EU bans skateboard air security ‘risk’

Skateboards and lacrosse sticks will be banned from planes “as potentially dangerous weapons” in an EU air security crackdown.

A February Europe-wide ban includes recreational equipment on a Brussels “prohibited list” amid a growing terror scare surrounding air travel.

“Potentially a skateboard is a weapon,” a European Commission spokesman said.

“Some new skateboards have a sharp edge for example.”

More obvious threats such as firearms and explosive grenades are alongside fishing rods and golf clubs as a “blunt instrument capable of causing injury”.

EU officials were unable to provide the detailed risk assessment for skateboards as a tool of terror but insisted the ban came from European civil aviation authorities.

"The existence of this new commission regulation should ensure a more transparent and thus more comprehensible system," said a Thursday statement.

Passengers wishing to board will have to make arrangements for lacrosse sticks or other “potentially dangerous types of weapon” to be shipped in the aircraft’s hold.

The new harmonised EU rules will not stop airport security staff confiscating “an object not contained on the EU list”.

“Law-enforcement authorities will of course still be entitled to confiscate any unlisted articles that, based on an individual on-the-spot local risk assessment, are deemed potentially dangerous,” said an EU statement.

Europe’s transport chief Loyola de Palacio hailed the list of “prohibited articles”.

“This is another step in… seeking high standards in the field of civil aviation security,” she said.

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