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Knives on Planes | ||||||
Defending Against Edged Weapons on Commercial Flights | ||||||
After the crashes of hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, some reports speculated that the hijackers were armed just with knives. How could the hijackers get onto a commercial flight with knives, and what could have been done about it? |
Click for info on knives allowed onto planes |
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Updated Wednesday, September 12, 2001 Knife-wielding Hijacker A hijacker holds an
8-inch knife to the back of a stewardess of a large jumbo jet. He gains
access to the cockpit, then stabs the pilot to death. Luckily, in this 1999
incident, the co-pilot of All Nippon Airways (ANA) Flight 61 was able
to land the plane safely in Tokyo. However, the pilot lost his life subduing
the hijacker. Aboard one of the
aircraft impacting the World Trade Center, a passenger calling from her
cellular phone said the hijackers were armed with knives and cardboard
box cutters. How could a hijacker get past security with a knife? Security Restricts Long Blades On U.S. domestic flights that I've flown, security allowed pocketknives
with blades shorter than 3 inches to be taken into the passenger cabin.
Some security officers used their palm or their ID badge as a ruler to
determine if the blade was of allowable length. While many defensive tactics
experts don't consider a 3-inch long blade an effective offensive weapon,
any sharp blade can cut flesh, and could have been used to take a flight
attendant hostage. According to CNN, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) used to allow
knives with blades shorter than 4 inches to be carried into the passenger
cabin. As of September 12, 2001, FAA regulations now ban all knives--of
any blade length--from being brought onboard. Knives must be checked into
baggage that will be placed in the locked cargo hold. The knife used in
the Japanese hijacking was a large kitchen knife. The Japan hijacker used
a loophole to bypass the x-ray check at security--he first flew
from Haneda airport to Osaka, checking the bag containing the knife into
a storage area. On returning to Haneda, he picked up the bag from the
storage area through an unguarded entrance, carrying the bag, and the
knife, onto his next flight--the flight he hijacked.
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