Its amussing really. I would guess they are trying to clamp down on the potential for "MacGyvered" weapons on the plane. There are tons of potential ways people can engineer make shift weapons using stuff they can carry onto the plane and the authorities are clamping down on it. Chances are some politician saw the old "deoderant can and lighter flamethrower" idea somewhere and figured he couldn't ban deoderant and went with lighters instead.

You can see their perspective however, smoking doesn't occur on flights, so realistically its going to be a very small inconveniance to most people, and if it saves even one life it will be justified.

It really wouldn't surprise me if in the next 20 years carry on baggage was completely removed from airplanes and you'll just be allowed your wallet and papers with you.

... and maybe some clothing ??? <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

(I would like to keep my socks, as I can easily get cold feet ...)

what's to prevent the same screening mesures to be applied to train passengers ?

There are already some "precaution" mesures concerning luggage, in french trains.

Of all the things they have banned on planes, this makes the most sense. In terms of simplicty, a lighter and a can of hairspray has a whole lot of power to do damage. Now, of course, if you light off a can of hairspray, you're going to have a cabin full of noxious smoke - and the cabin doors are locked, so you're not going anywhere.

However, imagine if the goal was not to do anything more than set the interior of the plan on fire and kill via smoke inhalation. That's not an unrealistic scenario and would be a kind of terror attack that fits the MO of Islamist nutcases.

If your flying distance is under about 2 hours. Then you add in the 2 hours preflight wait and search plus normal flight delays. Travel by train, bus or car will probably get you there quicker anyway.

Lighters are one of the few things it actually makes sense to restrict on planes, since they can be used to make flamethrowers (with any aerosol can) or to light fuses on explosive devices.

Now, if in exchange for banning lighters they ended their eternal fascination with small, pointy things (and I consider "small pointy things" to be anything smaller than a machete), I'd be okay with it. Not perfect but it would be a step forward from the paranoia that currently drives Fatherland Security.

People.. people.. people. You just don't understand. Truly, our government knows what's best for us. I'm confident that there is a Stupidity Paradigm intentionally built into the TSA plan (they couldn't have accidentally achieved this): "make erratic, silly, unpredictable, and inconsistent decisions in order to keep the bad guys guessing."

But in case my faith and trust is misplaced... How about some simple suggestions which you think actually MAY improve security?

We don't NEED to improve security. The only thing we need to improve security was the knowledge that this was possible. This happened by the 4th plane, which didn't get to it's intended target because the passengers knew what they were up to, and didn't let it happen.

Everything else is merely an appearance of security. It has to be as visible and intrusive as possible to placate the PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER..

>>>>Lighters are one of the few things it actually makes sense to restrict on planes, since they can be used to make flamethrowers (with any aerosol can) or to light fuses on explosive devices<<<<

And you can't do that with matches? It's nothing more than paranoia. In order to eliminate any possibility of an improvised weapon of any sort people would have to travel naked while sitting unsecured to the deck of a cargo plane, and even you don't know that the guy next to you hasn't infected himself with some highly virile biological agent. The deadliness of any object around you is limited only by the imagination.

My $0.02

Ed

I'd use the same system the Israelis do. No one seems to bother El Al.

As an Israeli once said, and I paraphrase, "You Americans have it all wrong. You look for weapons. We look for terrorists."

I'd have the Israelis teach us how to do it, or have them do it for us.