Books Banned on Flights?

En route from San Jose to Phoenix, I was told by a Transportation Security Agency (TSA) screener about a ban on lighters (cough) starting April 14th, but the book allowance has been cut from 4 to 2. I had been tagged for a pat-down, a perfectly reasonable thing considering whatsinmybag. The agent was reasonable and amicable and I knew the drill. When he pulled a cigarette lighter out of my bag he mentioned the forthcoming ban, how you could carry four packs of matches and the whole idea was to prevent quickly lighting explosives (like that idiot with evil shoes). When he pulled out two books he mentioned that right now you can only have four books and on the 14th you can only have two. He didn't have any explanation for this, and I can't even fathom the purpose.

I must highlight that this could be bad information and hearsay. I can't confirm this with the DHS or TSA prohibited items list. However, the TSA list notes it's own inaccuracy -- and the discretion of the screener to interpret policy:

The prohibited and permitted items chart is not intended to be all-inclusive and is updated as
necessary. To ensure everyone's security, the screener may determine that an item not on the
prohibited items chart is prohibited. In addition, the screener may also determine that an
item on the permitted chart is dangerous and therefore may not be brought through the
security checkpoint.

I post this story because our current administration is the only one in history to take away more rights than it gives, the policy would disturb basic freedoms, policy interpretation and enforcement is in the hands of screeners and a screener told me the story in the first place. Can anyone help me bring clarity on this important issue? Until then, it's eBooks for me.

Comments

[James Snell]

Given this "you could carry *four* packs of matches" and this "right now you can only have *four* books and on the 14th you can only have two", are you certain he wasn't referring to a restriction on the number of books of matches?

[Ross Mayfield]

This may have been the confusion of the screener, however, he clear was addressing the book he pulled out of my bag.

[Steven M. Cohen]

Maybe he was being cute? The TSA says up to 4 books of matches in their latest "ban" release.

[Ayse Sercan]

If there's any kind of number limit on books, I've never run into it. I almost always fly with at least eight books in my carry-on; one trip back from London I had twenty. Nobody's ever said anything about it, except one screener asked incredulously if I was really going to need all of those on the flight (I wasn't, but I don't trust the checked-luggage handlers with books).

[Ross Mayfield]

Cute, there's an idea.

[morcheeba]

Can't you just stick some matches into books #3-6 and call them matchbooks? That way you could get six books total through.

[Martin Czheliac]

I was told at the airport recently that there is now a limit of six cookies per passenger. At the screener's discretion, one really big cookie can be counted as two or three, so be careful!

[Evan]

Last time I flew, from San Jose to Las Vegas and back, the screener in San Jose told me not to put my laptop through the X-ray machine; he said it had to be handed directly to the screener, and he made a point of telling me that that's the rule at every airport.

Well, I hadn't flown commercially since before 9/11/01, so I figured he knew what he was talking about. On the way home, I handed my laptop to the screener in Las Vegas, and he looked at me like I'd grown an extra limb and said, "What are you doing? Don't give that to me, put it through the X-ray."

And the moral of my story is, even if the guy was talking about books and not "books of matches", there's every chance he didn't know what he was talking about.

[Barry from Alaska]

I'm a 747 Captain, a freight dog. Most people think we're not real, but anyway...

A huge part of the job is flying on the "real airlines" to get where the freigher is going to be. So we get to see TSA idiocy all the time.

This one will be a lot of fun to check out, since I'm a smoker. As it's been presented to me, 4 books of matches, no lighters since April 14.

If the TSA manual says, do to bad proofreading 4 or 2 books, like War and Peace, that will be a fun one to challenge them idiots with.

[Osama bin Laden]

Memo to all of my Al Qaeda operatives:

I know our evil plan required you to carry more than two books onto the plane. But don't worry, you can buy the books AFTER the security checkpoint. Tom Clancy books are recommended because they're heavy, they're available in every airport bookstore, and for the irony value.

And don't forget our motto: READING IS FUNDAMENTALIST!

[anna]

Incredible..
That is just bad proofrading.

Did the guy suggest any limits for the book amount, if you have a newspaper? So if you have 3 newspapers, or a Sunday newspaper, can you still have as many (4? 2? 6?) books as you would have had otherwise, or will thet book amount be reduced for having newspapers? (:

[Mark Wubben]

Well, in the Netherlands "of" means "or", so perhaps he got confused?

[Briguy]

I flew on Friday, 4/15. I'm a grad student and regularly carry multiple books. I had 4 books with me on this most recent flight and had no issues.

Evan makes a good point above, that TSA rules seem to vary from airport to airport.

[Christopher McNabb]

"I post this story because our current administration is the only one in history to take away more rights than it gives"

This is not exactly true. The administration of John Adams passed the Alien and Sedition act, which made it illegal to say anything bad about the president, congress, or government. Several news reporters were jailed for violating the act. The act seriously abridged the freedom of speech and was later repealed once Thomas Jefferson became president.

[tf]

I recently carried 25 books on a flight in my backpack--they were gifts from a friend that I needed to get home--and had no problems.

[John]

Obviously the TSA screener is deluded. He is convinced there is a rule about books, when actually the rule is about matchbooks.

Either he was half-asleep during training, or overheard something and made a brainless interpretation of it.

I'm flying out of San Jose tonight. I'll be sure to carry three books, including one giftable one, to see if I run into this guy.

[Tom]

At first I was going to say that there might be the tiniest sliver of justification for this in that books could be used as weapons, conceivably, but then realized that two of Neal Stephenson's or Stephen King's hardcover cinderblocks could easily take up more volume and weight than eight paperbacks. And will they search my laptop or PDA/smartphone for e-books?

