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US bans cigarette lighters from airplanes
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-15 07:51
WASHINGTON - Starting Thursday, air travelers will have to leave their
lighters at home. Unlike guns, knives and other dangerous items that a passenger
cannot carry aboard but may stow in checked bags, lighters are banned everywhere
on a plane.
The rule change is expected to produce a large number of seizures of lighters
even though airports, airlines and the government have been telling travelers
for the past 45 days about the impending ban.
Airline passengers
file past a new sign prohibiting lighters past an airport security
checkpoint at the San Francisco International Airport April 14, 2005. The
Transportation Security Administration began enforcing a ban on cigarette
lighters from the secure areas of airports and onboard aircraft.
[Reuters] | "I'm sure we'll have a bunch of them,"
said George Doughty, executive director of Lehigh Valley International Airport
in Allentown, Pa.
TSA screeners already seize a half-million prohibited items every month.
They've been more vigilant about finding and confiscating banned items than were
the private screeners who worked at airports before the Sept. 11, 2001,
hijackings.
Lighters haven't been permitted in checked bags for at least 30 years because
they might start fires in cargo holds. Congress passed a bill last year adding
lighters to the list of items prohibited in the cabin.
The genesis for the ban was Richard Reid, who tried unsuccessfully to light
explosives hidden in his shoes on a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001. He used
matches.
The sponsors of the ban, Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and
Ron Wyden of Oregon, worried that a lighter might have worked.
"This is a commonsense step to protect passengers in the face of a proven
threat," Wyden said.
A Transportation
Security Administration officer shows off some of the 160 some lighters
taken from passengers going through security at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta
International Airport in Atlanta early Thursday, April 14, 2005. Starting
Thursday, air travelers have to leave their lighters at home. Unlike guns,
knives and other dangerous items that a passenger cannot carry aboard but
may stow in checked bags, lighters are banned everywhere on a plane.
[AP] | Mark Peterson, a Sioux Falls, S.D.,
appraiser who was grabbing a smoke outside Reagan Washington National Airport on
Wednesday, wondered why it took so long.
"It's been 3 1/2 years since 9/11 and they've finally figured it out,"
Peterson said.
The ban does not include matches. Passengers still may carry aboard a plane
up to four books of safety matches. Not allowed on planes are "strike anywhere"
matches, which can be struck using any abrasive surface.
David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, said the lighter
ban is long overdue. But he said matches ought to be included, too.
"The problem with the TSA on the matches is the inability to detect them,"
Stempler said.
Kevin Mitchell, president of the Business Travel Coalition, said the ban on
lighters amounted to "silliness in the extreme."
"It only adds to consumer confusion and longer lines, and longer lines
represent a security threat," Mitchell said.
Wehns Billen, visiting Washington from Micronesia for a conference, said he
was told of the impending ban by his airline. He left his expensive lighter at
home.
People can mail prohibited items, take them to their cars or give them to
someone who is not traveling. Otherwise, seized items are not returned.
"The whole thing is silly," Billen said. "I wish they'd put a smoking section
on the plane."
Billen may be typical of overseas travelers. They are more likely to smoke
than U.S. citizens, said Steve van Beek, executive vice president of the
Airports Council International, which represents airport officials.
"How are we going to notify every other passenger in the world connecting
through and transiting the United States that their lighters are going to be
seized?" van Beek said.
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