No more lighters on US flights

jdevin

Airline passengers can no longer bring cigarette lighters onto planes or in any secure areas. The security personnel are now being trained to locate lighters and confiscate them. You can carry up to 4 books of matches but they may be banned as well. Personally I think this is a bit excessive. The reason given for the ban is that a terrorist can't light explosives in the plane. Thoughts?

MoP

Isn't smoking banned on planes and in most airports anyway?
Matchbooks and disposable lighters are cheap and easy to buy at either end of a flight, usually.
Makes sense to me.

danr

lighters with gas/liquid fuel have supposedly been banned over here for ages, although the security never seem to care when they find one on you.

But yeah, since you can't smoke on planes anymore i don't really see the problem. If you've got a nice lighter that you want to have at the other end, stick it in your luggage.

Rick Stirling

You can't smoke on the plane, but in most EU airports you can smoke in the building. Recently, I've noticed than in italy you can smoke in some areas of the building, in Frankfurt they have smoking bars where you can stand, and in Paris you are forced at gunpoint to smoke at all times.

But yeah, I don't see why you need a lighter on the plane, just slap it in your luggage instead.

oXYnary

What about those more personalized lighters you refill? Would they allow you to take them on since they can sometimes be worth more than just a "few" dollars if you empty out the lighter fluid?

MoP

oXYnary: Read what Dan said. Put it in your luggage. Most suitcases have outer pockets which are easily accessed, so you could use your personalised lighter in the airport until they needed to load your baggage, then put it in a zip compartment or something and it would be stored in the cargo hold of the plane until you reached your destination.

What would be the point of emptying it, then carrying it on board? Would you want to sit and stare at your beautiful empty lighter for a few hours? No? Thought not.

NoSeRider

Unless we crash on a mountain in Peru, and I survive and have to eat you....then I'd want a lighter or a match book to cook your flesh.

Otherwise, I don't see the point in lighting fires while 30,000 feet up in the air in an enclosed space.....and no where to go, but down...real fast.

TaylorMade

I flew from Heathrow to Chicago a coupla months ago with a particularly nice lighter in my pocket, no problemo, only to have it confiscated whilst going through security for an internal flight. I was willing to drain the gas, even leave it at the airport in some sort of lost property box until my return journey, but the woman behind the desk was having none of it. Man that pissed me off. I can appreciate why these rules are in place, but can't they give you a little guidebook or something with your ticket so dumbasses like me don't take their favourite inflammatory devices to Chicago?

I bet that bitch is lighting her Marlboros with my lil' flamemaker right now.... :-(

PaK

I never check bags, everytime I do they get broken into by customs or 'airport security' and things go missing, or they get lost entirely. This means I can't travel with my lighter, or my keychain which has scissors and a mini blade on it.

Airport security is incredibly ineffective imo. It might dissuade the dumb-ass would-be terrorists but not the organized ones. Any motivated lunatic can smuggle most anything they need aboard a plane.

-R

kleinluka

i knew pak was a terrorist. i knew it. knew it knew it knew it.

Frankie

They should have banned explosives instead of lighters.

arshlevon

the best part is you dont light explosives with fire they usually require an electric charge.. it would take an insane about of flamable explosives to do anything to a plane.. its just seems like they are inventing new ways to make you feel safe..

MoP

Yeah, Frankie, last time I got on a flight to the USA, I couldn't believe they wouldn't let me keep my pack of C4 in my carry-on luggage. It was only for lighting my cigarettes, too!

Marine

maybe it was to stop people turning hair spray into flamethrowers

Rick Stirling

Now, why would they want to ban that? It'd be better fun than the in-flight movies.

Mind you, I was sitting beside an absolute mental on the plane last week. He was tapping, singing, grunting, smacking the window..I put my beer bottle on Aileens tables in case he would grab it.

So...ban nutters from flying, that would make me feel safer.

jgall21

well all those guys in the taliban have been struck by this ban mainly cuz you take away the ability to light TNT, well I think its good we have more and more security on all flights coming and going, considering you dont need a light anyways on a plane.

Mishra

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maybe it was to stop people turning hair spray into flamethrowers

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but its so awesome.

Mojo2k

didnt the shoe bomber guys bomb have a fuse to be lit with fire?

Justin Meisse

How the hell are we going to light our farts now?

sledgy

Sometimes they have those mini bottles of liquor on flights so theoretically you could tear a corner off a napkin, stuff it in a mini bottle of bacardi and make a mini molotov cocktail that wouldn't break unless you stomped on it, in which case all you could do is burn your foot Of course you could always then kick someone with your flaming foot and with any luck spread the fire.