3 1/2 or so years from 9/11/01, and nothing much has changed. Airport screeners are responding to demands that they pay more attention to the people that pass through their gates by foisting senseless and inconsistent rules on the passengers, forcing them to choose between throwing away their possessions and missing their flights, and then airlines wonder why they're going bankrupt.

[Jeff]

In the TSA Standard Operating Procedures and on the TSA prohibited items list linked to on this page it refers to BOOKS of safety matches. There is no ban or limit on reading books. I think there was a miscommunication with the screener in the story.

[Bobby]

I'm going to start carrying some coloring books just to protest. "I'm sorry sir, you're only allowed 2 coloring books"

[Jared]

Good chance this screener just got mixed on on "matchbooks" as opposed to "reading books". I've carried half-a-dozen a books (sometimes more) in my carry-on and haven't had any issues with them. (The screeners seem to know that I'm a heavy reader since I'm always reading something prior to a flight). That screener probably needs to go back to basic training and re-read the rulebook.

[kim]

Well given the previous retardation of SJC's security in my experience, I'm not entirely surprised at an uneducated TSA education. My window at the office looks right out on the runways of SJC, and I still fly out of SFO more often.

[Elionwyr]

Idle question:
Were you actually carrying a deer skeleton?
..and why?

[Karl Lembke]

Martin:

"I was told at the airport recently that there is now a limit of six cookies per passenger."

Great. I can see it now:

"I'm sorry, if your laptop has internet capability, I'll have to confiscate it unless you can prove you've flushed the cookie file..."

[Dean Harding]

I dunno, you can get some wicked bad paper cuts from books. I can just see the terrorists hijacking a plane by threatening to give everyone papers cuts if the flight isn't diverted to where ever they want to go...

[Ethan]

"I post this story because our current administration is the only one in history to take away more rights than it gives"

Can you let me know where and how this is measured? I know he is a tough ruler, but like a prior comment pointed out, there have been others pretty bad as well.

Is there a rights check box that people keep track of comings and goings?

[Roland Hesz]

"Until then, it's eBooks for me."

Until they ban PalmTops, Laptops, etc. on account of being electric devices, thus potentially dangerous like a mobile phone.

[Charles Stillings]

"I post this story because our current administration is the only one in history to take away more rights than it gives..."
What planet are you from? People don't pass laws to prevent themselves from doing something, they pass laws to prevent SOMEONE ELSE from doing something. Every administration has passed laws. This one just happened to affect YOU. "when they came for...

[Michael Rosenthal]

I'm very much hoping you'll follow up on this post.

[Screener]

It is so unsettling how the flying public views the TSA...While some of the rules are whacked many have valid purposes..Treason lighters don't board the plane ...you can read this at www.tsa.gov...But remember Richard Reid...The shoe bomber?.. Well matches although can start a fire...they don't give off a lot of heat needed to light a fuse... as for lighters especially torch lighters... they burn much hotter and can cause more damage... to limit from 4 books to 2....sounds silly... but light up 4 books of matches at one time.... and light up two... see which one burns hotter and which one can light a fuse...
Remember knitting needles can kill someone as a pen can..... You claim we take away your rights....How about the rights for travelers to have safe flights? ....You seem to be confusing rights with your inconviences.... AMerica people are so spoiled and if their daily business is interupted for one minute... they get angry and state that their civil liberties have been violated...... Grow uP...all of you!!
If you seen the weapons and prohibited items that we recover daily.. you would be astonished.....LIke the media.. all you can do is say we remove lighters.... IF the flying public knew the items we remove on a dialy basis perhaps you would take those extra minutes and pack wisely.and stop complaining on what crappy jobs we do to protect your sorry selves

[MsMittens]

We got into this discussion at Antionline after I found the blog posting. One member suggested the following:

"The limit is partly due to the amount of time a TSA agent has to spend per person. The bigger reason is because independent audits showed that large books make it very easy to smuggle contraband onto the plane. Hiding edged weapons in the spine has a 75% chance of making it past screeners because of the way the books are passed through scanners. More or less, it has been proven that TSA agents are just as lazy as the contracted help they replaced. The use of books to smuggle items onto aircraft caught the attention of the top brass at the FAA and DHS as an audit finding, thus, a meaningless limitation has now been placed on you." -- TheHorse13

Basically, it comes down to a "business decision" rather than a true security issue. The idea of getting people through faster rather than being thorough about checking what people have.

[gandalf23]

"Well matches although can start a fire...they don't give off a lot of heat needed to light a fuse... as for lighters especially torch lighters... they burn much hotter and can cause more damage... to limit from 4 books to 2....sounds silly... but light up 4 books of matches at one time.... and light up two... see which one burns hotter and which one can light a fuse..."

huh?

Never a Boy Scout, were you? Neither have you played with cannon fuse, or even fireworks, have you?

Matches work fine for lighting fuses.

Ried's problem was that his fuse sucked, it wasn't a proper fuse, it was, IIRC from talking with an ATF arson investigator (memeber of the extended family), det-cord, which is not lightable, it must be detonated by a detonator. Or was it a normal safety fuse connected to det-cord? Dang, can't remember, and am finding conficting reports in the various media. Well, either way, his plan was crap to begin with: can't explode det-cord with a fuse, nor can you set it off just by lighting it. Also, soggy fuses (from being inside one's shoe for a bit) tend not to light well :)