of chocolate cake. That's the American way...
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GreetingsfromUK
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posted on September 23, 2001 07:12:50 PM new
Just out of interest. My nephew flew back to NYC a week ago. He is a diabetic and had great problems in getting his medication on the flight. Current state of play here is that all UK flights cease at midnight UK time on Monday as insurance cover will not meet minimum required by law to fly.
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roofguy
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posted on September 23, 2001 07:24:40 PM new
But pens and pencils can be used as weapons (& quite effective ones)--why aren't they on the list?
Because the list is absurd.
They leave things like pens, pencils, and keys off because they would face a revolt if everyone had to check such things.
The weakness was not the presence on aircraft of small knives. The weakness was the willingness of the crew to surrender control of the aircraft rather than to enlist the aid of the passengers in subduing the lightly armed but obviously brutal hijackers.
This weakness was understandable. Always before in a hijacking the passengers and crew were valuable alive, and surrendering was highly likely to succeed in staying alive. Common sense suggests that this reaction would not be repeated any time soon.
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GreetingsfromUK
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posted on September 23, 2001 07:54:38 PM new
Bumped for US media. No aircraft will be flying in UK from midnight Monday UK time as they cannot get Insurance cover. Insurance cover has been reduced from $1.5 billion per incident to $50 million per incident. UK airlines cannot legally fly with only cover for $50 million liablity
[ edited by GreetingsfromUK on Sep 23, 2001 08:09 PM ]
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gravid
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posted on September 23, 2001 08:25:24 PM new
Two key rings and a piece of kevlar thread make a weapon.
A plastic letter opener with the edge filed into serrations.
A small embroidery hoop /the finger from a rubber gloove and a small bag of marbles make a projectile weapon.
A plastic gun can be make from a fiber wound lexan barrel
that screws into a combustion chamber that is fueled with standard butane lighters and is electrically ignited to shoot glass marbles
Standard .22 cartridges can be emptied of smokeless propellant /cleaned and refilled with black powder that is not detected by sniffing machines or dogs. Hidden in a pen body or clipped on a circuit board to look like components in an x-ray. Loaded in an assembled plastic gun that has a barrel liner from a pen or other tubular object. The lead bullets replaced with hard brass bullets with a pointed cone shape that will go through body armor. A dummy cell phone makes a nice grip and has the batteries to power it. A laser pointer makes a nice aiming system. People know what the little red dot means.
Take a pocket clip on Maglite - make the back cap a spring loaded weight with a firing pin on the front. Replace the back battery with a .410 shotgun shell loaded with black powder.
Leave the front battery and put in a bulb that will run off one battery in case they ask you to demonstarte the light. In the plane take off the front reflector and lamp - remove the front battery - aim and pull back the rear cap and let it snap forward - boom.
single shot / shot gun. Clamp on handle if you want to be fancy.
A video camera or lap top computer holds two lasers that slightly ionize the air in two parallel invisable beams about 3 - 4 inches apart. A third laser at a visable frequency is your aiming beam. You aim the two beams at your person or electronic equipment you wish to disrupt and trigger a switch that discharges a large capacitor at high voltage down one laser beam thru the target and back up the other beam. recharges in 10 seconds.
If that is too hard for you to make use two parallel squirt gun mechanisms with salt water and a trigger that discharges the capacitor a tenth of a second after the squirt.
I could go on and on. It is too easy. If people want a weapon they will have one. You'd have to board them buck naked. For some people their hands are a weapon. Doesn't even help to cuff them. I have seen people that can jerk standard police cuffs apart in one quick pull without breaking any bones.
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HopelessSinner-07
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posted on September 23, 2001 08:32:07 PM new
gravid
You are far to knowledgeable on this subject..
I have the FBI hot line on my speed dealer...I’d
hate to have to turn ya in...
.
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gravid
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posted on September 23, 2001 08:45:37 PM new
You are too late - another AW user sent a secret service agent out to scope us out for a similar crime of knowing too much. He had to be doing it as a professional courtesy because he did not want to show his ID and snatched it back when my wife tried to look at it, also did not check in with the campus police first where my wife works. We inquired of his office if he was really SS and they confirmed it but did not appreciate me tailing him and providing a real time imaige of him having lunch to make the ID. He was munching a pastrami sandwich oblivious to the fact he was being observed which does not look good. About 30 seconds after I wireless e-mailed the imaige and she faxed it to them he got a call on his phone. I imaigine they wanted to know if he was indeed sitting in a deli chowing out. Technology is so much fun.
[ edited by gravid on Sep 23, 2001 08:51 PM ]
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gravid
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posted on September 23, 2001 08:50:11 PM new
UK - That news about airline insurance is worthy of it's own thread!
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jamesoblivion
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posted on September 23, 2001 08:51:12 PM new
Someone definitely needs to pen the definitive Tales of Gravid Uncensored.
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gravid
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posted on September 23, 2001 08:53:47 PM new
This one needs to research the statutes of limitations in depth before writing anything.
You WOULD think a SS guy would know when he has a tail.
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REAMOND
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posted on September 23, 2001 09:12:09 PM new
I couldn't figure out why the airlines took away the metal knives with meals but left the metal forks.
In any event, I would hate to see what is left of the next potential hijackers when the passengers are through with them.
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hepburn
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posted on September 23, 2001 09:18:55 PM new
Does this mean we will have finger foods, if they took away the utensils? PIZZA!
Gravid, are you SERIOUS? Someone from AW turned you in because you were "suspicious"? Or are you pulling our legs?
