Travelers flying through Erie International Airport are adjusting to the news that the TSA screening rules in place for more than a decade are changing. Starting April 25 passengers will be allowed to carry on pocket knives with folding blades up to two and a third inches long and a half inch wide.
Passengers will also be allowed to carry on sporting equipment once considered potential weapons. The TSA will permit golf clubs, lacrosse sticks, pool cues and small souvenir bats through security screening.
Although Americans like to complain about the hassle of airport screening in the post September 11, 2001 era, most people we talked with at Erie International Airport were surprised that TSA is rolling back the rules.
"It doesn't take a big knife to do somebody up," said passenger Gina McClendon, "especially if it's from behind you, I would feel safer if they take the pocket knives, bats, toothbrushes, anything, I would feel much safer and other people would too."
Erie International Airport Director Chris Rodgers says industry officials in task forces have been working behind the scenes for some time to come up with changes that would align U-S airports with international civil aviation standards. "It was a growing problem when people on international flights who were allowed to carry certain items on, had to give them up when they were connecting through U-S airports," said Rodgers.
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