Ok I know that all airports across the globe have a measure in place, whereby you are not permitted to carry on board, scissors, blades, nail files etc.

However, on my recent trip back from Del (two weeks ago and this time last year), I noticed, that the security checks just before going to the departure gates, they were confiscating matches and lighters. What is all this about. I know of no other airport tacking this security measure, or is it just the local government applying their own rules in addition to the ones already outlined ?

There was another time, where they used to confiscate batteries. I had this done many years ago, when walkmans were the in thing. So on flight I had a walkman, which I couldn't use.

anyone know what all this is about ?

I have read the thread about Lighters, but refers to the TSA and coming into effect 15th Feb?

For many years I have seen in airlines' brochures, a prohibition against matches in baggage.

I would just as well see lighters banned. It is very easy to set a major fire very quickly by breaking open a Bic or similar lighter.

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Is it Gere, Lan Ding or Lan, Ding Gere? So many people's names get corrupted as low paid poor-English speaking officials at Ellis Island try to move long lines of poor-English speaking immigrants through security checkpoints.

Please point out one fire on a passenger airliner started because of matches or lighters. I will save you the trouble - you cannot, because there have not been any.

Perhaps a terrorist out there will seize upon this idea and bring a Bic lighter, some newspaper, kindling, and magnesium to start a roaring inferno on a plane. IMHO, the more pressing problems are unscreened cargo and shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft missiles, combined with Swiss cheese borders north and south. TSA, and the feds as a whole, should both try to correct the gaping holes in current security and anticipate future methods of attack. It seems to me that matches and lighters are not very effective weapons.

They do allow batteries installed in gadgets, such as cameras, walkman etc., but no loose or extra batteries.

False

What's false? Batteries in cameras or loose batteries?

I've never had the batteries in my camera confiscated and it used to travel in my checked luggage while now I carry it on board.

Actually there have been several, but all inadvertant AFAIK, and quickly doused. A Virgin FA told me of one instance where a couple were doing the beast with two backs under a blanket after which they (naturally) needed a cigarette and promptly set fire to the blanket

So that explains why I am on the watch list. I've had loose AAA batteries and no suitable portable device in my carry-on on my last three flights.

Not only do they allow loose batteries but in almost every airport I have ever been in I have been able to buy them after going through Security.

There are a number of airports, to my knowledge mostly in east Asia and around the Indian subcontinent, that try to ban batteries with varying degrees of strictness and consistency. There have been stories posted on FT, but they are hard to find without search working. In some cases loose batteries were taken, in others even the batteries in devices, in others expensive lithium-ion laptop batteries.

At ICN there are pictograms of "no batteries" similar to the "no guns" pictogram you might see in the USA. Going through ICN one day both I and a coworker were asked if we had any batteries in our carry-on. He said yes and lost a bunch of AAs. I said no in an unclear roundabout way, (which was untrue; I had many), and didn't lose anything.

Of course AAs were avialable for sale at airside shops.

Security stupidity is in no way limited to the USA.

Are you serious? I hope you weren't seriously asking that question.

Summer of 2003. Atlantic Southeast Airlines. Passenger decides to go to the bathroom for a cigarette. Passenger throws lit cigarette into trash. Fire breaks out in restroom.

Cigarettes starting fires are a different issue than lighters and matches. One of the most brilliant design features of any consumer product is that cigarettes burn quickly and at a high temperature, so that more of them are smoked. Contrast cigarettes with cigars and pipes, which do not stay lit if the smoker is not actively puffing once or twice a minute.

Well, maybe we should ban smoking on airplanes.

LOL. How can you say False when I am speaking from personal experience. They confisctaed my 8 pack of AA alkaline batteries and suggested that I replace old batteries with new ones in any gadgets I had with me. That way I won;t be losing the antire 8 pack. They even carried my 8 pack for me and managed to get them back to me in Bangkok.