It Wasn't Like A Bomb Or Anything

It seems I inadvertantly carried an item prohibited by the Transportation Security Administration, a butane lighter, halfway across the country by commerical airliner without realizing I was breaking the law.

The butane lighter ban was mandated by Congress as a provision in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which was signed into law by the president on December 17.

I had an issue with an expired photo ID item I tried for months to correct before my recent trip. I needed my original birth certificate to renew it and spent four months and sent several repeat checks to secure it from the city in which I was born. But it came the day before I left, so I took along as many documents as I could, including the certificate - and anticipated a bit of a discussion.

Other than a thorough document review, I traveled from the Northeast to the mid-west without incident, going through the standard security check without a problem. That wasn't the case on my way home.

The document glitch led the TSA agent to require me to go through advanced security ... no problem, right? So, when I took out the same butane lighter I carried on the outbound part of my trip and handed it to him, the TSA agent said, "What are you doing trying to carry this on a flight?"

I sort of gulped, "Uh, the same thing I was doing when I carried it over a thousand miles to here by air yesterday?"

Apparently, not. Scratch one butane lighter now sitting in a garbage bin in the mid-west ... and scratching my head as to why I was allowed to carry it in my front shirt pocket without incident on the way out ...

TSA? Maybe not quite so much as we'd like to believe.

The TSA said that after evaluating the security threat, congressional intent and operational considerations, it determined that passengers should be prohibited from carrying any lighter on their person or in carry-on luggage in the secure areas of airports or on board an airplane.

The policy will be fully enforced beginning April 14.

"TSA is moving quickly to implement this provision passed by Congress," said retired Navy Rear Adm. David M. Stone, assistant secretary of homeland security for TSA. "By creating policy to add lighters to the prohibited items list we are closing a potential vulnerability in air travel security."

"Travelers are a valuable partner in the screening process," Stone said. "If they pack smart and avoid bringing lighters to the checkpoint, passengers can accelerate the screening process and allow us to focus on those individuals and items that may be a threat to their flight."

Included in the ban are absorbed-fuel (Zippo-type), electric/battery-powered and novelty lighters.

TSA will dispose of lighters brought to checkpoints. Passengers at some airports may be able to ship them via a private company for a fee, but TSA strongly urges passengers to thoroughly inspect their carry-on and checked baggage for banned items before going to the airport.

Lighters have long been prohibited from checked luggage. The Department of Transportation classifies lighters as hazardous materials.

The possible ban on matches is being delayed by a concern that it would be difficult to enforce, because matches are not easily detectable.

"There is a concern that we just simply do not create rules that inconvenience the public, but do not enhance our security capability. So that's what we're weighing," Department of Homeland Security Under Secretary Asa Hutchinson told Congress last summer.

Comments

[Cernig]

Hi Dan,

That lighter could've been used to fire of some shoe bomber's Nikes.

What are you, an aider of terrorists or something? Careful, or Alberto will take away your right to habeas corpus, never mind habeas butane! Just think, if you'd happened to have a Koran too then by now Michelle would've been blogging about your trip to Gitmo.

Regards (with serious tongue-in-cheek)
Cernig

[Terrance]

If you had checked Fox News, they would have told you that the Terror Alert is ELEVATED. So, be prepared and be afraid. Fair and balanced, thats where its at.

[Cindi]

Fair and balanced means being aware, hardly afraid!

[hobo]

Remember the old 'cherry bombs'? I don't know if they're still around, but if you take a simple explosive like that and set it off in a vulnerable spot of the airliner, it can bring the ship down. I saw the explanation of the scenario not long ago that demonstrated how a small explosive could cause the 'skin' of the aircraft to tear and the force of the air passing over the body will begin to rip the rest of the cover from front to back of the plane. This causes the plane to become completely out of control and thus crashes.

[Carl]

A grown man without a passport - typical con. You guys are such sheltered losers!

[splashtc]

sometimes they take my lighter away-sometimes not. They don't know what they're doing but doing something looks better then doing nothing. It's up to us to keep a watchful eye when flying these days.

[Phoenix]

I have to agree with Splash. The last time I flew, I put my lighter in the bin. I fully expected not to see it come out. It did and I put it back into my purse. Then on the return flight, someone went through my purse and took the lighter. I said, "Oh, please let me keep that!" She did. I smiled real big so I wouldn't look like a terrorist. It worked. :)

[Dan Riehl]

I smiled real big so I

But you are a terrorist, I thought???

[Phoenix]

Well. Yes. But when I smile real big, I look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. I even weave a few haystalks in my hair before I board to really fool them. The important part is that I want my lighter so I can go into those smoking areas at the airports and make small talk through the fog with people with no teeth and too much make-up and that lean and hungry look about them. That experience keeps me real. I also like to lend my lighter out to feeming flyers whose lighters were absconded because they look like terrorists.