WASHINGTON - THE US aviation authorities have decided to stop enforcing a two-year-old rule against taking cigarette lighters on airplanes, concluding that it was a waste of time to search for them.
The ban was imposed at the insistence of Congress after a passenger, Richard Reed, tried to ignite a bomb in his shoe in 2001 on a flight from Paris to Miami.

Lawmakers said that if Reid had used a lighter instead of matches, he might have been able to ignite the bomb, but Mr Kip Hawley, Assistant Secretary for the Transportation Security Administration, said in an interview on Thursday that the ban had done little to improve aviation security because small batteries could be used to set off a bomb.

Matches have never been prohibited on flights.

'Taking lighters away is security theatre,' Mr Hawley said. 'It trivialises the security process.'

The policy change, which will go into effect on Aug 4, applies to disposable butane lighters and refillable lighters such as Zippos. Torch lighters, which have thin, hotter flames, will still be banned.

Security officers have been collecting some 22,000 lighters a day nationwide, slowing down lines at checkpoints. Disposing the seized lighters has cost about US$4 million (S$6 million) a year.

By lifting the ban, Mr Hawley said, security officers could spend more time looking for bombs or bomb parts.

'The No. 1 threat for us is someone trying to bring bomb components through the security checkpoint,' he said. 'We do not want anything that distracts concentration from searching for that.'

A ban on liquids in containers greater than 88ml, which was imposed last year after the disruption of a plot based in London to blow up planes headed to the United States, will remain in effect.

But the security agency will modify its rules to allow passengers to carry breast milk in quantities greater than 88ml as long as it is declared for inspection. Currently, breast milk is allowed only if a passenger is travelling with an infant.

In 2005, security officials lifted a ban on small scissors, screwdrivers and small tools, saying that searching for them was a waste of time.

NEW YORK TIMES