If your kids ask if they can take their remote control toys with them on your next trip through the airport, better tell them to leave the RC’s at home. Why? The TSA, of course.
Airport screeners are giving additional scrutiny to remote-controlled toys because terrorists could use them to trigger explosive devices, the Transportation Security Administration said Monday.
Fantastic. You just KNOW that some overzealous TSA officer is going to cause some kid to weep when he confiscates the toy, and we’ll hear about it all over the news.
You may want to check them (the toys, not the kids) in luggage, as opposed to carrying them on, but who knows how far “scrutiny” will run.
And what does this “scrutiny” involve, anyway? Taking things apart? Cellphones can be used to trigger explosive devices, too, but we’re not scrutinizing or banning THEM.
Skepticism and tut-tutting over inconsistent policy aside, a few observations:
Fewer RC toys in airports is really a good thing
Maybe Kip Hawley just finds radio-control toys annoying. I know I do, when I’m in public places. I’ve seen kids playing with them in airport terminals, which just wasn’t appropriate. In the middle of the B-Concourse at O’Hare, no less. Not every place is your personal play-space, kid. Welcome to the real world. Lose the RC.
If you get busted, stay cool
If you get hassled, and your child’s toy gets taken away, stay calm, take names, be annoyed, but whatever you do, please, PLEASE don’t lose your cool like this woman did. Though not at a TSA checkpoint, she was arrested for disorderly conduct after throwing a fit when she was denied boarding. The Phoenix police put her in cuffs, possibly “manhandled” her, and now she’s dead, seemingly choked to death, though it’s unclear how. It wouldn’t have happened if she had kept her cool.
Leave the big guns at home
Though it might seem appropriate to bring to the airport, don’t bring your human-sized radio-controlled Airbus A380 model through the checkpoint. Now THAT’S a bad-ass radio controlled toy. Watch it fly in the video here.
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October 2nd, 2007 at 3:10 am
We like quiet, self contained, toys for the airport anyway, so this new restriction certainly won’t impact our travel (and frankly, I’ll be glad to see RC cars gone from the airport).
That said, the airlines generally don’t cover damage to electronic devices in checked baggage so this does put travellers in a bit of a bind.
November 17th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Hi,
Do they allow RC helicopters in checkin-baggage?
Why is the scrutiny check? Why should innocent people get tortured for this.
RC heli are for fun. Its a hobby. If people carry whatz the problem? If it is really a problem, US stores should stop selling them. As long as they sell, there shold be no problem in carrying it.
November 17th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Should be no problem in checked luggage. They just don’t want you breaking them out in the airport lobby, which I assume you weren’t planning to do.
November 24th, 2008 at 11:03 am
No Iam planning to take that in checked luggage, but worried with the customs. Why I should I pay money to customs as Iam taking a toy worth 100$. Anything less than 25000 RS (INR) need not be declared right? But these people want money and they create unnecessary problems for us.