I might be going on a plane trip in the near future and because I haven’t flown in over 10 years and I’m going to attempt doing the flight with just carry on baggage I decided that I should take a peek at what can and cannot go on a plane nowadays… the results were interesting to say the least!
What prompted this search for me was trying to determine if I was going to have a problem taking my medication with me because it is a syrup and I have more then 100mL of it, which seems like a fair question. What I found was a search feature on the aviation authority website which you can use to reference a comprehensive list of all the things they think people will ask about.
After a bit of clicking around I found (and read) the list in its entirety and what I found raised my eyebrows to say the least.
First of all, it makes you wonder who is searching for things like “Can I bring a loaded handgun or dynamite in my carry on baggage?” Shouldn’t these things be pretty obvious?
Along the same lines there was an entry about Molotov Cocktails, NO they are NOT allowed in your carry on OR your checked baggage! But this caused me to raise the question of “at what point does something become a Molotov Cocktail? Is it just the liquid in the bottle with the wick? or is is not until it is lit on fire because before that it is just a bottle with a flammable liquid right?! And wouldn’t that be covered under ‘no flammable liquids?’”
You are not allowed to bring your Swords, Daggars, or Sabres in your carry on although you are allowed to bring smaller knives and scissors as long as the blade isn’t longer than 6cm. Similarly you aren’t allowed to bring blow guns, crossbows, or even throwing stars but for some reason you ARE allowed to bring lawn darts?! (provided that the spike on them is also less than 6cm). Didn’t they outlaw lawn darts years ago? Personally I don’t really want to be clopped in the head by a lawn dart any more than being hit by an arrow.
The good news however is apparently you ARE allowed to bring duct tape and zip ties (expressly described as the type used to restrain a person). Strangely enough it did not specify the circumstances in which you can or cannot USE these items during the flight therefore I assume that they now allow us to all bring these on board in case we find ourselves sitting next to a rowdy passenger and just wanting a little bit of peace and quiet during our flight.
There were so many things on the list that were very curious that it did make for a very interesting and thought provoking read. Thankfully most of it boiled down to common sense and frankly I don’t really even own anything that was prohibited. FYI: I managed to find out that my medication is exempt from the 100mL rule as long as it is in its original labelled bottle and is declared at the security checkpoint.
Here’s hoping the flight goes well! (and that I don’t get clopped with a stray lawn dart)
~Elena <3
