US security agency to allow lighters on flights

The United States security agency has decided to allow passengers take cigarette lighters on planes as the two-year old ban is considered a waste of time, a media report said.

The ban was imposed at the insistence of Congress after a passenger, Richard Reed, tried to ignite a bomb in his shoe in 2001 on a flight from Paris to Miami.

Lawmakers had argued that if Reid had used a lighter, instead of matches, he might have been able to ignite the bomb, but Kip Hawley, assistant secretary for the Transportation Security Administration, told the New York Times that the ban had done little to improve aviation security because small batteries could be used to set off a bomb.

Matches have never been prohibited on flights.

"Taking lighters away is a security theater," Hawley was quoted as saying, adding, "It trivializes the security process."

The policy change, which is to go into effect on August four, applies to disposable butane lighters, like Bics, and refillable lighters, like Zippos.

Torch lighters, which have thin, hotter flames, will continue to be banned, the daily said.

Security officers, the report said, have been collecting some 22,000 lighters a day nationwide, slowing down lines at check points.

Even so, many smokers had found ways to sneak lighters through checkpoints, often by placing more than one in a carry-on bag.