Final Decision: No Cues Allowed as Carry-On Luggage
What began in March with high hopes for the billiard community, ended yesterday when the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) decided to continue including billiard cues on the list of prohibited items for carry-on luggage.
The TSA had originally announced in March that, effective April 25, billiard cues and other items such as small novelty baseball bats, ski poles, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks and golf clubs would be removed from the prohibited list, thus allowing passengers to carry on those items. However, controversy arose because the changes also allowed passengers to carry-on certain pocket knives with blades less than 2.36 inches in length. A backlash over the changes allowing knives from a variety of parties, including the airlines and the airplane screeners union, caused the TSA to delay the implementation of the changes right before they were to go into effect.
After further study, the TSA announced yesterday that it would not implement the change as to any of the items. As a result, billiard players, hockey players, skiers, lacrosse players and golfers are still not able to carry-on their sports equipment.
For a story on the TSA announcement, go to www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/05/188956044/tsa-says-it-wont-relax-carry-on-ban-of-knives-other-items.