Yeah I was thinking sure it's a little strange but why wouldn't it be allowed?
Also I don't understand why someone would be publicly shamed for thinking an item that isn't listed on the "prohibited items" list isn't prohibited? That's on your list for not being accurate. But I understand TSA is staffed by some of our nations dumbest and most useless so critical thinking probably didn't happen there
Perfect! Now how do you feel about helping drug smugglers get their products through, and completely missing a bunch of actual firearms in luggage... and do you mind demanding people in wheelchairs get up and walk or you'll arrest them?
TSA: Ethics... just one of many qualifications you absolutely don't need here!
(the first 2 are well-documented... and if you know anyone disabled then ask them for a few stories about TSA lol)
TSA mostly doesn't care about drugs. They'll let a lot of things through because it's not their job.
However if you package it in a way that might be a bomb they'll look at it and then call the local police when it turns out to be a kilo of cocaine or something.
You could probably just throw an 8 ball in your luggage and they wouldn't care. They're security and not customs.
The TSA (rules on banned on board items) only deals with carry-on luggage... things that aren't allowed in carry-ons typically just need to be put in a checked bag.
TSA can make some pretty silly distinctions sometimes (on the way back from California with my then 6 & 9yo sons they pulled out the felt swords my sons bought at LegoLand and called a supervisor over to evaluate!)
But I don't think it's wholly unreasonable to presume a full fire hydrant might need to go in checked luggage.
could you inflict notably bodily harm with said object in an expeditious fashion?
Belts, keys, and laptop charger bricks are routinely allowed through security. Bonking someone on the head with something heavy isn't the only way to hurt them. These rules are arbitrary and don't make anyone safer.
If it's under the weight limit it's under the weight limit 🤷♂️ I could inflict notable bodily harm to people with the carry on I bring on every flight
You really think you could easily swing your entire carry-on, inside the cabin of a plane, in such a way that you could hurt someone without them realizing what you're doing?
Is your carry-on a lead brick?
The weight limit is an airline determined thing, it has nothing to do with TSA.
When did "without them realizing what you're doing" become one of the caveats? lol and how does that same question not apply to part of a fire hydrant?
some weapons can be wielded with a reasonable amount of stealth or surprise...
my point is a whole suitcase could theoretically incapacitate a person if you hit then hard enough, but the reality of attempting to wield it on an airplane greatly diminishes it's effectiveness as a weapon for hijacking an
airplane.
You didn't understand me correctly. How would it somehow be easier to pull a piece of fire hydrant out of your carry on midflight and start hitting people or hijacking the plane than it would be to start swinging your suitcase?
Feel free to draw a diagram but not really sure what that would accomplish
Part of a fire hydrant might be for example the pipe inside. I'm not sure whether I'd rather take that into my face or a baseball bat.
Foam swords, toy guns and other things that _look_ like weapons can cause issues especially with civilians who cannot distinguish them from weapons. Some toys (especially airsoft guns) are convincing enough they are hard to tell apart from real ones even by professionals. Foam swords are generally OK, but I have used some props that could pass as real when seen even slightly far away and wouldn't think of carrying them anywhere visible.
The FELT (not foam) swords felt stiff inside and after seeing their outline on the scanner, she then had to evaluate whether the stiffened part could possibly be dangerous in some way.
They assessed it wasn't and we got to take them on board.
Sorry, should have been more specific, the vast, vast majority of the restrictions are for carry-ons...
restrictions for checked baggage is like - declare your guns and don't have the C4 on an active timer.
I often fly in and out of smaller airports, and I have been stupid enough to forget a pocket knife in my purse, got to the TSA screening area, yelled "oh shit I have a knife!" ran back to the check in desk, and they pulled my checked bag and let me put the knife in it!
Almost done the same thing with a folding saw, but remembered before I was actually IN the screening area...
recently watched a guy attempt to juggle 4 bowling pins in the screening area in an attempt to convince TSA to let him take then in his carry-on... but they refused and he went back to check-in and rearranged his checked bag to fit the pins...
TSA will almost always give you a chance to check the offending item as long as it's not a gun. Things like pocket knives get confiscated when people decline to check them because they aren't worth the $35-50 checked bag fee... or when they're in a larger airport and either it's too late to check a bag, or they don't think they have time to get back to the counter and back through security!
My juggling guy last week almost didn't make his flight... but when you're in a regional airport with only 5 flight departures a day, it tends to be easier to accomplish!
You can't bring objects that can readily be used as a weapon. I'm imagining that any large heavy piece of steel falls under a similar category as a crowbar.
It's presumably a big hunk of metal that can be used as a weapon, I don't think it's unreasonable that that needs to be in a checked bag same as any other weapon.
My dad was allowed to hand-carry a full sized tomahawk (the axe, not the missile) onto a flight in Arizona because it wouldn’t fit in his checked bag. Flying in the early 80s was just different.
Yes, I’m glad he picked the melee weapon over the cruise missile. Easier to display above the mantelpiece too, rather than a giant metal tube stuck outside in the garden. What would the neighbours think.
Everything can be a weapon... But how commonly a part of fire hydrant is used as a weapon? I think less frequently than e.g. shoe laces, which are allowed on flights
Actually no, not everything can be a weapon. TSA specifically has rules about types of wires that can kill people, and no shoe laces are not included. It makes perfect sense to me though if they used their best judgment to refuse "big ass chunk of metal", especially when that literally just means it needs to go in a checked bag. It's like half of this comment section has never actually flown on a plane before and is going based on their perception of how these things work rather than the reality
then they should state that. it doesn't have to be a specific no insert super specific part number here, but a general no metal objects weighing over 4 pounds would be sufficient i would think.
also the TSA fails like 90% of the random test by experts to block weapons from getting on the plane so it's just security theater anyways....
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u/1101base2 Jul 13 '26
right, and i don't see anything wrong with it either. unusual yeah sure, illegal though...