Lighters to be banned on airline flights

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2270&u=/krwashbureau/20050228/ts_krwashbureau/_bc_lighterban_wa_1&printer=1>

Yahoo!


Lighters to be banned on airline flights



2 hours, 27 minutes ago

By Kimberly Morrison, Knight Ridder Newspapers

 WASHINGTON - Airline passengers will have to ditch their lighters or lose
them to airport security screeners when a new ban on lighters takes effect
in April.


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 Knight Ridder Special Report (at philly.com)
  


 The ban reflects Congress' fear that lighters could be used to ignite
bombs on planes or otherwise damage or destroy them. The Transportation
Security Administration until now had banned all but butane lighters and
said each passenger could carry no more than two.

 TSA's new ruling extends the ban to all butane lighters, effective April 14.

 Proponents of the ban, including Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting
record), D-N.D., cited the case of convicted "shoe bomber" Richard Reid,
who tried but failed to light explosives in his shoes with matches. Had
Reid been using a lighter, he might have brought down the plane, Dorgan
said. Reid was sentenced to life in prison in 2003.

 The butane lighter ban is expected to streamline security procedures,
because in the past screeners had to distinguish between butane lighters
and types that were banned.

 The Department of Transportation bans lighters in checked baggage, so
passengers wanting to keep them have few options aside from returning to
their cars to stow lighters or handing them off to non-fliers.

 The U.S. Postal Service considers lighters to be hazardous material and
will not mail them.

 Passengers can continue to carry up to four books of matches, but that,
too, is under reconsideration, said TSA spokeswoman Amy Von Walter.
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
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