Lifejackets on aircraft

[alant]

Have taken mine out to Med several times. Usually in hold luggage. Advise Airline beforehand. Tell them its the same as the ones carried on board aircraft. Last time out, went via Monarch to Gib. They were ok, checked with their handlers & the fact that I was carrying, was flagged in their system. Only once checked via 'special luggage' bods at despatch. No problems. If in doubt, just put CO2 cylinder into hold baggage. Depends where in Med you go should you need to get replacement CO2.

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[iangrant]

Re: Whilst on this topic

I'd heard that the airline management were introducing a large german shepherd dog into the cockpit.

The Pilot is only there to feed the dog and the dog is there to bite the pilot if he tries to touch anything..
Ian

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[whisper]

Re: Whilst on this topic

Our charter group have taken our own lifejackets by air on the last three trips. They have been packed in our bags checked in as hold luggage, along with the cylinders which were removed from the jackets. We have not mentioned them to anyone and have had no problem.
The ones already on the aircraft are definitely manual inflation versions because an accidental automatic inflation whilst still inside the aircraft would slow down its evacuation.

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[RS123]

Thanks to all for the responses.

Why, if you were writing the book, would you ban such things? In what way do these differ in nature, and therefore risk, to the lifejackets carried in the aircraft itself?

Indeed, what IS the actual risk to safety posed by these small gas canisters?

Thanks

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[castaway]

Fortunately it is never one thing in isolation that caused a accident. One of the problems with aircraft baggage is that it is almost 100% unaccessable once airbourne.

I have had fires caused by matches on hold baggage, Ive have entire container ful of baggage covered by paint when the lids have popped at the normal reduced cabin pressure. To say nothing of things which have triggered fire /smoke alarms erroneously during flt, so lets say that one gets a bit cautious about anything that is smelly/inflamable/pressurised etc.

Lets say your autolife jacket is stowed in the overhead rack with yr bottle of Evian Water, and it leaks on the launch mechanism and the thing inflated in the rack, Ok its not going to cause a major problem on its own.. but if suppose the CO2 bottle mounting is old and a bit knacked and the bottle comes off .. what then.?

Oh Bo***cks I hear you say, it could never happen... but given the millions of flts, and billions of supposedly inoccuous items carried by all those passengers, believe me it will.

Given the amount of care that is taken by airlines to control the carridge of cargo, I think that they are quite correct to be careful about baggage as well.

Now that we have 100%hold baggage screening (for terrorist screening) things have improved considerably.

Believe it or not I have also had distress flares in baggage !!

All best Nick

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yachtsite.co.uk/fairweather>http://www.yachtsite.co.uk/fairweather</A>

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[peterb]

As a young lad living near Aldershot towards the end of WWII, we were all able to get as much cordite, etc, as we might want to use. We used to make rockets by filling small CO2 bulbs (Sparklet size) with cordite, leaving one strand sticking out as a fuse, lighting it and "retiring immediately". It was 50/50 whether we had made a rocket or a bomb, and if the latter then shrapnel went everywhere. I wouldn't like to be anywhere near a bomb made in lifejacket cylinder size. And I doubt whether, properly sealed, it could be detected.

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[castaway]

Oddly enough we lived in Woking and used to cycle over to "Tunnel Hill" on the ranges and collect up the live blanks that littered the place. We would collect them up and make a fire elsewhere and chuck them in!!.

Got this idea from my Dad who used to spend childhood holidays in France after the Great War, and told us he did the same with live ammo they found lying all around.

Actually the scanning machines in the UK are very sophisticated and pick up and identify any explosive/ broken down gun parts etc. All computerised so if doesnt rely on some sleepy security person spotting it (talking hold bags here)

Nick

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[ccscott49]

you would be using fuse, not cordite, that explodes when lit, immediately! We used to use it to cut trees down, fuse, then cordite wrapped around the tree, four turns would bring down a 3 foot diam tree. great fun!

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