Box cutters were forbidden since 1994!

[Slaughtermeyer]

I saw this on the website of a law firm just now. Out of 19 hijackers, not one had his box cutter confiscated! If negligence is given as the excuse, it would mean that at least four teams of inspectors had to be negligent at the same time.

http://www.planesafe.org/latest.htm

Latest Developments in the 9/11 Litigation

The litigation process has already exposed several widely held misconceptions concerning the September 11 hijackings and the legal proceedings available to the families of the airline passenger victims. These misconceptions have been spread by innumerable inaccurate media reports, by governmental, airline and security company spokespersons, by those promoting the Fund, by legal analysts in print and on TV, and by others.

Several Misconceptions

1. Were box cutters permissible carry-on items aboard airlines on September 11, 2001?

Almost immediately we were all told that the carriers and screeners did nothing wrong because box cutters, the most commonly mentioned weapon of the hijackers, were items that were allowed to be carried on board commercial aircraft. Almost every news account emphasized how box cutters were permissible. These accounts were false. We have discovered that the airlines themselves specifically listed box cutters as prohibited items. The airlines failed, therefore, in each instance, to discover, confiscate and bring to the attention of a supervisor, the presence of prohibited box cutters. (See the relevant page of the airlines’ list of proscribed items, in effect since 1994.)

[dflprincess]

1. In July or August of 2001 my niece flew from Minneapolis to Detroit

in those days, you could see a passenger off at the gate and, because she had never flown before, I did go in with her to make sure she got to the right place. I noticed when we went through security that the two of the people working it were so busy talking that they never looked at the xray machine as our purses went through.

At the time, my niece was working stock at a grocery store. As we were waiting for her plane to board she started rummaging through her purse and suddenly says, "Oh, I meant to leave this at home, take this for me." And handed me her box cutter. Even then, I nearly passed out. I've thought many times since then, that I should have made a complaint. Not that that would have stopped anything, but at least the screeners in Minneapolis might have been told to pay more attention.

[jberryhill]

2. What crap

Almost immediately we were all told that the carriers and screeners did nothing wrong because box cutters, the most commonly mentioned weapon of the hijackers, were items that were allowed to be carried on board commercial aircraft.

"we were all told" this?

By whom?

Please provide a link to a single statement ever made by anyone that box cutters were allowed aboard a plane?

A box cutter, carefully positioned/taped skinny side up on an xray conveyor maintained and monitored by the relatively lax standards pre-9/11 will just be a line or look like part of the luggage hardware. Don't even get me started on the dimensional limitations of cheaper model metal detectors... There are store security tag systems still in use which won't detect an anti-shoplifting tag as long as you hold it in a certain orientation.