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TSA

TSA Admits Coke Bottles Shaped Like Fictional Weapons Aren't a Threat, Will Allow Them on Planes

It took the TSA multiple weeks to complete its review and conclude that Coke bottles are not a tool of terrorism.

Eric Boehm | 9.5.2019 11:00 AM

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DisneyCoke1200 | Disney / Coca-Cola Company
(Disney / Coca-Cola Company)

He's holding a thermal detonator, and that's perfectly fine.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has decided that novelty Coke bottles shaped like bombs from Star Wars films are not actually a threat to American travelers. After banning the bottles (which are being sold in Disney theme parks) last week, the TSA on Wednesday reversed course and now says travelers will be able to fly with them in checked or carry-on luggage, so long as the bottles are empty.

"We have completed our review, and instructed our officers to treat these as an oversized liquid," the TSA said in a statement released Wednesday. It took the TSA multiple weeks to complete that review and conclude that Coke bottles are not a tool of terrorism.

The saga began with an innocent request posted to the TSA's "AskTSA" Twitter account on August 13.

Thanks for asking! Replica and inert explosives aren't allowed in either carry-on or checked bags.

— AskTSA (@AskTSA) August 13, 2019

When a reporter from the Orange County Register asked the TSA if they were serious about banning the novelty bottles even in checked bags, TSA spokesperson Jim Gregory said the agency was worried the novelty bottles "could create concern that it's the real thing."

The TSA then doubled down as more people expressed incredulity.

"The issue concerning Star Wars Galaxy's Edge-themed soda bottles has recently been brought to our attention by the general public, as these items could reasonably be seen by some as replica hand grenades," the TSA said in a statement last week.

By that point, pretty much everyone was having a good laugh at the agency. As I pointed out last week, the idea that a Coke bottle shaped like a fictional bomb could scare people into thinking it's a real "thermal detonator" is absurd, largely because only serious Star Wars fans would even recognize what the bottle is supposed to mimic. Rather than being a common weapon in the Star Wars universe, the thermal detonator is a minor plot device—a disguised Princess Leia threatens Jabba The Hutt with one in 1983's Return of the Jedi.

But the TSA has a longstanding policy of allowing travelers to bring lightsabers onto planes, because plastic replicas of fictional weapons aren't a threat to anyone—except, apparently, when they are.

The TSA's policy change means one less security theater-induced headache for Americans returning home from Disneyworld. But the temporary ban on "thermal detonators" is just one item on a long list of arbitrary prohibitions declared by a federal bureaucracy that only a Hutt could love.

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NEXT: The FBI's Infamous List of 'Known Terrorists' Is Ruled Unconstitutional

Eric Boehm is a reporter at Reason.

TSATransportation PolicyDepartment of Homeland SecurityAirportsAirlinesDisneyStar WarsScience Fiction
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  1. Jerryskids   6 years ago

    Festive Christmas tree ornaments are still right out.

    1. mad.casual   6 years ago

      All tree ornaments, including my olive green waffle-patterned ones, or just the enormous red ones that attract all kinds of attention?

  2. Unicorn Abattoir   6 years ago

    TSA spokesperson Jim Gregory said the agency was worried the novelty bottles "could create concern that it's the real thing."

    Err...It's Coke. It's the real thing.

    1. Eddy   6 years ago

      It's even better than the real thing:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yrch66gdjjk

  3. Rich   6 years ago

    the agency was worried the novelty bottles "could create concern that it's the real thing."

    If only *one* person is concerned it's the real thing, isn't that worth the ban?

  4. Rich   6 years ago

    the TSA has a longstanding policy of allowing travelers to bring lightsabers onto planes

    WTF? You could shoot poke your eye out!

    1. mad.casual   6 years ago

      You could shoot poke your eye out cut your hand off!

      FIFY

  5. $park¥ is the Worst   6 years ago

    Nice going, TSA. How many planes are going to be brought down by terrorists using these bottles for real explosives now thanks to your carelessness?

    I guess you’ll just have to hope that the $16,000 it ends up costing to get one of these things will be sufficient.

  6. Uncle Jay   6 years ago

    Finally!
    Now I can have a coke and a smile.

  7. ORCON   6 years ago

    The TSA. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. This organization is welfare for mall cop wannabes.

    1. Ragnarredbeard   6 years ago

      Malls have more stringent hiring practices.

    2. Unicorn Abattoir   6 years ago

      "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

      I submit to you the Internal Revenue Service.

  8. DatCrazyMongoose   6 years ago

    The green blood of innocent Rodians will be on TSA's hands!!! #HanShotFirst

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