TSA Lightens Up on Lighters

The Transportation Security Administration is ending its policy of confiscating cigarette lighters from airline passengers, and acknowledging that it was a waste of time. Other items, like batteries, are just as likely to be used to set off bombs, TSA chief Kip Hawley told the New York Times.

“Taking lighters away is security theater,” Hawley said. “It trivializes the security process.”

Since would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid tried to set off a bomb on a flight from Paris to Miami in 2001 (using matches, not a lighter), TSA screeners have been collecting 22,000 lighters a day, and disposing of them at a cost of $4 million a year.