If someone asked me, I would request immediate ban of GLASS liquor and perfume bottles on board of all aircraft and forced duty free industry to sell shatterproof plastic bottles only.
Posted on 04/05/2005 6:21:12 PM PDT by Helms
STATEMENT ON LIGHTER BAN ON AIRPLANES By Greg Booth, President and CEO Zippo Manufacturing Company
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced that all lighters will be prohibited from “sterile” areas of airports and on board aircraft. This action is in response to a provision in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which was signed into law by the President in December 2004. Although Zippo® Manufacturing Company does not believe that lighters, in general, pose a hazard on aircraft, we do agree with the TSA that fueled lighters could pose a potential security risk if carried into the passenger cabin of a commercial aircraft.
Checked luggage is bigger issue
However, we strongly oppose the interpretation by the Department of Transportation (DOT) that prohibits packing lighters in checked luggage. In testing performed by Zippo engineers, as well as investigations done by the Lighter Association, Inc., not a single bit of evidence points to lighters being hazardous in checked luggage. Specifically, we have not uncovered one instance in which lighters in checked luggage exploded, caught fire or otherwise posed a danger to the aircraft.
Ironically, DOT regulations permit such items as ammunition, as well as aerosol cans, which could contain isobutane propellants, to be carried in checked luggage, and considers these items to be non-hazardous. If the DOT considers gunpowder and isobutane to be non-hazardous, it should logically conclude, based on all the evidence available, that lighters are non-hazardous as well.
Zippo lighters pass safety tests
The American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) and the International Standards Organization (ISO) have developed stringent standards for lighter safety, and lighters passing these standards are safe and non-hazardous. Zippo lighters have passed both the ASTM-400 and ISO-9994 safety standards.
Business impact
If the DOT persists in enforcing its rule interpretation and lighters continue to be banned from checked luggage, it will significantly impact Zippo’s business in numerous areas. The gift business, which may represent as much as 40 percent of our sales, will be negatively impacted, as will our tourist and duty-free market segments. Travelers often buy Zippo lighters as a remembrance of a great trip or location. In addition, Zippo collectors often travel around the country attending “swap meets” and other events frequented by collectors.
Loss of business in these combined areas could represent, on a long-term basis, as much as 20-30 percent of Zippo total sales.
Zippo understands the TSA ruling regarding banning lighters from the sterile areas of airports and in the passenger cabin itself, despite the impact it could have on our business. We take strong exception, however, to the DOT interpretation of the current rule that does not allow passengers to carry lighters in their checked luggage, and we believe this rule is unnecessary for public safety. This, most assuredly, will have a major impact on our business, our employees and our customers.
March 2, 2005
Glad we're never travelling again!
They'll sell a lot of lighters if they just set up lighter machines at baggage claim.
What about two quarz rocks or wooden sticks?
(after a PC "honorable discharge" from the US Army just to get rid of him..)
That may be the most honest corporate press release I've ever seen.
I find it utterly ironic that it isn't terrorists that have kept my wife and I from flying, but the efforts supposedly taken to keep us safe. If I ever feel the urge to surrender all my rights, I have a local library to go visit.
Actually the disposable lighter and match business will benefit from this silly regulation, but the quality lighter business that Zippo is known for will suffer.
Just another government effort to marginalize smokers.
Although I don't smoke, it is ridiculous to mandate that I can't carry a lighter on an airliner if I so chose to do so.
Anyone who has ever dealt with criminals in an institutional setting knows that a AA battery and a piece of wire is all that's needed to to light a cigarette (or a fuse). This is just another idiotic kneejerk reaction that will inconvenience honest Americans while doing absolutely nothing to enhance air safety. We need to take a page from the Israeli security handbook. They look for hijackers while we look for weapons. But would just have the American Criminal Lovers Union screaming (gasp) racial profiling. If I were to put a face on TSA it would be that of Barney Fife. But at least he was loveable.
What a fricken joke.
/end rant
Get ready, April 14.
All lighters of any kind will be taken at all Airport checkpoints and disposed of.
If you want to keep your lighter leave it at home.
"If you want to keep your lighter leave it at home."
Or don't leave home.
I don't fly much, am afraid of flying. But the next and last time I fly, it would be back to the cradle of civilization - Europe. I hear/see that the socialist scums are allowing too many muslimes and other assorted undesirable elements to enter Europe. Got be there to fight the enemies of Christianity while it's still salvageable.
BTTT for tomorrow.
You have to understand the logic. It is assumed that someone bright enough to smuggle a meaningful amount of explosives aboard will not be bright enough to bring an incendiary device to light it off. The incendiary device can be about 1/8 diameter. This is obviously another case of the government wanting to expand its span of control while acting as a sop to people who think the TSA has some value. Value that is other than keeping people who usually rob convenience stores off the streets.
If someone asked me, I would request immediate ban of GLASS liquor and perfume bottles on board of all aircraft and forced duty free industry to sell shatterproof plastic bottles only.
heres something interesting that i found when i was travelling back from Italy and got my lighters that i collected from every place i went in europe confiscated. Once i got past the security check, in the first store after it they were selling zippos. In other words it basically just said we are stealing your money and making your life miserable but here muslims take a nice lighter accopinied by a nice bottle of Axe and flamethrower the cockpit.
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