Legal challenge for US in-flight knife ruling
Flight attendants in the US have submitted a legal petition to overturn a ruling that would allow passengers to carry small knives aboard aircraft.
A legal team representing the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) has filed a the petition – signed by approximately 400,000 flight attendants, passengers, pilots and ground staff – with US Transportation Security Administrator (TSA) John Pistole and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, demanding that knives be kept off passenger planes. The TSA had planned to ease security regulations which have been in place since 9/11, enabling passengers to carry knives with blades less than 6cm long on to aircraft.
“The Transportation Security Administration and the Homeland Security Department cannot dismiss the grave security concerns of 400,000 people on the front lines of US aviation, including TSA’s own transportation security officers and air marshals,” the AFA said in a statement.
The TSA argues that the regulations, which also allow passengers to carry items such as hockey sticks and snooker cues, put the US in line with international standards. The AFA however, disputes this, citing Canada, Israel and Taiwan as examples of other countries that unilaterally ban passengers from carrying knives.
“Permitting knives in the cabin is an unnecessary risk to the travelling public,” the AFA said. “A TSA-approved knife could be used to stab or kill a passenger, crew member, federal air marshal, gate agent or TSA Security Officer by a terrorist, mentally ill person or drug or alcohol-impaired passenger. A TSA-approved knife could be used to hijack a plane.
“It would be irresponsible to relax the TSA’s existing policy on knives when virtually every organisation representing those directly affected by the change adamantly opposes it on safety and security grounds,” it added.
The TSA ruling was due to come into force on 25 April 2013, but the AFA’s opposition and Boston bombings caused the TSA to temporarily postpone its implementation.