Hi, Has anyone put a manual inflatable life jacket with a CO2 cylinder in their check-through luggage? I won’t try to carry it on the plane but am wondering if it will be ok if I remove the cylinder from the PFD pocket and so it is clearly visible if the luggage is inspected. Or should I just leave the PFD at home? Thanks!
Manual PFD on Plane
Great link. Thank you so much. Chesapeake Bay here I come!
why leave the PFD at home?
It’s not going to explode. If anything, all you’d have to leave are the CO2 cartridges.
Long Story
Short version: leave the CO2 cartridge at home and buy where you plan to paddle.
Long story, and this goes back 10 years or so.
My wacko buddy from the left coast was in town. We hatched a wacko plan–instead of driving him to the airport, we opted to go rollerblading. My buddy carried his gear in a back pack. We started in Bethesda, Md on the Capital Crescent bike trail, and followed it down into DC. At that point, I turned back and skated back to the car. Wacko-man continued through DC, skated over Memorial Bridge and connected to the bike trail that runs out to National Airport. A little unusual, sure, but it was a plan that worked and did get him to the airport.
Only wacko-man sees a store that sells beverage dispensing products and decides to stop off for some shopping. He said he had a beverage bottle of some sort that required the use of CO2 cartridges, which he had been unable to find in the city were he was working. So, he bought some CO2 cartridges en route to the airport.
He gets to airport security and they tell him he can not fly with those CO2 cartridges.
So, W-M, ever resourceful, finds a place that sells mailing supplies in the airport. He also got postage. He made up a little package to mail his CO2 cartridges to himself. Then he ran into a little problem. He could not get his package into the small slot on the PO box at the airport. There wasn’t time to find another slot because his plane was about due to leave, so he just left the package there by the mailbox.
A day or two later W-M is visited at his job site by some FBI officials. They wanted to know about this package found by a mailbox at the airport, which package had been subsequently destroyed by authorities who destroy mysterious packages left at airports. So, sad for W-M that he didn’t get his cartridges; but really sad for several thousand people who had their day thrown in the crapper because of the airport delays. Authorities closed one whole concourse of the airport while the mystery package was removed, causing delays, missed connections, and canceled flights out the wazoo. The concourse was closed down for a couple hours–I’d actually read about it in the paper and wrote my friend to see if he was affected. No, his flight got out on schedule and he didn’t even know about the airport closure until the FBI guys told him. He must have convinced the guys it was all an innocent mistake, because no charges were filed.
So, long story, the point of which is don’t fly with the cartridges.
~~Chip