TSA ban on SCUBA tanks

[truva]

It’s called “profiling”, anything else is a waste of resources and our money. If we started that and allowed people to exercise a little bit of common sense we wouldn’t have these problems.

I could go on and on but I won’t.

Truva

 

[dnight]

Would it be worth it to empty a tank, take off the valve, and pay ground shipping+ another VIS charge to avoid the hassles? I'm headed to WA for a month, and don't want to rent tanks out there since I have 2 PST 130's here.

 

[RICHinNC]

My question is why arent all these dive organizations that so readily take our $$$$ jumping in on this? I have talked to TSA>>written them....and they say NO tank
of any kind is getting on an airplane anymore.
We just continue to lose our rights and what the hey......man did I waste
20 years in the service.

 

[wmspdi]

TSA has the power to do an end run around due process... read this from the Washington Times by (former) Congressman Bob Barr.

http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20040224-083505-5285r.htm

I would think twice before trying to take any questionable items on board.
How much of your liberty are willing to surrender for a false feeling of safety?

 

[FredT]

Would it be worth it to empty a tank, take off the valve, and pay ground shipping+ another VIS charge to avoid the hassles? I'm headed to WA for a month, and don't want to rent tanks out there since I have 2 PST 130's here.

If you don't mind diving Al 80s it'll be a lot more expensive to ship tanks both ways.

OTOH if you want to dive the gear you already have your buoyancy dialed in around then shipping them, or finding someone out there who will rent or loan you similar tanks is the way to go. Alternately you can buy new tanks there, dive them a while and then resell them. You'll take a hit but not much more than UPS both ways

Shipping them motor freight will normally be the least expensive, especially if you build a box on a half pallet to unitize them. Be sure to drain them to 2 or 3 ATA (41 psi is the break point for DOT) to avoid hazardous freight charges and placarding issues. Allow at least 2 weeks each way for a LTL shipment coast to coast.

You should also remember as you are doing this that YOUR senators and congresscritters, especially those from the NE US and Left Coast, were the ones who insisted on federalizing the inspection crews and expanding the power of the TSA after 9/11 to include the seach and fine ability. Only you and your neighbors can correct this problem in November.

Of course your real alternative until at least next January is to do what I plan to do. Dive locations I can drive to. MA to WA is only 3 or 4 days of hard driving, each way. :54:

FT

 

[FredT]

How much of your liberty are willing to surrender for a false feeling of safety?

None. Corrective action to be taken on Nov 2nd.

FT

 

[padiscubapro]

The Reply Ron got is actually correct.. Compressed gas cylinders fall under DOT regulations, as long as there is less the 41psia in the cylinder it no longer meets the DOT defination of a compressed gas cylinder and is no nonger regulated. Its now just a hunk of steel.. The TSA regs are very confusing and misleading.. Its basically going to be up to the individual inspector and his/her supervisor.. I have had several emails with TSA representatives myself, hopefully there will clarify their documentation. IN the mean time I suggest you print out the appropriate regs from the TSA site pointing to cfr 49, and print out the appropriate cfr 49 sections to what a cylinder is..

To show how stupid some inspectors are, I know of one case where a person had a cylinder with the valve REMOVED, the person had to install the valve and put a pressure guage on it to show there was no pressure.. You kind of wonder where they get these inspectors from...

 

[wmspdi]

There may be a flaw in Ron's reply that TSA may hang their hat on:

49 CFR Ch. I (10-1-02 Edition)

Part 171.8 Definitions

CYLINDER- means a pressure vessel "designed" for pressures higher than 40 PSIA and having a circular cross section (quotation marks are mine).

This definition does not reqire the vessel to contain any pressure as long as it was designed to hold more than 40 PSI. By this definition any scuba or spare tank would qualify per TSAs restriction.

 

[oxyhacker]

We have an official-looking label that you can print out on a sticky label form, then put on your battery pack, listing all the relevent regulations, on our website at:
http://www.airspeedpress.com/batterylabel.html

The idea being to get the info to the inspector in a subliminal, non-confrontational manner, so he can just think "oh, I knew that all along".

Maybe time for one for tanks?

My favourite is my canister light battery - a shrinkwrapped package of 10 generic green cells with a wire sticking out one end - that badboy ALWAYS gets a note wrapped around him with a rubber band.

 

[roakey]

There's no requirement for TSA to hang their hat on anything. They have the power to define "prohibited items" and they've added "scuba cylinders" to the list of prohibited items.

After all there's nothing in the DOT regs (or ANY regs, as far as I know) about fingernail clippers, and those are a "prohibited item" as well.

Roak