Rumsfeld Gets Tsa Pat-down At O'hare Airport

NBC News has learned that the Transportation Security Administration has decided to delay a controversial new rule that would have allowed small knives  to be carried on passenger aircraft.The TSA calls this a temporary delay, but have not decided a new implementation date.The new rule for small blades — shorter than 2.36 inches in length and less than 1/2 inch in width — had been set to go into e    

Nikki Stern lost her husband in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and she doesn't understand why knives would be allowed in airplane cabins 12 years later.

New TSA policy on knives, bats sparks backlash Associated Press Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 9:40 am, Friday, March 8, 2013 WASHINGTON (AP) — Flight attendants, pilots, federal air marshals and even insurance companies are part of a growing backlash to the Transportation Security Administration's new policy allowing passengers to carry small knives and sports equipment like souvenir baseball bats and golf clubs onto planes. Passengers also will be allowed to include in their carry-on luggage novelty-sized baseball bats less than 24 inches long, toy plastic bats, billiard cues, ski poles, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks and two golf clubs. A TSA spokesman said the presence on flights of gun-carrying pilots traveling as passengers, federal air marshals and airline crew members trained in self-defense provide additional layers of security to protect against misuse of the newly allowed items. The new policy has touched off a debate over the mission of TSA and whether the agency is supposed to concentrate exclusively on preventing terrorists from hijacking or blowing up planes, or whether it should also help protect air travelers and flight crews from unruly and sometimes dangerous passengers. In era of reinforced cockpit doors and passengers who have shown a willingness to intervene, the threat from terrorism has been greatly reduced, Andrew R. Thomas, a University of Akron business professor and author of several books on the airline industry and security, said. "Safety is the highest priority of every commercial air carrier, flight crew member and air traffic controller," he said.

Some family members of Sept. 11 terror victims are angry over new flight-safety rules that will permit small knives on planes. The head of the Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday that air passengers will now be allowed to carry folding knives with blades that are 2.36 inches or less. The rules go into effect next month. They'll also permit souvenir baseball bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment. Debra Burlingame says small pocketknives can be just as lethal as the box cutters that are still banned. Burlingame's brother was the pilot of the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. The hijackers wielded box cutters. Sally Regenhard says she's "flabbergasted" by the new rules. She lost her firefighter son at the World Trade Center.

Airline passengers will be able to carry small knives, souvenir baseball bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment onto planes beginning next month under a policy change announced Tuesday by the head of the Transportation Security Administration.