Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration forbids "deadly" or "dangerous" articles in airline cabins, but until this week’s devastating hijackings, knives with a blade less than 4 inches long were considered neither.
The 4-inch rule dates to 1972, when the FAA first ordered airlines to screen passengers for weapons to thwart a worldwide wave of hijackings, said agency spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler.
The policy stood for three decades, even as other agencies tightened standards on pocket knives. Federal courts, for example, prohibit them altogether. So do some foreign airlines, such as Israel’s El Al. Yet in the volumes of critical reports written about U.S. aviation security, knives have not been a major concern — until now.
"We’ve allowed knives on airplanes since the beginning," said Douglas Laird, a former security chief for Northwest Airlines and a 20-year Secret Service veteran. "It is part of our culture. A large percentage of adult males carry some sort of little pocket knife — you can use it as a tool."
It remains unclear how the hijackers got their knives and box cutters aboard the aircraft. Among the possibilities: the weapons might have been planted ahead of time by accomplices; the hijackers might have bypassed security checkpoints; or they might have cleared security because their knives were not deemed threatening.
But if it turns out that the weapons used in the deadliest hijackings in history were walked through security, the FAA is likely to face a barrage of criticism. Within the last year, the congressional General Accounting Office had begun looking into the issue, after discovering half a dozen or so reports of unruly passengers carrying knives.
"The allowance for knives … was always a puzzle to me," said Gerald Dillingham, head of aviation matters for the GAO, the investigative agency of Congress. "I couldn’t find an explanation of why 4 inches was acceptable. I’m still trying to find it."
This week, the FAA belatedly prohibited carrying any "cutting instrument" onto an airplane.
FAA policy, while banning "deadly" and "dangerous" articles, leaves some items up to the airlines’ discretion, among them baseball bats and golf clubs. Others, including flares, are prohibited systemwide.
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