US to allow cigarette lighters on planes

The ban did not enhance security

WASHINGTON: US authorities will no longer enforce a two-year-old ban against taking cigarette lighters on airplanes because searching passengers wasted time and did not improve aviation security, the New York Times reported on Friday. The ban on lighters was ordered by US lawmakers after a passenger, Richard Reid, tried to ignite a bomb in his shoe in 2001 on a flight from Paris to Miami.

Reid, known as the “shoe bomber,” had used matches to try to ignite explosives concealed in his shoe. The ban on lighters did not significantly enhance security because small batteries could be used to detonate a bomb, Kip Hawley, assistant secretary for the US Transportation Security Administration, said.

The policy change is to take effect on August 4 and applies to disposable butane lighters and refillable lighters. Torch lighters with hotter flames will still be banned.

Lifting the prohibition will free up security officers to spend more time looking for bombs or bomb parts. Some 22,000 lighters a day are collected by security officers at airports across the country and disposing of the confiscated lighters has cost about four million dollars a year, the paper said.