On a recent flight from Newcastle airport, security stopped us from taking our walking sticks into the cabin. We are both in our 70s, have mobility issues, and have taken our Leki Wanderfreund walking poles on other flights without issue. We were told these were now banned, as the metal tip under the rubber bung could be sharpened and used as a weapon. The tip of my stick is 3mm long, and my wife’s does not have one at all. I offered to take the tip off, but they claimed something could be hidden in the shaft. We had to return through security and check our sticks in as hold luggage. Mine was then broken in transit. There were no objections to them on our flight home. Far riskier items, such as knitting needles and 10cm scissors, are allowed in the cabin.
FC, Stockton-on-Tees
Over at Heathrow airport, CD’s husband was encountering similar obstacles. The folding stick he relies on was confiscated, she says, by security staff citing “new” rules. It ended in a blunt metal stud beneath a rubber cap and he, too, had previously taken it on board. “It should have been possible to hand the stick to a member of staff at the gate to be returned at the other end,” she writes. “To remove a mobility aid without offering an alternative is discriminatory.”
All three affected passengers have been stymied by semantics. Aviation rules ban walking poles from hand luggage, but to discover that, you typically have to check under “sporting equipment”. But the difference between “walking pole” and “walking stick” can be blurry because lengths, tips and purposes vary.
Newcastle airport declined to answer my questions but its head of security called you and conceded staff had misinterpreted Department for Transport rules.
As a result of your experience, the airport has issued new guidance clarifying that sticks and poles are only banned if they have sharp tips likely to cause serious injury. It is to replace your damaged stick.
Heathrow told me the ban on metal-tipped poles was a relatively recent change, and staff should have inspected the stick to see if it should have been classed as a prohibited item. It said it had “reviewed what happened and will be speaking with teams about this”.
The problem seems to be the unhelpfully vague information from the DfT on restricted items. Walking poles are listed without mention of how they are defined or reference to risky metal tips. Its response to me was similarly opaque.
It told me there was “no restriction on walking aids”, while simultaneously confirming walking poles were banned from hand luggage, then claiming it was up to airport staff to work it out.
“We expect airports to take accessibility needs into consideration when deciding which items can be taken on board flights,” it said.
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