new TSA rules prohibiting lighters on aircraft

[archman]

According to a business associate who has a family member who is a TSA big wig, the lighter ban came about due to a Congresscritter who had a lot of political pull. The critter, not sure who, thought lighters and matches were dangerous. The associate said that TSA had no problem with lighters, but gave in when the political clout was too much.

Yeah, that's what I heard too. Purely political origin; little/no science or case studies to back it up. Hopefully this will get lighters removed from the no-fly list in the near future. I'm not buying a special zippo case!

 

[Jeff Toorish]

Going back to my original statement, congress doing what it does best...making mistakes.

You know, one of these days, we're going to get fed up with this nonsense and actually remind these folks who is in charge in this country.

Jeff

 

[ScubaTexan]

So, in all likelihood, if you were to air mail a special lighter to someone, chances are it would be confiscated, right?

 

[archman]

So, in all likelihood, if you were to air mail a special lighter to someone, chances are it would be confiscated, right?

Shush! Don't give anyone ideas...

 

[MikeC]

Check with the Post Office. The other day I had an odd item to mail and the USPS was stumped. I post on a firearms board like this. Some guy wanted a dummy .50 round for a project for his kid. A .50 round looks somewhat like a mini ballistic missile.

A local store had them cheap, a real spent casing with a small hole drilled in the side near the head (base) and a bullet seated. The lady at the counter flat out told me she had no idea, she checked her books live ammo has special rules and she could see that it wasn't live. She gave me a number to call, no help, they gave me another number to call and the person at the second number told me to go ask a gun shop if it was OK... When I told the counter lady this she groaned. She accepted the package and then said "it just might cause problems when they x-ray the bag before they load the plane". A few days later the guy emailed me saying they got it.

 

[RonFrank]

I have put a bic lighter in my pocket, and walked through the scanner... Never been a problem.

If they catch me, I'll apologize, and throw it away... They are NOT going to arrest anyone for having a lighter in their pocket as even the TSA folks are not stupid enough to attempt to arrest everyone who has a lighter with them when they go to the airport.

Judging from the huge box full of lighters and other *wicked* banned items that I witnessed at the Denver Airport, if they were to arrest everyone who violated the rules, there would be more people in jail then on the airlines.

IMO, if you want to have a lighter (and they are VERY handy to have regardless of if one smokes or no) then just put it in your pocket, and walk on through the scanner. There is not enough metal in the thing to set off the detector.

 

[DandyDon]

BTW, you know this is a public forum, we have TSA employees as members, and they read this - with the good sense to not respond.

 

[HowardE]

So, in all likelihood, if you were to air mail a special lighter to someone, chances are it would be confiscated, right?

Hazardous materials are prohibited from being mailed at all through the post office.

The only way to "legally" ship any lighter (except for an un-fuelled zippo) is by UPS or other GROUND carrier, and pay the extra HAZ-MAT fee (which is $10 per box). I know it's insane, but we buy lighters for our stores, and thus I have first hand experience with this. So, in reality, it is already "illegal" to ship a lighter via Air shipment, and this has been the rule for a long time.

BTW, you know this is a public forum, we have TSA employees as members, and they read this - with the good sense to not respond.

I wonder if these new regulations, regarding zippos has filtered down to all employees who work at the TSA. I mean, I only have 16 employees, and know how difficult it is to get all of them to know a new policy... I have no idea how many thousand employees work at the TSA.

 

[HowardE]

I had to give an update since I flew yesterday again (my 6th flight since my last post here) and I got nabbed for having a lighter.

The TSA woman at the x-ray says to a cohort, "looks like a lighter in here"

the TSA guy grabs my computer backpack (where my laptop lives during travel) we walk over to the searching counter. He says to me, "You know you can't fly with lighters now"

I said, "Yeah, since last April"

He proceeds to look through the bag, and still can't find a lighter. He pulls 3 cigars out, a whole mess of paper work, etc... but no lighter.

I said, "I can help you find it if you want"

He goes to the X-Ray again, sees it's position... opens the bag again, and found it! "Eureka" I said.... and I was on my way... I didn't want to tell him that he was the first to bust me for a lighter in numerous flights since last April...

After being delayed for 3 minutes... I was on my way... sans lighter.

He did not take my matches though

 

[DandyDon]

Lubbock TSA Agents are really pretty nice, usually, so I try to be polite with them even tho I have a lot of problems with the program.

My roll-on, computer bag, seperate laptop, shoes, vest all started rolling thru the xray machine yesterday, a two agent conference ensued, and I thought maybe they saw mine in the baggy with the jumpdrive and SD card. Nope, they just wanted to look at my tripod in the other bag.

If they ever find mine, I'm gonna' be dumb. "Oh, there is is."

I still shudder about the pocket knife that got stuck in the top of my waterproof cig case, rode thru several airports, with the case actually finally inspected in Lubbock but the knife not found.

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