TSA Bans Fuel

By Ion Zwitter, Avant News Editor
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Virginia

The Transportation Security Administration announced today that, effective immediately, all potentially explosive liquids are banned from all areas of commercial airliners. TSA assistant secretary Kip Hawley said the measure, an expansion of the various bans on liquids in the cargo and passenger holds issued last fall, was necessary to "enhance our safety and protect the public against terrorist attacks in order to preserve our uniquely American freedoms". Under the new ruling, commercial airlines will be permitted to proceed with their regularly scheduled flights without interruption or government interference, but will not be permitted to fuel the aircraft.

"We see this much-needed security legislation as an excellent compromise between the desire to ensure passenger safety under the threat of the escalating war on terror, and the desire by the TSA not to impede the essential freedoms of Americans to use the facilities offered by our world-class air transportation system," Mr. Hawley said. "Despite the fact that we are, as President Bush says, more safer from terrorism, the other fact that terrorism is rising astronomically forces us to take certain steps. This is one of them."

Most common commercial jet airliners such as the Boeing 737, the Airbus A340 and the Tupolev Corvair require a volatile kerosene/paraffin oil-based fuel to operate their engines, which in turn are required to lift the aircraft from the ground up to an area above the ground and back again at the conclusion of the journey. According to aviation specialist Allen Hagaman of the weekly periodical Flyer's Digest, requiring the airliners to operate without fuel may impede their ability to fly as effectively.

Delta Airlines spokesman Gustave Whitehead said boarding and disembarkation procedures will remain virtually identical to their current state. The only point at which travelers may be affected by the volatile liquid ban will be during the so-called "middle part" of the journey.

"Luggage," Mr. Whitehead said, "will not be loaded onto the planes, but we hope to continue to lose it with a high degree of accuracy."