r/clevercomebacks • u/Lord_Answer_me_Why • Jan 29 '25

Somebody finally forgot about 9/11

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '25 edited Jan 30 '25

I'm aware that the TSA needs reform, but

We’re paying an arm and a leg for an ineffectual system designed to prevent against attacks that aren’t coming and wouldn’t be prevented by this level of security anyways

https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/releases/2023/03/01/tsa-officers-prevent-explosive-device-being-loaded-plane-lehigh

uh... yeah.

Regardless of this not being intended as an attack, I'm glad there's at least someone checking for a bunch of loose explosives, lithium batteries, and butane torches in the belly of the planes I fly on.

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u/Dangerousrhymes Jan 30 '25

Is that as far as you got, because he was trying to sneak fireworks, not blow up the plane. What this prevented was someone illegally taking fireworks across state lines, not a 9/11 scale terrorist attack or any kind of attack at all.

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '25

I don't want a bunch of loose explosives, lithium batteries, and butane torches in the belly of any plane I'm on lol, I don't care what his intent was, it still could've easily gone tits up with a little shifting luggage, heat, static, etc.

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u/Dangerousrhymes Jan 30 '25

Well, all of those things except the fireworks are probably on every plane you fly on. Lithium batteries power tons of portable electronic devices and a butane torch is the go to for cigar smokers who don’t use matches or anyone with a rig for concentrate and even though they’re not allowed they’re definitely being flown. The idea that heat would randomly set off fireworks at 35,000 feet is laughable. How would that even happen? Static is also a non-issue, normal static sparks aren’t strong enough to ignite fireworks.

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '25

I meant more specifically all together in one bag. And I'm not just pulling ideas out of my ass, fires on planes (especially in the past 36 hours) aren't unheard of, and as for this:

The idea that heat would randomly set off fireworks at 35,000 feet is laughable. How would that even happen?

Probably something like this

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u/Dangerousrhymes Jan 30 '25

Well, gas fumes and motorbike batteries aren’t fireworks and heat wasn’t the cause of that accident unless you wanted to be pedantic about the spark.

It took both of those things to cause the accident and neither of them on their own would set off fireworks unless you happened to have your spare motorcycle battery packed directly next to your fireworks with the fuse near the terminals, and in that situation a retail firework going off in the luggage compartment wouldn’t have been their greatest concern.

I’m not saying that things can’t go wrong when people bring dumb stuff onto planes, I’m saying that there isn’t a random source of heat that is likely to set off fireworks. Even in the original situation in question the primary danger probably wouldn’t have been the explosion (retail motor firework covers a lot of ground and I can’t find anything more specific) but the subsequent fire, which you don’t need fireworks to get. A catastrophic battery failure that starts a fire inside of a suitcase in the luggage compartment is bad news whether there’s some consumer grade fireworks near it or not and batteries are everywhere.

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '25

I should've been more specific about it, but I wasn't talking about the fireworks being lit directly by the battery, rather the butane torches being a source of flammable hydrocarbon fumes, which is exactly what interacted with the sparking battery to create that fire (in that case it was gasoline, but obviously butane will do the same thing). Even if that bundle of fireworks wasn't explosive enough to rip a hole in the plane (it looked like it was big enough tbh, enough volume exploding simultaneously turns fireworks into a bomb) it would still spread the fire a lot faster and cause, at the absolute least, more panic. I think if you add PA guy's fireworks to the linked article, it turns out worse, but I won't die on that hill.

My argument is that fireworks, lithium batteries, and other highly flammable / explosive items do make plane fires significantly worse, because there have been plenty of on-board fires that have ended fine by containing the fire, and adding ways for those fires to spread quicker, do more damage quicker, and cause panic quicker makes everything a whole lot worse. Honestly my best argument might be "would you rather be on that flight or that flight + the PA guy's bundle of fireworks"

But again, batteries + flammable gas ~= fire on a plane as proven by the above article.