It’s not about the FACTS. It’s about the impressions anyone responsible for safety will have between point A and B. Should they have a label or something to alert people trained to assume ALL TANKS ARE PRESSURIZED that they are not? Sure, but if that’s not profitable they won’t do that. Putting it in a box was the correct answer. No assumptions made by safety conscious people = a smooth day on the shipping line.
It’s a good thing they make such assumptions. But them taking time to pull something suspicious out, investigate it and realize that technically the customer is correct - is unprofitable and will delay your packages arrival. Same thing for the people who pack the holds of airplanes.
Its not how you would run an airline, nor me if I could help it. It’s not how it would go in any system where personalized attention was a rational expectation. But that’s neither TSA nor United Airlines, they’re not going to treat our stuff as special, because it isn’t. Our stuff is equivalent, like us!
It isn’t even the AIRLINE, it is that person. I had flown several times on that same airline and kept picking them because they were cool with it in the past. This was checked luggage and I was under no obligation to even show them, but do every time to try to spear head problems.
I had in my head a document that they could have used to insure paintballers and scuba divers transported empty tanks, to educate and make it easier for everyone. But then 9/11 happened.
The guy was like, “This is what took down the Value Jet in Florida.”
“No, that first off had Oxygen, this usually has inert nitrogen or compressed air. But more importantly, it is CURRENTLY EMPTY and has no air. It is a harmless as an empty thermos.”
Never mind the fact that you could fly with it full, they have pressure release vales, and were fiber wrapped tanks MADE for the aviation industry able to take 4500psi.
I bought it in Istanbul, where it was quite clearly labelled “Turkish Delight”. But I get it that this is really just meant for tourists. Anyway, it was an epic fail. The kids for whom I bought it, couldn’t stand it, after being brought up on a diet of ‘americanized’ “Turkish Delight”.
That almost makes sense since cabins are only pressurised to 8000 ft and a fully inflated tire could in theory go over the max pressure; the necessary calculations being too complex for airline staff.
This hit the Internet, ironically, right when the American Library Association annual conference was in session last month, and lots of attendees were returning home with piles of books acquired at the conference.
The TSA responded:
Reading various sites at the time, it seems that the thickness of the text block can block scanners, and thus be used as “camouflage”.
A month ago, this was all explained as a test.
Librarians, correctly, questioned this procedure, as it is a privacy concern.
Yeah, but no. The reduction in cabin pressure compared to seal level is in the order of 3 psi to 4 psi. So my tyre at 100 psi (net) at sea level only has 104 psi (net) at cruising altitude. Even if I took it into outer-space it would only be 115psi. Still below the safe working pressure. It just doesn’t matter. Even more ridiculous is the ban on CO2 cartridges. These things are safely pressurised to thousands of psi. The extra 4 psi of effective pressure is completely and utterly trivial. Isn’t science great?
This is probably “just” a screwup - but: airports are the universal test bed for “what can we get away with” regarding treating people. If you can get away with it at airports, you can get away with it everywhere.
A friend of mine tols me about being in Switzerland, asking for cheese at a deli. She knew what she wanted, it was swiss cheese on her list. But that didnt make any sense to the counter help at all. It took her a while to undestand that all the cheese in the shop was in fact swiss.
Everyone’s shampoo, deodorant, hairspray, soda cans, anything with some air in it, would burst in flight if that were the case. But they luggage compartment is pressurized.
And tire bursting doesn’t actually harm anything but the tire even if it did.
Right on.
I didn’t realize it was only 4psi. Shit, my 4500psi bottles could take that even if they were full.
