Posted on 12/08/2004 2:40:01 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Passengers already are barred from smoking on commercial flights. Now they won't be allowed to bring their butane lighters on board either.
As part of the intelligence reform bill passed Wednesday, Congress added the lighters to the long list of banned items, including scissors, pen knives and box cutters.
Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota had pushed for the change for more than a year after learning the Transportation Security Administration allowed them on planes.
"When I found out that they had explicitly, in their rule, said you could take two butane lighters and four books of matches on board, I thought, 'What have they been drinking?'" Dorgan said. Matches still are allowed.
Dorgan cited FBI reports that would-be "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid would have been able to ignite his explosive and blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner three years ago if he'd brought a butane lighter with him.
Wyden and Dorgan were so persistent in their campaign against the incendiary devices that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., joked earlier this year that he never thought butane lighters would get so much attention.
"This is probably not the biggest thing in the world," Dorgan said. "But it's one of those areas where a big government agency couldn't develop a little bit of common sense about something so obvious."
The ban takes effect 60 days after President Bush signs the intelligence reform bill into law.
Since you have never been overseas, please refrain from making comments about overseas airports.
You can put you pocket knife in your checked baggage. You can't put your lighter in your checked baggage.
Haha...I actually don't really have a problem with this - so long as matches are still allowed...I just wish they could focus more on certain things such as dealing with the truly suspicious people rather than taking fingernail clippers and lighters away from ordinary citizens. I "get it" that it's a sacrifice we must all deal with to increase our security and I can handle it (and I've never personally had any sort of problem or extra scrutiny at airport security) but I just can't help feeling that there are more pressing issues...such as better scrutiny of the defiite types of individuals who seek to do us harm - they tend to have cetain traits in common and yet it is a crime to use this FACT in seeking these people out!
I prefer to pilot a Mooney 201 with the turbo bullet conversion.....must faster......and has been known to carry an AR-15, Glock, and a Black Powder Rifle along with alcohol,cigarettes, and god forbid a lighter when I travel to the hunting camp.......
I am a rebel...hahahahahaha
Ever heard of the shoe bomber? If he had had a lighter instead of wet matches we would have had another airliner brought down.
well, I guess they will need to ban credit cards also...it is very easy to file down the side of a credit card to a razors edge, and you do not need a nail file to do it...grin
Congrats on hitting all three jurisdictions of the BATF.
Alcohol, tobacco and firearms, who's bringing the chips?
Speaking of flying overseas...Not ALL commercial flights have banned smoking. As far as I know there are still a few holdouts that allow it. I flew to Moscow on Aeroflot in November of 2001 and it was a smoking flight. I don't know if they have changed their policy yet - but as far as I know they have not.
Four months after and one month before Aeroflot crashes. Congratulations for coming back alive.
Yes, I have. The primary source of the threat was the presence of explosives in his shoe, not the presence of matches. Because shoes were also involved in that particular attempt, should we ban them next? How about the freedom to use your hands on a flight? Handcuffing all passengers certainly would have inhibited the shoe bomber's efforts.
Material bans on airlines need to be acutely focused on actual threats. Not on potential accessory or tangential items. That tendency is rapidly leading to ludicrous ends: Ban belts; they could be used to hold dynamite around a terrorist's waist. Ban tape; there is nearly always some electrical tape used in those bombs. Etc.. ad nauseam
TSA: If your intention is to bankrupt the airlines, then just keep on doin' what yer doin'.
Four months later smoking was banned on all flights.
Thanks! They were uneventful flights. I didn't know about the crashes though. But then...the way I see it - I am more likely to get killed in my car, which I drive every single day...If I want to travel somewhere - I get the most direct route with the best price I can find. If I had a bigger bank account I'd be more discerning in what airlines I fly but alas....I have to go for the best deals (within reason that is!)!!
On Aeroflot you mean? Thanks for the info!
>>> anyone ever been harmed with a lighter on any flight? <<<
Yes they have. I thought they were banded along time ago. I know they’ve been banded
from Naval aircraft for over 25 years.
Because of the reduced air pressure in the cabin can turn one of these into a flame-thrower. Shooting flame 6 or more feet. ( the cabin is pressurized but not to sea level)
I doubt it... they'll have to throw the Multiculturalist Politically Correctist Internationalist Socialist Communist faction (i.e. 2/3 of the Demonrat Party) out before that will fly as a "Party Platform".
However... there's a distinct possibility that a 3rd party could use the issue and *really* siphon off enough votes to throw the election to the Demonrats again, as happened in 1992 - particularly if we get another islamikazi attack between now and then.
LOL... Then they should definitely be banned from all commercial airliners.
Until now, if one wanted to legally transport a butane lighter, one either had to ship it via UPS ground, paying hazmat fees, or transport it on one's person. Now anyone seeking the latter course will have to take a bus, train, boat, or private conveyance.
Checking butane lighters was dangerous and illegal long before 9/11.
The transport of butane lighters in checked baggage is dangerous and illegal, and has forbidden since long before 9/11.
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