UKC

Has anyone ever ahd any difficulties flying with an empty fuel bottle? The bastards at Inverness refused to allow mine onto the plane even though it was empty. They kept refering to it as a dangerous article!!?! Does anyone know what the IATA regulations are on these things. The most anoying thing is that my mate put his in the hold luggage by accident and they didn't bat an eyelid. Currently the Gits at easyjet have threatened to pass it over to the Fire Service in Glasgow to have it destroyed. To make matters worse, it had the pump unit for my stove in it!!
Any advice or experiences with fuel bottles on planes would be interesting.
Also any ideas on how I go about getting it back?!?

Sorry `bout the first try Jez. Unfortunately for you , the airport people are correct with what they did. They class a fuel bottle as Dangerous Air Cargo or DAC. Don`t kick up too much of a fuss as it is International law for people to avoid carrying DAC. There are posters all over airports normally. We had the same problem at Inverness when heading to Alaska so had to leave our bottles behind and buy some out there. It`s a real pain in the a**e but there you have it. Next time make sure that you drain the bottle, vent it and leave the lid loose so it can`t expand and blow-up. Stuff it deep into your bag and hope it doesn`t get searched. I deal with DAC most days of the week and did find the airport folk a bit OTT even though we thought that we were safe. Watch out, there`s "Jobsworths" everywhere!!

I've always taken the pump out totally washed out the bottle with water and left it to air dry for a few days (I guess any petrol residue would vapourise in that time) and I also pump water through the pump unit. Basically do all you can to get rid of any petrol smell. Pack the bottle without any lid on so no weird pressure stuff can happen, and stand in a busy check in line. I got a right bollocking at Calgary airport about ten years ago and have always followed the above proceedure since. The more I fly the less blase I get about safety so I don't mind too much, but I have heard of airlines just flat refusing to carry any camping stoves, which seems rather harsh.

I use plastic explosive instead of hexy blocks, do you think that I will be able to take this on the plane??

If you're going to carry "marzipan" onto an aircraft,would you really wish to stay on board?

Loz

Boiling Water and fairy liquid does the trick.

The point here is that a bottle with vapour in it is actually more dangerous than one that is full of flammable liquid. It probably needs to be certified as 'gas free' (in this case vapour free) in order to be allowed on board. You merely washing it out and saying it's empty (even if it is) is just not good enough

In reply to Jaz Gandhu:
I had the same problems with two empty fuel bottle on Hawaii. At the end we send the fuel bottle by a parcel service on the airport (for them was it not a danger thing, so it was transported by a person-airoplane!). When we returned to the checking, there checked our bags by x-ray, but doesn't find other metal bottles!!!

The best thing is to wash out the fuel bottle with water and chemie and mark the bottle as a drinking bottle and not a fuel bottle. Perhaps it works. And tell them, that you cock with gas and you don't have any gas bottle with you.

markus

In reply to Jaz Gandhu:
I just had an empty sigg drink bottle in my bag when I was flying to Glasgow and they thought it was a bomb and would not let me fly with it!! I think it was partly as it was next to my walkman in my bag, so the two together probably looked very boombish!!