Reagan's FAA Security Chief Blasts Plan To Allow Small Knives On Planes

[JABBS]

A former Federal Aviation Administration security director is the latest expert to blast a federal proposal to once again allow passengers take small knives and other sharp objects aboard commercial flights.

"Somebody over at TSA (Transportation Security Administration) is out of their mind. I can't put it any more clearly than that," Billie Vincent, FAA security chief from 1982 to 1986 and now an aviation security consultant, told the New York Post.

It's nice to see someone in the aviation industry recognizes the stupidity of this proposal.

***

JABBS first wrote about the proposal in August, shortly after it was made to the TSA head, Edmund "Kip" Hawley. The proposal would end the ban on knives less than five inches long, scissors, razor blades, ice picks, throwing stars and bows and arrows. Those items were banned by the TSA in 2002, as part of a broader effort to make air travel (at least appear) safer following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

On Nov. 4, Hawley told the House Homeland Security subcommittee on economic security that the proposal was being considered as part of a broader effort to reduce security delays. A decision will be made by January, he said.

Of course, reducing security delays doesn't quite mesh with the Bush Administration mantra that they will do "everything we can" to make the homeland safer.

Some have suggested that the real reason the proposal is being considered is because the Republican-led Congress has reduced the budget for TSA screeners. Given that, some security experts have suggested that the reduced screener workforce should focus on sniffing out suicide bombers, rather than targeting knife-carriers.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather wait in line for an extra few minutes -- as has been the case since the 2001 terrorist attacks -- than risk having a knife-carrier among the passengers.

The nation's flight attendants agree. Sharp objects "could definitely lead to the deaths of flight attendants and passengers," Patricia A. Friend, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said in a letter to Hawley, shortly after the proposal was made.

***

This item first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.

[mestup]

1. First they came for the Air Traffic Controllers...

[Daphne08]

2. Gee, does this mean I can get my

small (very small... but expensive) scissors back? A TSA agent angrily took them from me in the Las Vegas airport in 2002 as she stared me down. I'll never get over losing my harmless little scissors.

Seriously, that's a great blog. I've bookmarked it.

[JABBS]

9. thanks

Tell your friends ... :)

[napi21]

3. When I heard this yesterday, I said OH My God, somebody is

actually thinking!!!! How is that possible?

[oblivious]

4. "risk having a knife-carrier among the passengers"

I really hope this is sarcasm. If flight attendants believe pocket knives and other sharp objects will lead to the death of flight attendants then I guess every male over 150 pounds should be banned from flying too, since they could theoretically overpower a flight attendant.

I'd take a baseball bat any day over a pocket knife. Are baseball bats banned, by the way?

[JABBS]

10. consider this scenario

A passenger, carrying a 5-inch knife on board, has a little too much to drink and gets into an argument with another passenger or a flight attendant.

Passenger pulls out knife.

Possible?

It'd be a lot less possible if the passenger didn't have the knife on board.

Look at the list of items. Is there a great need to cut things, shave, pick ice, practice martial arts or target practice on a moving flight? Would you allow these things into an elementary school? Would you allow them into a packed stadium? Of course not. It would make no sense -- those things serve no purpose in those settings. Equally, they serve no purpose on an airplane.

[Buford Pusser]

5. Deterrence to 911 hijackers: It's the passengers, Stupid

Al Qaida is never going to hijack another plane full of passengers.

The 9/11 passengers saw to that

For now, whenever a plane is hijacked, the passengers will know their only hope is to take over the plane.

And they'll do it.

Which destroys al Qaida's mission.

Most of our post-911 airport secuity measures are stupid in the extreme, even the prohibition against box cutters and small knives.

Seems weird to say, I know, but it's true.

Buford Pusser.

[oblivious]

6. Yup, everytime I get on a plane and look around me I think...

If anyone tried to take over this plane with boxcutters, they'd be taken down in about one minute. I wouldn't sit still for 5 seconds. And I suspect many men would be even eager than me to mix it up with potential hijackers. And women.

[sandnsea]

7. True, and on the subject

That's why righty tighties believe in bombing the hell out of people. Or having everyone carry a handgun. If you teach them that we'll kick your ass at the slightest provocation, they won't provocate.

Just sayin'.

So yeah, no plane could be hijacked right now. But it's still stupid to allow knives on planes and always was. I wonder if overall crime at airports has gone down since 9/11.

[truthisfreedom]

8. doesn't EVERYONE know by now that they can't carry knives on planes?

or scissor? or sharp objects? it's flabbergasting to me that they have delays in security because of these things...