While most Americans are familiar with safety procedures designed to protect them on airplanes, many don't know that passengers are sometimes allowed to carry knives on board. That simple fact, published on the Federal Aviation Administration's Web site, likely played a role in at least one of the hijackings that ended in disaster Tuesday. [...] Federal regulations on such weaponry state: ``FAA guidelines allow knives with blades up to 4 inches. However, state and local laws may restrict the carriage of smaller knives in a public airport. We recommend that you contact the airline to determine any additional restrictions it might apply.'' Two AP journalists who travel frequently said they themselves have dropped Swiss Army knives into plastic containers as they walked through airport metal detectors, only to pick them up afterward, and carry them aboard.
I did not know that.
I'm pretty sure I didn't want to know that.
I dare say that rule will be changed. Of course, that leaves the blades in the razor, which can easily be adapted into a weapon. There's no way to make everything completely safe.
Replies: 1 Comment
The Boston Herald is reporting that apparently one of the hijackings *was* carried out using razor blades. The real answer is for pilots to now understand that a plane itself is a weapon worth more lives than the people it carries, and that they must not open the cockpit door even if hostages are being horribly butchered. That would have prevented yesterday's tragedies. From now on that's what they'll do.
Posted by Steven C. Den Beste @ 09/12/2001 10:30 AM CST
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
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