Flashlights & airport security
 

Have any of you ever had any trouble with the TSA over any flashlight you carry ?
And for the TSA folks who post here, are there any restrictions on flashlights ?

I have a 2-AA battery flashlight that lives in my laptop bag, plus a keychain LED flashlight and I also believe there is another small LED flashlight in my rollaboard. Never had an issue with them.

Why would you think it could be a security concern? Don't give TSA any ideas of new things to ban!!!

If you try to fly with a 5 cell mag-lite suspect beater (cop special), then you're probably gonna get some problems. I've never been questioned about the two or three small flashlights - like tev9999 carries.

I’ve carried a 2 AA mini MagLite for almost 20 years. Never had a problem.

not suspect beater but non-resistance motivator or resistance ender. :D:D

No restirctions on flashlight.:)

No, not at all. You will allows to bring your own flashlight through at checkpoint. I will expect to take with my small flashlight along with me. I know there is no restrictions in the checkpoint at all. I think you should be just fine.

Well today spoke to one of the few TSA folks I talk to.(By the way invited him to join FT.) Heres the scoop. He stated there is no flashlight policy HOWEVER if the supervisor considers the flashlight can be used as a weapon such as the 3cell & larger mag lites as well as the flashlights with the strike bezel(I showed him a picture he never heard of it) they most likely will not be allowed.

So in other words, they're making up the policy as they go. :td:

So, just like anything else then. It's "allowed" until an imaginative TSA screener envisions some way you can use it to hurt someone (note: "hurt someone", not "endanger aircraft" :rolleyes:), then they take it away from you. :td:

(Is this my chance to point out that even I could probably choke someone with a necktie? Think of the stink in political/ bureaucratic/ business circles if TSA started confiscating ties at the checkpoint! :p)

Not surprising, since the TSA has long banned the miniature souvenir baseball bats some teams hand out. Makes sense, since the recipients (boys, usually), tend to club their younger brothers with them.

The TSA has long reserved the right to prohibit any item the screener thinks is a weapon. And to call the LEOs over whenever that overactive imagination leads to another false positive. That innovative use of "imagination" gave us the jailed teacher when she tried to board with a leather bookmark (or SAP lookalike, according to our screener posters):

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/09/17/Hi...me_Totin.shtml

Anybody remember LA Police Chief Bratton's solution to cops beating suspects with maglites? Purchase lightweight, short, flacid flashlights made of rubber or polymer:

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/apr...e-flashlight13

Wonder if screeners would mistake this new, neutered flashlight for a weapon?

Flashlights at PVG
 

Security at PVG AA 288 (PVG-ORD) 10/15/08: 2 AA maglite caused a stir briefly, but they let it through eventually. Also had to explain what a UV light on a keychain was used for. Never had a problem anywhere else, though.

I assume you mean "makes sense" in the demented TSA way, not the ordinary human, common-sense way. Maybe kids with mini baseball bats club their younger brothers with them - what does that have to do with aviation safety?

But, you could read the secret markings placed on home printed boarding passes that are only to be viewed to TDCs. You must be a terrorist! :p

Exactly. In TSA Bizzaro-Speak, it makes sense. Once a screener uses their fertile imagination to determine that something could be used as a weapon (as can nearly every object I own), it's suspect. So if a screener sees their six year old bash their four year old with one of these bats, it's a dual-use weapon, and thus no legitimate basis exists for carrying it on.

Same thing with big "compliance motivator" flashlights. :D