• TSA delays knives rule

    TSA via AP

    This handout image provided by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) shows a page from a TSA pamphlet of Changes to Prohibited Items List (PIL), of the sizes of knife blades not allowed on airplanes as per a new policy that was set to go into effect April 25.

    By Jay Blackman, NBC News

    The Transportation Security Administration has decided to delay a controversial new rule that would have allowed small knives to be carried on passenger aircraft, the agency said Monday,

    Bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment that was set to be permitted under the new rule, will also stay banned, for now.

    The TSA calls this a temporary delay, but has not decided a new implementation date.


    The new rule for small blades — shorter than 2.36 inches in length and less than 1/2 inch in width — had been set to go into effect April 25th.

    "In order to accommodate further input from the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, which includes representatives from the aviation community, passenger advocates, law enforcement experts, and other stakeholders, TSA will temporarily delay implementation of changes to the Prohibited Items List, originally scheduled to go into effect April 25," said a TSA spokesperson.

    "This timing will enable TSA to incorporate the ASAC's feedback about the changes to the Prohibited Items List and continue workforce training," they added.

    But the postponement announced by TSA doesn't go far enough, a coalition of unions representing 90,000 flight attendants nationwide said Monday.

    "All knives should be banned from planes permanently," the group said in a statement.

    Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who opposed the policy, said TSA's decision is an admission "that permitting knives on planes is a bad idea." He also called for a permanent ban.

    Meanwhile, many airports were experiencing wide-ranging delays as FAA furloughs kicked in this week.

  • TSA eases airport screening for elderly travelers

    By Harriet Baskas, NBC News contributor

    A pilot airport screening program designed to make the security line easier for elderly fliers is going national.


    Since March, TSA workers at airports in Chicago, Denver, Orlando and Portland, Ore., have been testing modified screening practices for passengers 75 and over. Elderly travelers at select checkpoints were allowed to keep shoes and light outerwear on during screening and could take a second pass through full-body scanners to clear anomalies. The measures mirror those instituted nationwide last summer for children 12 and under.

    TSA on Friday announced an end to the pilot program and said it will roll out the rules at all U.S. airports throughout the summer. A specific implementation timetable was not released.

    The changes will reduce, but not eliminate, enhanced pat-downs for the elderly, TSA said in a statement. Travelers will be asked to remove shoes and undergo a pat-down “if anomalies are detected during security screening that cannot be resolved through other means.”

    In December, TSA was under fire after security incidents involving elderly passengers.

    In one, 85-year-old Lenore Zimmerman said she was injured and humiliated during a strip search at JFK Airport. Days later, 88-year-old Ruth Sherman said she was forced to pull down her pants and show her colostomy bag during a search.

    TSA later apologized for the way the searches were handled.

    In the past year, TSA has implemented and enhanced other initiatives designed to ease screening requirements and concerns, including PreCheck, an expedited screening program it continues to roll out at dozens of airports, and TSA Cares, a helpline for travelers with disabilities and medical conditions.

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    Find more by Harriet Baskas on StuckatTheAirport.com and follow her on Twitter. 

  • Frightening frosting? TSA confiscates cupcake

    A TSA agent takes a woman's cupcake at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, reportedly due to concerns over the frosting.

    By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services

    PEABODY, Mass. -- An airport security officer confiscated a frosted cupcake amid fears its icing could be a security risk, according to reports.

    Rebecca Hains said the Transportation Security Administration agent at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas took her cupcake Wednesday. According to Hains, he told her its frosting was enough like a gel to violate TSA restrictions on allowing liquids and gels onto flights to prevent them from being used as explosives.

    "I just thought this was terrible logic," Hains said Friday.

    Hains said the agent didn't seem concerned that the red velvet cupcake, which was packaged in an 8-ounce mason jar, could actually be explosive, just that it fit some bureaucratic definition about what was prohibited.

    "Once he had identified it as a security threat it was no longer mine and I couldn't have it back," Hains told NBC station WHDH. 

    Hains, a 35-year-old communications professor at Salem State University, said she told the agent she had passed through security at Boston's Logan International Airport earlier in the week with two cupcakes packaged in jars, gifts from a student. But she said the agent told her that just meant TSA officials in Boston didn't do its job.

    "The TSA agent who saw them, picked them up and said, 'these look delicious,' and sent me on my way," Hains told WHDH.

    'Civil liberties'
    The TSA, which is entrusted with protecting the nation's transportation system, was reviewing the incident, agency spokesman Nico Melendez said. Passengers are allowed to take cakes and cupcakes through checkpoints, he said.

    Hains, who lives in Peabody, just north of Boston, said the encounter highlighted the ludicrousness of TSA policies.

    "It's not really about the cupcake; I can get another cupcake," she added. "It's about an encroachment on civil liberties. We're just building up a resistance and tolerance to all these things they're doing in the name of security, when it's really theater. It is not keeping us safe."

    The Associated Press, NBC News station WHDH and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.