View Single Post
  #1  
Old December 18th 04, 03:10 PM
Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark)
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default travel warning: TSA took my allen wrenches

About two weeks ago I left for Hawaii from the
Denver airport. I was carrying a small photo backpack
with my usual gear, including 2 small allen wrenches
for the screws on my Wimberly mounting plates.
These are small, ~1 mm and ~2 mm, allen wrenches.
I've carried these for a couple of years without a
problem. I was flagged for carrying a potential
weapon, my bag went through secondary screening, including
taking it all apart to find the wrenches.
In discussing the issue with TSA, they said there is a
"New" rule that says no tools of any kind are allowed as
carry-on. A TSA guy said you could poke someone with
these wrenches. I pointed out how much smaller and
less effective small allen wrenches were than keys
or nail clippers (which are allowed). His answer was
that the higher ups know more than we do, and the
allen wrenches were banned.

So don't take any tools on board any more.

Roger