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zilvy
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posted on September 23, 2001 09:28:20 PM new
We have had so much input via television and newspapers my confusion is growing. I believe it was American that said they would not be serving meals on long distance flights. McDonalds here we come! Can you imagine how bad the plane would smell if everyone came on board with a bagged McDonalds lunch?
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gravid
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posted on September 23, 2001 09:36:12 PM new
Dead serious. Not funny. Shows why it is good not to use your eBay ID here if people decide to intrude on your life. It is also not the healthiest thing in the world to bother my wife at all. I am somewhat protective. If I thought you were a threat to her it would not matter who you worked with/for - time to move to Bulgaria and live in the hills as a goatkeep.
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HopelessSinner-07
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posted on September 23, 2001 09:40:09 PM new
Don’t stop there gravid
DETAILS...DETAILS
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gravid
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posted on September 23, 2001 09:41:05 PM new
Looking back on airline food I have been served I can't get too upset about them taking it away.
I am not a big drinker and I can sit and read for hours happy as a clam.
However I do mind that the seats are so narrow my shoulders hang about 3 or 4 inches over on each side crowding the other people.
I wear a 22/36 shirt.
As for the utensils....fork you airlines?
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gravid
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posted on September 23, 2001 09:45:05 PM new
Details? Lets say if someone needed convincing to let my sweetie alone it would amuse me to dislocate his shoulders and then break his collar bones so emergency had nothing to work against to reset them. I mean unless he actually touched her.
I admit I have an attitude about her. She is nice I am not. We each have our role.
[ edited by gravid on Sep 23, 2001 09:49 PM ]
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HopelessSinner-07
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posted on September 23, 2001 09:49:27 PM new
Maybe I wont call the FBI....
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gravid
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posted on September 23, 2001 09:59:15 PM new
I can honestly say I have not struck another person in about 8 years and another ten before that.
The second one back I had just got a new job and we went to the cafeteria for coffee break and they had this little hispanic guy that thought it was funny to grab the new man and yell in his face to scare the crap out of him. I turned away from paying and he grabbed the front of my shirt did this act on me and boy did he scare me. So bad I came up with a right under his chin and lifted him right off his feet and laid him out cold on the table behind him. I sat down beside my supervisor and said "Great first day and I am out of here already." He motioned to some fellows and they each took a limb and carried him through a door into the stair well out of sight. "Don't worry about it." He said. "Boy he sure scared you didn't he?" and laughed.
It was never mentioned again. Crazy place.
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zilvy
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posted on September 23, 2001 09:59:27 PM new
Hopeless you are wise beyond your ears!
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gravid
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posted on September 23, 2001 10:09:03 PM new
ears?
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zilvy
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posted on September 23, 2001 10:12:00 PM new
Word Play!  Have you ever seen HoplessSinners ears? me neither!
Have you ever heard the question, "What in the world does he/she have between their ears? Well, his wisdom goes beyond his "ears"!
OK, I admit it, I am tired and silly!!
Spent the better part of the day down on the ocean, enjoying good food, sunny skys, sailboats and nature. The first day I have felt good in a long while.
[ edited by zilvy on Sep 23, 2001 10:16 PM ]
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sulyn1950
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posted on September 23, 2001 10:23:16 PM new
"I can see some of the things on the list being prohibited in carry-ons. Banning nail clippers is a bit ridiculous."
I was born, raised and still live in a tiny Texas town (I escaped for about 10 years, but I have learned never say never).
What's a Saturday night in Texas without a bar room brawl...the next day everyone is talking about it. If it was a really good one, they will be talking about it until the next one.
A few years back, we had a hum dinger and a man was killed. He was killed with nail clippers! It was suppose to be one of those "freak accident" things and the man who did it was not charged by the grand jury. They decided it was self-defense. The other guy supposedly came at him with a knife and all he had on him was the nail clippers. He just happen to have it out cleaning his nails while running his mouth....So, I guess it can happen every 1 in a 1,000,000 instances.
One of my many jobs along life's way was with our local police department. We needed a certified jailer to keep our jail open to hold someone at our facility longer than 12 hours so I got voted to go and become a jailer because I had the least time on the job and nobody else wanted to do it! Shoe laces, belts, paperclips, pens, pencils and nail clippers can all be dangerous to the prisoner and the police officers. The prisoner can either kill or seriously injury himself or the officer/jailer with any of these items, or so I was told, and I had to be sure none of these things remained on anyone put in a cell for any reason. Of course, we mostly just had the guys from the saturday night brawls to deal with and most of them already had all that stuff "removed" during the brawl so I didn't really have much to do!
I am making light of a very serious subject. The nail clipper death is true and I think that just goes to show that if there is a will, someone can find a way. Have you ever seen what a woman's high heel shoe can do to someone????
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HopelessSinner-07
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posted on September 23, 2001 10:23:40 PM new
zilvy .."The first day I have felt good in a long while."
HEY BABY..YOU FORGOT TO TAKE ME WITH YOU...
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zilvy
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posted on September 23, 2001 10:48:18 PM new
I'm sorry, Sssssinner, but I was afraid of what you might pack in your knapsack. I mean I have seen some things that were ahhh ummm different!!
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Shadowcat
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posted on September 23, 2001 11:19:21 PM new
We flew earlier this summer and I had a bag full of meds and supplies that not only were NOT checked by security people but they didn't even ask why I was carrying needles and syringes(and not the little insulin syringes, either).
Made me kind of nervous...
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gravid
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posted on September 23, 2001 11:38:11 PM new
zilvey - Shucks - Down by the ocean playing with sail boats - you don't NEED to get on an airliner!
I have been stuck here with my Alzhiemer's MIL so long we are both going nuts. Can't travel anywhere.
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