WASHINGTON, Dec 2: US authorities on Friday loosened restrictions imposed after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks that barred passengers from taking sharp objects such as scissors into airplanes.

“Scissors with blades less than four inches (10 centimetres) long and tools like screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers that are less than seven inches (18 centimetres) will be removed from the prohibited items list on Dec 22,” Kip Hawley, head of the Transportation Security Administration, told reporters.

“Small scissors and tools account for approximately 25 per cent of the prohibited items found in passengers carry-on bags,” he said.

Ice picks, box cutters and knives of any kind are still banned, Mr Hawley said.

He said security efforts would be redirected to vetting cargo in airplane holds for explosives rather than passenger inspections.

“I am convinced that the time now spent searching bags for small scissors and tools can be better utilized to focus on the far more dangerous threat of explosives,” he said.

Since Sept 11, airliner cockpit doors have been strengthened, pilots have been authorized to carry weapons and air marshals fly aboard some planes.

Mr Hawley said that passengers would be spot checked and not systematically searched. From now on, an airport might decide to ask all travellers to remove their shoes one day and not the following.

“It is paramount to the security of our aviation system that terrorists not be able to know with certainty what screening procedures they will encounter at airports around the nation,” the TSA official said.

“By incorporating unpredictability into our procedures and eliminating low-threat items, we can better focus our efforts on stopping individuals who wish to do us harm,” he said.

Even before the US agency made the official announcement, the decision was already the target of negative reactions.

Democratic Representative Ed Markey, who on Thursday had introduced a bill seeking to continue the ban on scissors and other sharp objects in airliner cabins, said: “TSA should be focused on shrinking the terrorist toolbox, not expanding the number of items that a terrorist could carry onboard.”

“It appears that TSA is setting up a false trade-off between a focus on detection of explosive devices and sharp objects.

“Such choices would not even be considered if the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress stopped stretching thin the security screener resources at our nation’s airports,” Ed Markey said.

Another opponent, Christopher Witkowski, of the Association of Flight Attendants, said: “For TSA to allow these objects to be brought on by passengers and potential terrorists is ludicrous.

“It doesn’t make any sense, and it’s placing the flight attendants at risk, as well as the passengers onboard.” —AFP