Well said Hugh, et al !
And of course whilst broken glass might indeed be lethally sharp, spilling / splashing about the highly volatile contents of a litre of vodka, gin, and / or god forbid, an Irish single malt - now that really would mean WAR ! - could lead to horrendous consequences should said same come into contact with a naked flame !
So why oh why can you not purchase your duty free at the end of your flight, at
all airports ? Indeed it should be compulsory to do so !
But yeah, I know why......
It's 'coz the departure airports are of the belief that a captive / waiting bird in the hand is very likely to buy/spend much more than a pax that's just alighted from a flight, and whom wants to be on their way.
So right now the promise of filthy lucre wins the war against safety and security, e.g. the first two lines of the UK BAA's
Mission Statement are as follows:
Always focusing on our customers' needs and safety.
Achieving continuous improvements in the profitability, costs and quality of all our processes and services.
Just by their (the BAA's) wording alone they put 'needs' ahead of 'safety' (it makes you wonder, doesn't it ?!), and one would have thought that their selling / profiteering of potentially lethal weapons to passengers (and / or terrorists & hijackers) from their airside duty free shops surely puts the stated priority of their two lines above somewhat into question ?!
Ps. I really miss taking my 'Leatherman' to work - I've even got all the extra gadget bits for it too - and everybody knows that a true pilot is a total gadgeter !