TSA to Allow Small Knives on Planes

The TSA is loosening up a bit on what passengers can carry with them onto planes. Starting April 25, it will once again be OK to bring small pocketknives (with blades no more than 2.36 inches long and a half-inch wide), along with some kinds of sports equipment—including golf clubs, hockey and lacrosse sticks, pool cues, and plastic wiffle bats, reports Bloomberg. The federal agency says those are among the items commonly confiscated that are no longer perceived to be a security threat. It wants to focus instead on items that can cause "catastrophic damage."

The rationale isn't sitting well with flight attendants, reports the Los Angeles Times. "While we agree that a passenger wielding a small knife or swinging a golf club or hockey stick poses less of a threat to the pilot locked in the cockpit, these are real threats to passengers and flight attendants in the passenger cabin," says one union leader. The only thing this change does is make things easier for TSA screeners, she adds. (More TSA stories.)