Rob Pincus

Safety Cutter/Rescue Hook for Airline Carry-On

Rob Pincus
Duration:   2  mins

Description

Frequent flier Rob Pincus is often asked what items can and cannot be taken as carry-ons on flights. Not because people want to sneak things onto flights, but because there are some gray areas with the way TSA enforces different rules, and they vary from airport to airport.

In this video, Rob talks about a personal-protection device that can be very useful to have during a flight: a rescue hook, also known as a safety cutter. He has a Benchmade 5 Hook, though many other good rescue hooks are available.

Safety Cutter as Part of Medical Kit

Rob has been wearing an ankle medical kit full-time for several months. It contains a tourniquet, hemostatic agent, pressure dressing, chest seals, and a safety cutter.

The safety cutter is an emergency tool and a medical device designed to cut away clothing or a seat belt. On an airplane, you may need to cut away a seat belt in the event of a hard landing. If someone has an injury, you can use the safety cutter to cleanly cut away clothing and expose the wound.

Going Through Security

The Benchmade 5 Hook is relatively small, making it easy to fit in the ankle med kit. Rob has taken it, and several other rescue hooks he has tested, on many flights. The rescue hooks have occasionally been challenged by security staff, both domestically and internationally, but never confiscated.

Rob believes this is not just luck or that TSA is missing it. He has seen it on the video screens as his carry-on baggage was being screened and noted TSA staff sometimes discussing it. Bottom line, it’s not a pointy object that can be used to stab or attack someone. It’s what it says it is: a safety cutter. And especially seeing it in the context of the medical kit indicates that it is an emergency tool.

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2 Responses to “Safety Cutter/Rescue Hook for Airline Carry-On”

  1. rickliebespach

    What other "rescue hooks" have you successfully gotten thru TSA? I'm heading to the UK for a couple weeks and like being prepared, when possible. (so a sub-question would be, are the others acceptable in the UK?)

  2. Dale Brookhart

    Where do you find that medical kit? Is there a website? thanks

One of the questions I get a lot because I travel so often is what types of things, I'm seeing people able to get onto a plane. Not, of course, from the standpoint of someone trying to sneak something onto the plane they know they're not supposed to have, but let's face it, there are some gray areas with the way TSA enforces different rules in the US or the way they interpret certain rules and it can vary from person to person, from airport to airport, from supervisor to supervisor. One of the things I get asked a lot about is a safety cutter or a rescue hook. A lot of people know that I've been using the FROG.PRO ankle kit all year, at this point I've probably worn this 95-98% of the time for about seven months. And it's held up really good.

And I've got my tourniquet, my pressure dressing, chest seals, and a hemostatic impregnated gauze for packing a wound, for promoting clotting in there. And the other thing that I have not always carried and at first was not carrying because I was trying to find the right solution, was a rescue hook or a safety cutter. Now, if you don't know what I'm talking about, this is the safety hook. Now what I'm talking about here is a device that's designed to help you cut away clothing or cut away a seatbelt. Obviously when you're in a plane, we're probably not worried about the gunshot wound and having to put this in the hole and rip up, rip down, but we're probably worried about getting out of that seatbelt.

So it's an emergency tool and it's a medical device. And what I have found is that this, this happens to be a Benchmade Number Five rescue hook, this and several other rescue hooks that I've tested have occasionally been challenged, both internationally and domestically, but I've never had one of these taken away, which is pretty cool. I think I was pretty close in France once, to having a larger one taken away. What I can tell you about this is it's not just luck. I don't think TSA is missing it.

We know that TSA isn't perfect, but it's not they're missing it. I have seen where you can see the cameras when it's going through the x-ray. I'm really overt about it. I take this off my ankle at the station. I put it right on top of everything that's going through, all the carry-on screening, and I've seen them stop and call somebody over and really ponder whether or not this is okay.

And universally, this particular safety hook, especially in the context of being with medical gear in a medical kit, has not caused so much as a conversation. So, as far as I'm concerned, especially for the price of these things, having that rescue cutter, having a safety hook, if it's something you carry with you anyway, if you understand how to use it, why it would be important to cut yourself or somebody else out of a seatbelt that got jammed if that plane had a hard landing and you were able to escape. Or just because you understand how important it is to expose that wound, to see what you're working with, to get it covered properly, to pack a wound properly, and to give the emergency medical attention that you might need, and if you're carrying this you're obviously at least thinking about being prepared to offer, the rescue hook or safety cutter should be with this stuff even if you're carrying on a domestic flight.

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