Thursday, April 21, 2005
Lighters Banned From Airlines
Another item has been banned from airplanes, and anyone caught with one will have to give it up as they pass through security.
Lighters cannot be placed in checked luggage, either. They have been banned from being checked for 30 years.
But officials say that matches are still allowed, mostly because the government says they would be too hard to detect at checkpoints.
Another reason I’m glad I don’t smoke.
It was explained, “If you’re going through the security check point, we’ll detect it, and tell the passenger to either take it back to their car, or give it to a loved one that’s seeing them off. Or they can give it to us, and we’ll dispose of it properly. But once you turn over something to us, and you surrender it to us at the security check point, you won’t get it back.”
The Transportation Security Administration has banned lighters in fear that they could be used to light explosives on a plane.
