Can seat belts with pretensioners be taken on a plane?

[atikovi]

I'm delivering a car to Texas and there is a junk yard on the way that has the seat belts I need for a car and it's cheaper than the local places. Can they be taken through security at the airport? They have the pretensioners that go off during a crash. I see that airbags are no go but what about these?

[jr-41ford]

Probably if you remove the parts that goes boom. But always best to ask DHS/TSA instead of us amateurs. They do get a little excited about these kind of parts.

[atikovi]

The part that goes boom is the only reason I need to replace them. It's a fully enclosed steel tube that contains it, but guess anything that has an explosive won't fly.

[autopartspuller]

If they didnt realise it, you might get away with it but, I personally wouldn't think it's worth the chance.  Just mail it to yourself.  Be sure that you get them back without issues.

[autopartspuller]

Another thought... Are you sure they weren't part of a flood car?  I would be SO afraid of buying used car parts from texas right now.  If it was part of a flood it may throw a code or even worse put your car into limp mode because of it being a safety issue.

[atikovi]

Checked with the TSA webchat site and it's no go. Junkyard not in Texas but LA, and yes I could mail it to myself but packing and shipping is something I'd rather avoid and may not have the time to do it.

[zzydny]

Even if you did mail it to yourself, wouldn't you have to request Ground Only?  If taking the belts onto a passenger plane isn't acceptable, there's also the possibility of a problem on any flight--not that they would blow up but just in case.

[autopartspuller]

Kind of off topic... but are you from MD?  I saw the post from the Rockville car show (nice photos BTW), so just a leap... If you are, Crazy Rays is usually the best priced place to get parts from.  They are hard to beat.

[atikovi]

Yea, but not much for late models.

[mr.elmwood]

There are airbag sellers who ship airmail. It is not a matter of "if", it is a matter of when. 

"I will wrap it really really tight". 

[atikovi]

It's safe to have an airbag inches from your face when you drive but not inside the metal cage of an airplane when you fly. Go figure.

[mr.elmwood]

Not about where it is, it is what it will do. 

All airbags so is thwart Darwin. 

[atikovi]

Never flown on Darwin Airlines but they don't go where I'm flying from.

[omgitlightsup]

In my experience, even if you call the airline and work things out beforehand, you still may get turned away at the baggage check. I used to fly with unusual items for work, some of which were similar in function to vehicle restraint pyrotechnics. It is a coin toss, because TSA and airline employees are very poorly trained and often "guess" at what the regulations say. I stood in line for ten minutes at an airport once because none of the TSA personnel knew what my Passport Card was.

Even tho they said no you could still find that they'd take them at the baggage check. And there are probably cargo options that would be just fine too. But I wouldn't attempt it.