by Bill
Adler
"TSA strongly values the input of our partners and
traveling public and appreciates the varying points of view shared throughout
the review process."
With those words the Transportation Security
Administration canceled their announced, but never implemented, plan to allow
people to take small knives --blades up to 2.36 inches and non-locking-- on airplanes.
With those words, the TSA capitulated to the whines of flight attendants, air
marshals, politicians and nervous passengers, who feared that knives on board
an airplane could result in catastrophe.
But what kind of catastrophe? There is zero chance that a
small knife could be used to destroy an airplane. Cockpit doors are hardened,
procedures are in place to prevent cockpits from being stormed, and vigilant
passengers are more than enough to prevent a ill-meaning passenger from
hijacking an airplane with a 2.36-inch non-locking knife.
So why the uproar against small knives? The answer comes
in two parts. First, there's a knee-jerk reaction that any undoing of security
is bad security. Do you remember the question that was asked of all airline passengers
years ago, "Have your bags been in your possession the entire time?"
It was a useless, silly question because many passengers left their bags with
the hotel or put them in the trunk of a taxi between when they finished packing
and went to the airport. Yet the question had to be asked. It was the law. It
took years and incredible political will to axe that question.
Second, flight attendants and air marshals don't want any
passengers to have weapons on board, no matter how inconsequential. They fear
that even a small knife in the hands of a drunk or mentally unbalanced
passenger could be used as a weapon against them. I don't think so. If you've
ever held a 2.36 inch knife, you know that it's a tepid weapon, one that poses
harm only to a ball of string or brick of cheese. Oh, and there's been no
incident of any passenger anywhere in the world ever hurting a flight attendant
with a small pocketknife.
So what happens now? Now the TSA has to look for and
remove small knives from carry-on bags, as they've been doing ever since 9-11.
This takes time, slowing down the security line for everyone,. But more
importantly, it takes resources. TSA screeners have to look for knives, and in
doing so might miss something that actually matters, like a bomb or bomb parts.
If you haven't seen the selective attention test, in
which a person in a gorilla suit walks through a group of people playing
basketball, it's worth taking a look at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo.
Right before their eyes, a man in a gorilla suit walks by, but a lot of people
didn't see that. Why? Because they were focusing on something else. TSA
screeners, being human, are susceptible to selective attention distractions,
too.
For a while after 9/11, nail clippers and tweezers were
banned. Over the years, the ban on these and some other non-dangerous items was
lifted. Planes are actually safer because screeners don't waste time and mental
energy looking for nail clippers and tweezers. (Passengers are happier about
that, too.)
TSA's mission isn't to protect flight attendants from
drunk passengers with wimpy knives. TSA's mission isn't even to keep passengers
safe from each other. TSA's mission is to keep airplanes from being blown up or
hijacked. Allowing up to 2.36-inch blades on planes, the international standard
that's applied elsewhere in the world, would have enabled screeners to pay
closer attention to the stuff that's actually dangerous.
So now we have to continue to leave our small knives at
home. Or rather, we have to have them confiscated because we forgot to leave
them at home. Will a screener miss a bomb or bomb parts because his attention,
after looking at 1,000 bags that morning, was focused on knives? Let's hope
not.
---
Bill Adler is a writer. He is the author of "Boys
and Their Toys: Understanding Men by Understanding Their Relationship with
Gadgets," http://amzn.to/rspOft,
"Outwitting Squirrels," http://amzn.to/VXuLBh, and a mess of other books. He tweets at @billadler. Fire Breathing Toaster is
published on Mondays.
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