Flashlight with Carry-On Luggage during Air Travel?

Gary123

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Jan 5, 2007
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Washington DC area
If a Li-ion vented in your carry-on on a plane I think that would make for a seriously bad time for everyone on board.

I can't see a Lli-ion venting sitting in a flashlight thats turned off. But it is best to pack lights that you can unscrwew either the tailcap or head and disable them to ensure they cannot turrn on.

I fly all the time, all around the country, and carry on one or more lights with me always. Never been stopped or asked about them, not even asked to turn them on.

Good point by MikeSalt on carrying extra Lithium batteries: be very careful with them. Put them in a sock, secure them in an envelope. Do not let them loose inside the suitecase or toilett bag. Always keep them covered and protected.
 

vandrecken

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Oct 8, 2005
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I've just come back from Florida, and I was carrying a Fenix P1D-CE, Surefire E1E, Fenix L1T V2.0 and Lummi Raw Ti onto the plane including NiMH, Lithium and Li-ion cells. It is not only a good idea to carry the spare cells in your carry-on luggage, it is ESSENTIAL! The logic behind this is that the cabin crew can access you carry-on baggage using fire-fighting equipment if there ever was a battery-induced fire. If the cells were in your checked baggage, a battery-induced fire could jeapodize the aircraft.

Though security at the international departures end of Boston Logan air did swab my surefire SC2 spares carriers (and da*n near everything else) for explosives last week :laughing:

"far too many electronics in your hand luggage sir, you should have emptied them all out into trays so that we can look at them properly "
As if !

Needless to say no one was the least bit bothered at any of my other transit airports :shrug:

Vandrecken
 
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GPB

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42.58 N 70.84 W
I usually have 3 walkie-talkies, a GPS, 2 flashlights, and a bunch of spare batteries......no one has ever questioned any of it. I don't have much respect for the TSA screeners and I think they focus on all the wrong things. They will hold up the entire line if you have 3.00001 ounces of shampoo, but wouldn't even blink if you had a wiring diagram of a Boeing 757 in your bag, as long as you took off your shoes as you went through the line. I know there are a lot of people on here in Law enforcement and I have the utmost respect for them...but these screeners are definately the weakest link in our security system.
 

GadgetTravel

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May 18, 2005
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642
As I have posted before, I fly about 200,000 miles a year, always with multiple lights and never a problem. In fact earlier this week I had my HDS U60 XRGT out and dropped it on the floor as the seat belt sign came on for landing. It rolled and I couldnt find it. I told the flight attendant and she said she would turn on lights on more when we landed so that I could find it.

After we found it I was crawling around on the floor in first class with my E2e looking for my HDS. I finally found it after most of the people were off. As i came off the pilot asked me if I found my flashlight. I guess the flight attendant told him why I was crawling around. I said yes and showed it to him to explain why it rolled since it was round. He asked it that was a high tech light and I told him it was and he asked if he could take a look at it. This was an American Airlines mainline jet by the way, not a commuter flight. So he played with it a bit and did a wow about how bright it was. Of course he didnt even have it turned on all the way and when I showed him REAL bright he got a good chuckle out of it. So here is a pilot obviously seeing the lights and not giving it a second thought.

I use lights a lot on flights, I dont usually drop them. Especially on long overnight flights (transatlantic or transpacific) they are really handy to have since it is dark in the cabin. Lots of flight attendants carry lights on those flights for doing things like checking seatbelts are on while people are sleeping. Ive had some interest as in, what kind of light is that, but never a bit of trouble.
 

jumpstat

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Dec 20, 2006
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Ampang, Malaysia
Ive travel to Europe on several occasion and brought along my lights, at least 2 nos. in the carry on luggage without any problems. Once there was an inquiry by security but when I switch the light on, there was no issues.
 

nizesa

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Jul 19, 2007
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I normally will check in the larger g2z. g2 or 6p in the chek in luggage and just carry the e2e or e1e in my pocket when boarding in the airplane. Just take them out at the x-ray and let them scan it as well.. no problem so far.
 

g36pilot

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Dec 22, 2005
Messages
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Had a River Rock lantern stolen from my checked bag DTW-TPA. A TSA confiscation or interior looksee results in a card place in the bag stating so. That wasn't the case.

Carry on my good lights & battery spares.
 

IcantC

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Oct 12, 2007
Messages
920
Carry on your lights for 2 reasons.
1) To prevent theft.
2) In case of battery vent, it will be easier to contain the fire. Rather then have a fire in the cargo hold.
 

LED-holic

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Dec 18, 2007
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Terminal 4
I fly often too and I carry 2 lights on my flights.

One is the fairly weak 2AA maglite with a LED conversion. This light throws the perfect amount of power in the darkness of the cabin at night, and won't bother the neighbors.

My second light is the L2D-CE Q5, which is my EDC. This light is awesome, but it's too bright for the dark cabin even at the lowest setting, so I use it once I'm off the plane and need a brighter light.

As they say - one is none, and two is one, it's great to carry at least two lights for backup purposes as well.
 

flipe8

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Mar 15, 2006
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I ended up not taking my E2D, but not because I feared loosing it. Hours before we left, I put in a new set of batteries. Once in, I turned the light on. Nothing. I took them out and put thenm in again...and again, nothing. I ended up playing with the light for an hour or so before giving up. The tail cap had given me problems before, but I've been able to remedy the problem in thepast. Not so, this time. Thanksfully, my trusty little Arc was still on my keychain, so I left the Surefire in my car and borded the plane. Good thing I had it, too, as my wife ended up loosing an earring while taking off a sweater. The white gold hoop showed up quite well in the Arc's light. Now that I'm home, I've put in a call for a replacement tailcap.
Thanks for the advice, guys.
 

generic808

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Jan 19, 2008
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592
I just got back from an Oregon/Washington trip and was shocked to find out that TSA missed my strike bezel packed away on my carry-on. While heading out on my trip, I seperated the strike bezel into my check-in luggage, but when returning, I forgot to remove it and packed my light into my carry-on. I didn't even realize that I did it until I was unpacking and found my fully asembled light in my bag :eek:oo: So much for homeland security at the airport level :shakehead
 

HonorKnight

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The only thing TSA regulations say is no tools over seven inches as carry on. So, theoretically you should be fine as long as the flashlight isn't over seven inches long. If it was just a little over that size they most likely they wouldn't even bother enforcing that unless you ran across a nit-picky screener. Screening is notoriously uneven, with it missing things at times. Sometimes screeners get overzealous too. Sometimes they disallow things that shouldn't reasonably be disallowed. They woman who recently had to remove nipple rings with pliers before being allowed through, comes to mind. They refused to believe she wasn't hidding something until she could pass through the metal detector without setting it off, even with a female guard confirming that she had nipple rings. Stuff happens. That's why you should never travel with anything you can't easily replace.
 

diddy808

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Jul 24, 2003
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Austin, TX
I'm pretty sure that they can tell that it is a flashlight on the xray. I had my PD-S, L1D, Streamlight & a streamlight propolymer in my backpack. No problems at any of the airports I've been to.
 
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