Sorry, that book is a dangerous weapon..

[Timmy77]

Perhaps this regulation is an effort on behalf of the airline industry to ensure that, at some point during the flight, you are so bored you actually pay the 5 bucks to rent their cheap headset for the crappy movie.

[FlamingRain]

I'm confused as to what you'd need matches on an airplane for at all. You can't smoke, you can't set stuff on fire, you can't frighten small children (well, i suppose you could, but, not with matches). Why don't they just ban lighters and matches from carry-ons altogether?

[MrLinus]

I'm confused as to what you'd need matches on an airplane for at all. You can't smoke, you can't set stuff on fire, you can't frighten small children (well, i suppose you could, but, not with matches). Why don't they just ban lighters and matches from carry-ons altogether?

I don't think it's what might intentionally be done but... what immediately comes to mind is that flight that went down over Florida swampland. Something about oxygen tanks. So what if someone snuck in a plastic drinking bottle with a flammable substance and basically made a Moltov cocktail on-board? (or worse)

[thehorse13]

Perhaps I can shed some light on this, but don't expect the reasoning to make sense.

The limit is partly due to the amount of time a TSA agent has to spend per person. The bigger reason is because independent audits showed that large books make it very easy to smuggle contraband onto the plane. Hiding edged weapons in the spine has a 75% chance of making it past screeners because of the way the books are passed through scanners. More or less, it has been proven that TSA agents are just as lazy as the contracted help they replaced. The use of books to smuggle items onto aircraft caught the attention of the top brass at the FAA and DHS as an audit finding, thus, a meaningless limitation has now been placed on you.

[zENGER]

Some smokers are such fiends that they have to light up the second they get off the plane. They don't want to have to wait to get their baggage before they can light up. This is the only thing I can come up with.

[MrLinus]

Hiding edged weapons in the spine has a 75% chance of making it past screeners because of the way the books are passed through scanners. More or less, it has been proven that TSA agents are just as lazy as the contracted help they replaced.

Ah.. this would make more sense then. It's a "business decision" rather than a true security issue. The belief of trying to make people feel secure while still letting them continue as was may be something that will catch them later.

I wonder how many actually check plastic pop bottles to see if they are carrying water, soda, whatever rather than something else? (the detectors do pick this stuff up, right?)

[phishphreek]

Originally posted here by Timmy77
Perhaps this regulation is an effort on behalf of the airline industry to ensure that, at some point during the flight, you are so bored you actually pay the 5 bucks to rent their cheap headset for the crappy movie.

Ah ha! That must be it... but I've found if you have a pair of your own ear phones and a pack of wrigleys gum... you can take the foil off of the gum and wrap it around the plug that goes into the jack. You will now have sound in both ears.

All they did was have two mono connectors instead of the standard one stereo connector.

You can even make one of these at home. Just take a set of old ear phones that don't work anymore and cut off the plug. Then splice that plug with a good pair. You should have two plugs... one for each wire running to either left or right sound.

Sorry... I used to fly from baltimore to seattle all the time. Long flight... laptop battery didn't last that long and I had to do something... That was when they would let me have my electronics parts kit on there! Imagine that. Try taking a breadboard, a couple spools of wired and a fishing box of logic gates and such through there now.. LoL They'd snatch you up real quick like.

I wonder how many actually check plastic pop bottles to see if they are carrying water, soda, whatever rather than something else? (the detectors do pick this stuff up, right?)

Nah, they don't check that stuff. I take a 20oz coke and take the top off without breaking the seal. Pour half of it out and add Captain Morgan rum. Put the top back on and I'm good to go. Drinks on the plane are expensive... and they don't give you many.

[Spyrus]

are they actually talking about books or are they talking about books of matches? I havent been told anything about stipulations of carrying books and I usually carry enough paperwork to start a bonfire

edit: msm: the airports I flew with: if you were coming from outside the airport only clear liquids were allowed and then they had to go through the xray scanner (not sure if different liquids look different through the scanner)... If you were already in the airport and just jumping on another plane or whatever they didnt look twice at the drink because you had to of gotten it from the airport anyway.

[Irongeek]

Phish, you sound like as cheap of a bastard as I am. Thanks for the tips.

[thehorse13]

LOL. Baaaaad Phisssssy.

Books of matches are another thing altogether. With enough match tips, you can make a charge that will fire a projectile out of a magazine or anything else you can make a rigid tube out of. This isn't new.

There is a site dedicated to cheap bastards though I forget the name of it. It has tons of ideas along the lines of the one Phissshy provided.