Airports Begin Ban on Cigarette Lighters

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TweetAirports Begin Ban on Cigarette Lighters

WASHINGTON - When Mike Metzger tossed his cigarette lighter into the plastic bin at the airport security checkpoint, a Transportation Security Administration screener had words for him.




"This is the last day you can do this," the screener told Metzger, a builder from Larchville, Iowa, who was flying on Wednesday to Washington for a conference.


Starting Thursday, air travelers will have to leave their lighters at home.


Unlike guns, knives and other dangerous items that a passenger cannot carry aboard but may stow in checked bags, lighters are banned everywhere on a plane.


The rule change is expected to produce a large number of seizures of lighters even though airports, airlines and the government have been telling travelers for the past 45 days about the impending ban.


"I'm sure we'll have a bunch of them," said George Doughty, executive director of Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown, Pa.


TSA screeners already seize a half-million prohibited items every month. They've been more vigilant about finding and confiscating banned items than were the private screeners who worked at airports before the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings.


Lighters haven't been permitted in checked bags for at least 30 years because they might start fires in cargo holds. Congress passed a bill last year adding lighters to the list of items prohibited in the cabin.


The genesis for the ban was Richard Reid, who tried unsuccessfully to light explosives hidden in his shoes on a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001. He used matches.


The sponsors of the ban, Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Ron Wyden of Oregon, worried that a lighter might have worked.


"This is a commonsense step to protect passengers in the face of a proven threat," Wyden said.


Mark Peterson, a Sioux Falls, S.D., appraiser who was grabbing a smoke outside Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday, wondered why it took so long.


"It's been 3 1/2 years since 9/11 and they've finally figured it out," Peterson said.


The ban does not include matches. Passengers still may carry aboard a plane up to four books of safety matches. Not allowed on planes are "strike anywhere" matches, which can be struck using any abrasive surface.


David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, said the lighter ban is long overdue. But he said matches ought to be included, too.


"The problem with the TSA on the matches is the inability to detect them," Stempler said.


Kevin Mitchell, president of the Business Travel Coalition, said the ban on lighters amounted to "silliness in the extreme."





"It only adds to consumer confusion and longer lines, and longer lines represent a security threat," Mitchell said.

Wehns Billen, visiting Washington from Micronesia for a conference, said he was told of the impending ban by his airline. He left his expensive lighter at home.

People can mail prohibited items, take them to their cars or give them to someone who is not traveling. Otherwise, seized items are not returned.

"The whole thing is silly," Billen said. "I wish they'd put a smoking section on the plane."

Billen may be typical of overseas travelers. They are more likely to smoke than U.S. citizens, said Steve van Beek, executive vice president of the Airports Council International, which represents airport officials.

"How are we going to notify every other passenger in the world connecting through and transiting the United States that their lighters are going to be seized?" van Beek said.

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TweetRichard Reid

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


For the Premier of Alberta see Richard G. Reid Richard Reid, in a prison photograph


Richard Colvin Reid (born August 12, 1973), also known as the shoe bomber, is a British citizen born in Farnborough Hospital in Bromley, South London and a Muslim allegedly working for Al Qaeda who was arrested on December 22, 2001 for attempting to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes. According to the FBI he has used the aliases Tariq Raja, and Abdel Rahim.

The flight was American Airlines Flight 63 going from Charles De Gaulle International Airport near Paris, France to Miami, Florida's Miami International Airport. He was caught when a flight attendant saw him attempting to light a match on the tongue of his sneaker. She tried grabbing his shoes, but he pushed her to the floor, and she screamed for help. When another flight attendant tried to stop him, he fought her and bit her thumb. The 6 foot 4 inch (193 cm) Reid was eventually subdued by other passengers on the airliner, two of whom were doctors who injected him with sedative drugs.

Authorities later found plastic explosives with a triacetone triperoxide (TATP) detonator, hidden in the lining of his shoes. On January 30, 2003, he was found guilty on terrorism charges at a federal court in Boston, Massachusetts and sentenced to life in prison. During the sentencing hearing he openly stated that he was an Islamic fundamentalist and declared himself an enemy of the United States.

Richard Reid currently resides in the "Supermax prison" in Florence, Colorado.

[Shiner22nd]

TweetCan't believe, sometimes, that people would want to hurt other people like that. It can seem so "farfetched" to us, but to people coming from that type of lifestyle, it's merely a way of life. God truely has blessed this nation and our safety. What a blessing we have in our everyday lives....Shiner