You know 911 was quite a long time ago, and what were excusable knee-jerk responses to it at the time are really not so forgivable now. I've been thinking on and off this morning about how a tennis racquet can be considered an unacceptable piece of carry-on luggage.
That's absurd I thought. But then it occurred to me that you could take out the strings and garrotte somebody with them. But of course tennis racquet string is not in fact a banned item (although who knows?!) So it would be less hassle to put your garrotte in your pocket.
So actually I've concluded that this regulation is as spectacularly stupid as I first thought.
(I play quite a lot of tennis - I'll ask round my club if anyone can think of how to hijack an aircraft with a racquet. Feel free to post suggestions below. Unless you've got a really good idea, in which case don't post it below.)
on March 11, 2009 11:09 PM | Reply
Offer to give the pilot a game along the aisle. When he's out of his cabin, voila, your accomplice jumps into his seat and takes control of the plane. Job's a good un!
on March 13, 2009 3:31 AM | Reply
Wimps. I fly with numerous lethal weapons, and nobody has found them yet. Pencils and pens (sharp point to the carotid). Ethernet and modem cables (garrote). Coins (choking, heavy metal poisoning). Laptop (blunt force trauma). A tennis racquet is nothing at all!
on March 13, 2009 10:57 AM | Reply
You could try and restrain your target:
http://www.daylife.com/photo/03ffbuC3lBaoe
on March 13, 2009 11:00 AM | Reply
Now that I hadn't thought of! Keep 'em coming.
on April 22, 2009 12:57 PM | Reply
I was finally caught in possession of a lethal 5m flexible tape at Dubai airport's carry-on baggage x-ray check the other day - as an engineer, my flexible friend of the past 20 years - and had to hand it over. Cochin airport forbids carry-on brassware at the x-ray, but sells it in the departure lounge 'duty-free' shop. Ditto batteries, lighters and boxes of matches. And what is the point of having to surrender a bottle of water at the x-ray, only to find a mountain of it on sale a few metres further on? Wouldn't an x-ray machine that detects water be the simplest thing to invent? On my Emirates flight last week I had a vast array of steel cutlery with my Business Class meal, including a fine selection of knives. The plump pillows looked especially effective for inducing death by suffocation .......................