In the face of a huge backlash, the Transportation Security Administration postponed its plan that would have allowed knives on US flights starting today.
“Knives are not coming back on board!” said AFA-CWA President Veda Shook, announcing the delay at convention.
It was a huge victory for Flight Attendants, who built a strong coalition of supporters in aviation and the public to oppose the dangerous policy change.
The United States has banned all knives from commercial flights since the September 11, 2001, attacks for good reason: Knives were the terrorists' weapons of choice in bringing down four jetliners and murdering thousands of Americans. All knives should be banned from planes permanently. If the TSA wishes to explore a drastic departure from this logical, 11-year-old policy, it must comply with the rule-making requirements that it should have observed when it first announced its decision to allow knives on planes on March 5.
Like any agency, before TSA changes a rule it is legally required to issue a notice of rule-making, to allow all interested parties the opportunity to submit comments, and to fairly consider that input. If those procedures are followed, we have no doubt that the Administrator will conclude that knives have no place on our planes and will leave the rule barring “weapons” in place.
The coalition is working diligently with members of Congress – Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Michael Grimm (R-NY) as well as Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) -- on legislation to permanently keep knives off planes. We thank these sponsors for their support on this critical security issue and urge Congress to act swiftly.
For more information please visit: http://www.cwa-union.org
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