Well, here’s a news flash.
Screeners at U.S. airports will stop confiscating common cigarette lighters because authorities now consider them a distraction from efforts to find bombs and other threats, officials said on Friday.
[…] Lighters are the most confiscated item at airport security checkpoints — about 22,000 per day, the Homeland Security Department’s Transportation Security Administration said. The number has gone as high as 35,000.
The lighter ban went into effect after Richard Reid tried to light off a “shoe bomb” on a plane. Of course, he used matches — which were never banned — but security theater demanded that lighters be confiscated, too.
Ironically, by possibly reducing or delaying smoking, the lighter ban probably saved more lives than the whole post-9/11 screening process.
No word yet on whether lighters will have to be carried in your little transparent zip-lock bag with the rest of your Dangerous Liquids. I’m not sure how they’ll justify visual inspection of tiny shampoos if lighters (full of, you know, known flammable liquids) pass unseen.
(via Ginny)
Homeland Security has no idea what they’re doing with regard to the airline industry. It’s only a matter of time before something bad happens again.
Remarkable quote from a TSA head:
Well, duh.
That was from here.