Glass seen as potential threat aboard planes
Glass seen as potential threat aboard planes
23.02.2004 [20:23]
When she saw two young men board her flight from Houston to Fort Lauderdale in December, holding open beer bottles and looking "partially lit," Terry Nahuina was dumbfounded.
"After going through this extensive screening process, here are these two guys who could break a beer bottle and put it against anyone's throat," said Nahuina, a banquet captain at the Hyatt Pier 66 hotel in Fort Lauderdale.
The two men caused no trouble. But after landing, Nahuina called Continental Airlines and was further distressed to learn that beer, wine and liquor bottles are, indeed, allowed in airline cabins.
Considering many sharp objects are banned from airline cabins, some security experts say the Transportation Security Administration should revisit its policy of allowing liquor bottles because they could be converted into a jagged-glass weapon or a Molotov cocktail.
"Worried about a little penknife? Imagine what a chunk of glass could do," said Marvin Badler, a former chief of security for El Al, the Israeli airline. "No matter what, it could be shampoo, if it's in a glass bottle it could do a lot of damage."
The TSA says bottles are permitted as long as the liquor does not exceed 70 percent alcohol, or 140 proof, and is limited to five liters per person. Also, the liquor must remain sealed. Only an airline can provide alcoholic beverages for consumption during a flight.
Badler and other security experts said the TSA should restudy its entire list of prohibited and permitted items.
"The fact is they don't allow knives on board; broken glass is no different," said Joseph Del Balzo, who runs a security technology firm in Washington, D.C., and is a former Federal Aviation Administration administrator. "I'm really surprised."
Lauren Stover, TSA spokeswoman, said liquor bottles are permitted because they "would not pose a threat to a reinforced cockpit door. The TSA's main concern is the safety of passengers and any potential threat that could take down an aircraft or allow it to be used as a missile."
Stover said the TSA decides what is prohibited based on its potential to be used as a weapon. She noted the banned items list is evolving as security measures and technology improve.
For instance, she said tweezers were once forbidden in cabins but now are allowed. Because box cutters were used in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, they were once dreaded. But today they do not pose a serious threat, she said, although they are permitted only in checked bags.
A major problem with a liquor bottle ban is duty-free shops around the globe would be severely hurt, officials said. Alcohol sales are a big part of their business.
"It's a balance of economics and security," Stover said. "Security does come first, but we do recognize people do like to take back alcohol from various places."
Since Sept. 11, 2001, there have been no incidents reported where a passenger converted a liquor bottle into a weapon. However, in May, 1987 of 1987, a worker at Fiji's Nadi Airport threatened to blow up an Air New Zealand Boeing 747 with sticks of dynamite. After a six-hour standoff, the flight engineer struck the would-be hijacker with a bottle of duty-free whiskey and knocked him unconscious.
In the incident reported by Nahuina, Continental Airlines officials could not confirm two men boarded the flight with open beer bottles -- a violation of federal rules. But they insisted their flight attendants knew to "vigorously enforce" those regulations.
Bob Poole, a Los Angeles-based expert in aviation security, said a ban on alcohol bottles "would be one more burden on air travel and leave people thinking of other ways to spend their money. And I don't think the airline industry can stand much more of that."
Just the same, Badler, of Boynton Beach, said it wouldn't be hard to drain some alcohol from a liquor bottle and turn it into a Molotov cocktail. He said that while he doesn't want to give terrorists ideas, if he's thought of it, terrorists likely have, too.
He said other items permitted on airlines also could be deadly, such as hair spray, which if lit by a cigarette lighter could become a small flamethrower.
Capt. Steve Luckey, of the Air Line Pilots Association, representing 67,000 pilots at 43 airlines in the United States and Canada, said despite reinforced doors, pilots are at risk of an attack whenever they leave the cockpit.
He said many items could be turned into weapons, but rather than ban them, he'd rather the TSA develop trusted traveler programs and identify potentially dangerous passengers.
"We don't know who anybody is, and we have to know who you are," he said.
Sun-Sentinel, Feb 22