My girlfriend saw a woman with some knitting needles on a plane about two weeks ago and remarked to me how her needles were taken away about eight months or so ago.
Ignorant of the rules, I had a Zippo style lighter in my carry-on suitcase from Midway airport to Boston without incident but it was taken away from me in Boston on the return trip. Which made me wonder how hard the Midway people were looking.
Oh, and I’ve flown several times with a metal corkscrew in my carry-on and wondered each time why they didn’t care that I had a fairly decent stabbing instrument on my person.
I heard a blurb recently about a passenger who had snuck two parrots on board in a cardboard box inside a carry-on. They escaped and were flying around the cabin. Wouldn’t a wiggling live animals be obvious in the x-ray??
And speaking of air marshalls, there was a short news item on Lehrer that said the program hasn’t been very successful; would-be ne’er-do-wells are warned by the uniforms the marshalls have to wear, and their special check-in procedures. :rolleyes:
The key to getting these past security is to call them “eyeglass tools.” I have a set in my toilet kit, and every time it goes through security they pull me aside and try to confiscate them. Say the magic words and off you go unmolested.
Security expert Bruce Schneier calls it “Security Theater”, because as people have said it’s about demonstrations to make people feel secure, not actually making them secure.
A friend of mine has rather fragile fingernails, so she tends to keep a small tube of superglue in her purse at all times.
Yep, they confiscated her superglue.
“Take this plane to Cuba or I will superglue the flight attendant to the bulkhead!”
It’s a completely ridiculous situation, actually. If anyone tries to pull a 9/11 stunt again, there are two things you can be completely certain of:
The terrorists will use a technique designed to get around current security guidelines, and as such, these ridiculous flight screenings won’t do a damn bit of good. They’d be stupid to try to get past the screenings with something that won’t pass the screenings, so they’ll try something that the screenings aren’t looking for…
… and…
Everyone on the plane will jump them, since it’s no longer safe to assume that we’ll be okay if we just remain quiet and cooperate. For any further in-flight hostage situations, the assumption from now on will be that everyone on the plane will die if the the hostage-takers have their way, so there’s no reason for the hostages to NOT throw themselves bodily onto the terrorists.
Therefore, there’s not much we can do about it. Number 1 means that we can’t anticipate what the terrorists will do, and number 2 means we don’t need to. The 9/11 terrorists were able to pull that stunt off exactly once- it’ll never happen again.
It’s all just governmental hand-holding and hand-waving. “Look! We’re doing this for YOUR safety!”
Why, yes, I do get irritated every time I have to fly. Why do you ask?
Odd. I carry an eyeglass repair kit in my bag (ever since my glasses fell apart in the middle of Alaska I’m never far from them) and I’ve never been stopped for them. This is true even when I screw up and forget to take my metal card case out of my pocket and get an extra inspection.
BTW, George Carlin had a routine about airport security from before 9/11, where he called what happened (someone taking over a plane with a legal carry on knife) exactly. They should make him head of the TSA.
Knitting needles are usually allowed these days (last time I flew I used big bamboo needles that looked like Fischer-Price ‘My first knitting’ toys just in case), as are nail clippers, but then it’s always up to the screener’s discretion what to allow and what not to allow.
While, given time and an unconscious victim, I’m sure I could figure out some way of killing someone with nail clippers or a file, it’s a LOT easier for me to cause death or serious injury with the power brick and cables to my laptop. Or my heavy hardbound French dictionary. Or my fricking hands. Or pieces of an aluminum can. Et cetera.
The items that I puzzled about (and still do) are the ubiquitous mirrors that women carry in their purses. A rectangular mirror that has been diagonally scored becomes two very sharp knives in short order. While I’m being strip-searched because of my garage door opener, my wife walks on the plane able to slit throats. I don’t get it.
I flew to Texas and back in March. On both trips I was pulled aside for a close inspection of my carry-on bag. I’m quite sure that on the x-ray it probably looked like some kind of bomb: coils of wire, zillions of little metal pieces, etc.
But no way was I going to trust my jewelry-making case (containing most of my raw parts inventory in gold and silver) to checked luggage. (Although I did remove my good tools [pliers, nippers, etc.] and check those – no way was I going to have them confiscated!)
I suppose I could have poked somebody in the eye with the (fine) wire, or maybe made a crude, if weak, garrote. But they let me through.
Ugh. I’d rather drive if it means I can keep my business to myself.
Ah yes, the “french martial art”, often used in early-19th century french detective novels, and a form of manual combat that can be practiced by a gentleman.
Still a sport in France http://www.webmartial.com/canne.htm
THAT was the final punchline of the Carlin bit mentioned by Voyager. “What about a guy with really big hands?”
By the way, is SF the only place that Homeland Security has taken to flying helicopters around (here, along the waterfront) once or twice a day, especially on weekends? To me, an obvious propoganda device. Been wondering how widespread the practice.
