As the nation braces for potentially
extended airport security lines because of the federal budget sequester, the
Travel Security Administration (TSA) has announced they will allow small pocket
knives and certain sporting goods on planes for the first time in more than a
decade.
TSA
Administrator John Pistole announced the change today at an aviation security
conference in New York.
Starting April
25, passengers flying on U.S. flights will be allowed to carry small pocket
knives - blades less than 6-centimeters, up to two golf clubs, ski poles, as
well as sporting sticks used for hockey, lacrosse, and billiards. Baseball bats
will remain on the no-fly list, though wiffle-ball bats and souvenir baseball
bats (less than 24-inches long) will be allowed.
“These are
popular items we see regularly,” agency spokesman David Castelveter told
Bloomberg News. “They don’t present a risk to transportation
security.”
The move comes
following a recommendation by a TSA working group that such items are not a
security threat. The move will conform to international rules that currently
allow the small knives and sporting goods.
“Frankly, I
don’t want TSA agents to be delayed by these,” Pistole told the audience. Adding
that TSA screeners at Los Angeles International Airport in the last three months
of 2012, seized 47 of the small knives per day.
The Flight
Attendants Union Coalition, which represents the 90,000 flight attendants on
carriers nationwide, blasted the announcement calling it “poor and
shortsighted.”
“Continued
prohibition of these items is an integral layer in making our aviation system
secure and must remain in place,” the statement said. “As the last line of
defense in the cabin and key aviation partners, we believe that these proposed
changes will further endanger the lives of all Flight Attendants and the
passengers we work so hard to keep safe and secure.”
Razor blades and
box-cutters, like those used by the 9/11 terrorists, will still be
banned.
“There is just
too much emotion involved with those,” Pistole said at the
conference.
The
Transportation Security Administration announced last week they would be
reducing “frontline workforce,”
those who screen passengers prior to accessing a flight gate, and thereby lead
to increased passenger wait times at airport security
checkpoints.
The cuts come
from a freeze of airport security screeners hiring and cutbacks on overtime, due
to sequestration. ABC News
Flyers reacted
with shrugs but largely agreed with the new policy. “It’s common sense,” said
Pat O’Brien, who stood at Los Angeles International Airport after arriving from
Durango, Colo. “You can make anything into a knife so I don’t have a problem
with it at all. You can sharpen a credit card to make a sharp
implement.” In 2005, the TSA
changed its policies to allow passengers to carry on airplanes small scissors,
knitting needles, tweezers, nail clippers and up to four books of matches.
Time When TSA banned
almost everything from carry-on bags after 9/11, Douglas Laird, a consultant who
was security director for the old Northwest Airlines says, the rest of the world
didn't follow. And that's led to problems with passengers facing different rules
depending on where they board a plane. USA Today Airline insurers
are also concerned about harm to crew and passengers, and damage to the plane
that could result from the change. USA Today
AN/DT
- Latest News
- Top Hits