On Thursday, the U.S. House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security will further examine the TSA’s controversial risk based security approach, including the agency's recent controversial decision to allow small knives and sports equipment onto airplanes beginning on April 25.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee is among 133 congressional lawmakers who have voiced concerns about the latest move by the TSA. Rep. Thompson urged the TSA "to revisit this potentially dangerous and confusing policy." Other lawmakers have described the latest TSA security change as misguided and dangerous.
In a letter dated Wednesday April 3, addressed to members of congress opposing the decision, TSA Chief, John Pistole wrote:
"Given these real and significant threats, security experts worldwide have concluded that small pocket knives and certain sporting equipment do not pose a security risk that would result in the catastrophic failure of an aircraft and the loss of all life on board."
In addition to 133 members of Congress, pilots, flight attendants and U.S. air marshals have also voiced their opposition to the agency's March 14 announcement that beginning on April 25, airline customers will be allowed to carry pocket knives with blades up to 2.36 inches long. Additional items being allowed back on planes for the first time since 9/11 include hockey sticks, golf clubs, and small bats.
On Friday, members of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants protested the new TSA knife rule at Boston, Atlanta and Philadelphia airports.
One American Airlines steward Robert Valenta told ABC News:
“I have been threatened on an aircraft. I’ve had a situation where police had to arrest a passenger and it’s not a very comforting feeling knowing that person, if they had a knife, the damage they could have done."
The TSA, an agency housed within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security argues that intelligence suggests that more terrorists are attempting to detonate difficult to detect liquid non-metallic explosives aboard airliners, and therefore the focus of security screeners to more relevant threats makes sense.
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