'Sharp' Controversy Over Carry-Ons

A proposal to allow small scissors and tools back onto airliners is drawing strident opposition from flight attendants, families of victims of the Sept. 11 hijackings and several lawmakers.

Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley outlined the proposal Friday as part of a broader shift in airport security. The plan would allow airline passengers to carry scissors less than 4 inches long and wrenches and screwdrivers less than 7 inches long.

Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., said Thursday they intend to introduce a bill to preserve the current prohibition on sharp scissors, tools and knives in airliner cabins.

"The Bush administration proposal is just asking the next Mohamed Atta to move from box cutters to scissors as the weapon that's used in the passenger cabin of planes," Markey said.

Hawley has complained that airport screeners spend too much time confiscating small objects from innocent passengers. He wants them to focus instead on searching for what the TSA views as a more serious threat: improvised bombs.

Airlines generally support the plan. So does the pilots' largest union, the Air Line Pilots Association, and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.

"I think we need to adjust some of the adjustments that we made right after 9/11, and I think this is a step in the right direction. We get away from weapons and start focusing on potential terrorists," Ridge said. "I think you've embedded enough security along the way that some of these things should be permitted, because it's customary for people to carry them, and I don't think it will enable them to get to the cockpit."

Bob Hesselbein, ALPA's national security committee chairman, said pilots think it's more important to focus on passengers' intent rather than what they're carrying.

"A Swiss army knife in the briefcase of a frequent flyer we know very well is a tool," Hesselbein said. "A ballpoint pen in the hands of a terrorist is a weapon."

TSA screeners this year alone have confiscated 12.6 million prohibited items, including 3 million sharp objects, according to the Homeland Security Department.

They've also taken away 8.1 million lighters, the only item prohibited by law. Congress, concerned that terrorists would have an easier time igniting a bomb with a lighter than with matches, enacted the ban. It took effect April 14.

Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Transportation Committee's aviation panel, agrees with Hawley that screeners should be looking for explosives rather than small, sharp objects that could be used as weapons.

"You have a huge army of pilots that are now armed, you have significant numbers of federal air marshals, you have secure cockpit doors, you have an alert public," Mica said. "Terrorists aren't dumb, they can see what the weakness in the system is."

More than 18,000 screeners have been trained on advanced explosives detection techniques, Mica said.

But Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Commerce Committee's aviation panel, objected to the policy shift. In a letter to Hawley, she wrote that the change "could undermine the progress we have made in securing our skies since the 9/11 attacks. Security demands vigilance; we cannot become complacent."

Markey said the TSA is presenting the public a false choice. If there aren't enough screeners to check for sharp objects and bombs, he said, then more screeners should be hired.

The Association of Flight Attendants supports Markey's initiative. So does the Southwest Airlines flight attendants' union, Transport Workers Local 556.

"I have not spoken to a flight attendant at any airline that isn't outraged by this," said Thom McDaniel, the local's president.

McDaniel said the premise for the policy change is ludicrous. "They want to focus more on explosives, but they're not even mentioning that the biggest threat to commercial aviation right now is still the fact that most cargo is not screened."

Justin Green is an attorney for the families of three flight attendants who died aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which Sept. 11 hijackers crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. Two of the flight attendants, Bobbi Arestegui and Karen Martin, were stabbed by the terrorists. The third, Betty Ong, reported what was happening during the hijacking in a telephone call to authorities on the ground.

"The families are outraged that the TSA is planning on letting weapons back on board," Green said.

TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said the agency has great respect for the families affected by the Sept. 11 attacks and for flight crews.

"Security in the aviation system requires all of us — TSA, airlines, airports and passengers — to work together," she said in an e-mail. "We will continue the dialogue."