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I awoke this morning to find myself in a Tom Clancy novel.

Moments after sitting down at my office desk to go over my morning e-mail, CNN was blaring news of aircraft being flown into the World Trade Centers in New York, and later the Pentagon in Washington DC, these three incidents, and others are believed to have been terrorist attacks on the United States.  With death tolls in the thousands, untold numbers of people throughout the world are directly affected with the loss of family or friends.  Our condolences and prayers go out to those who have suffered loss, and to those who are still searching for people unaccounted for.

President George W. Bush and other national leaders have stressed the importance of continuing with "business as usual" wherever possible so as to prevent the culprits from having their desired effect on the United States and the rest of the world.  As our country recovers and begins to return to normalcy, one thing is certain, that there will be an increase in airport security world wide.

For tournament, and traveling scenario paintball players this may well be a concern.

As it is, airlines are often indecisive about policies concerning the transport of paintball equipment - specifically CO2 and compressed air tanks.  Transport of empty compressed gas tanks is not prohibited by law, but some airline personnel occasionally object to the transport of tanks, even if it is not the airline's policy - because they don't always understand the policy, or laws involved and prefer to err on the side of caution.  To make maters worse, conflicting answers often come from various employees of the same airline.  In the past I have had as many as 4 different answers about luggage policy from various departments of the same airline.

As a direct example, paintball author Steve "Mr. 44" Novack was halted when checking in for his flight to the International Amateur Open this year.  Fortunately, he had arrived at the airport early enough to repackage and send his tanks to the tournament via Federal Express.  A few years back the professional team Lockout arrived at a tournament to find that their bags had been cut open and the air systems confiscated by airline security.

With the heightened airline security that will undoubtedly come over the next year, transporting tanks, and possibly even paintguns will become increasingly difficult.

With the Aruba Open, and World Cup fast approaching, it will be critical for players traveling by air to consider sending their equipment ahead of themselves via common carrier such as Federal Express or UPS.  Nearly all hotels will receive packages to be held for their guests, players should check the details with the hotel staff prior to arranging shipment.  Alternatively, players may wish to ship to a paintball field or store near the event (see the Field Finder and Store Finder) again making arrangements with them via telephone first.

This can avoid an ugly surprise at the airport, and the risk of ending up at the tournament without the gear to play.  We will continue to pray for those who have suffered loss through these horrible events, as well as our national and world leaders.  We would encourage you to do the same.
 

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