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Airport Security Rules (last updated September 25, 2004)
Fahrenheit 9/11 criticizes some of the calls that airport security personnel have made since the September 11, 2001 attacks, suggesting that they have been overzealous.
Transportation Security Administration officials have defended their actions, pointing out that they have intercepted millions of items in recent years. The TSA said in an August 2003 statement that it had intercepted 1,437 firearms, 2.3 million knives, and 49,331 boxcutters from February 2002 through August 2003.
TSA officials have also noted that they have found many concealed weapons, including razor blades hidden in tennis shoes, an artificial leg containing a bayonet inside, and a teddy bear that had a loaded handgun inside and that had been given to a 10-year-old boy by another child he had met in his hotel a few days earlier.
At the same time, TSA officials have worked to eliminate what TSA Administrator James Loy has called "unnecessary rules" and to "ensure that common sense is running neck and neck with security."
Lighters and Matches
While TSA rules do allow people to bring some lighters and matches on board the plane, other TSA rules prohibit passengers from having explosives or other materials that could be lit on board.
TSA rules hold that "Up to 2 lighters and 4 books of safety matches are allowed in your carry-on baggage - NOT checked baggage. Disposable lighters and absorbed liquid lighters are allowed in your carry-on baggage. Lighters with unabsorbed liquid fuel and refillable butane lighters are NOT permitted. Strike anywhere matches are NOT permitted."
Whether or not these rules aid smokers and the tobacco industry, other TSA rules forbid passengers from bringing any flammable items (aerosol cans except in limited quantities), fuels, gasoline, gas torches, lighter fluid, strike-anywhere matches, turpentine and paint thinner, and realistic replicas of incendiaries on board a plane in carry-on or checked-in luggage.
In addition, airports are using more equipment to detect potential explosives in checked luggage. There were 140 explosives detection systems in place to screen checked baggage as of November 2001, and more than 700 such systems were installed over the course of 2002.
As noted in Fahrenheit 9/11, the threat of a terrorist bringing an explosive device onto a plane was demonstrated in December 2001 when Richard Reid was captured while allegedly trying to ignite an explosive device hidden in his shoes during a Dec. 22 flight from Paris to Miami. Reid, aka Abdul Raheem, was charged in January 2002 and pled guilty in January 2003. He was sentenced in December 2003 to life in prison. Reid's attempt led to increased focus on passengers' shoes as a potential location for concealing weapons.
Liquids
As seen in Fahrenheit 9/11, there apparently had been problems with screeners asking passengers to drink or eat from containers of food or liquid. Such requests violated TSA rules, and TSA officials issued a public reminder of their policy in August 2002. "With this policy we are making it crystal clear that the public should not be asked nor agree to drink any liquid or eat any food for security clearance purposes " TSA Administrator James Loy said in an August 22, 2002 statement. TSA rules continue to prohibit passengers from bringing disabling chemicals such as chlorine or liquid bleach on board.
TSA rules regarding how passengers could carry beverages were clarified in the fall of 2002. Under the revised rules, air travelers can carry paper or foam cups through metal detectors, but plastic, glass, metal or ceramic containers must go through x-ray machines and thus must be sealable or spill-proof.
Sources: The Transportation Security Administration is on-line here.
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