Bringing an Avalanche Airbag on a Plane

Soon I will be headed to Ohio to visit my youngest son and his family. My son had 2 requests for this trip: bring a pair of skis he has at my house and bring his avalanche airbag. Now skis are easy to bring as the airlines are ready to handle them, especially out of Salt Lake. The airbag poses a unique challenge for airplane travel.

I don't imagine a lot of my readers know what an avalanche airbag is and why a skier would need one. Think about a bag of potato chips and how the largest ones always seem to be at the top of the bag while the crumbs sink to the bottom. The same thing happens in an avalanche where the largest objects will rise to the top and the smallest sink. The idea behind an airbag is that you instantly become larger and should float to the surface of the sliding snow and not sink to the bottom where you can quickly suffocate. In order to inflate the airbag, my son's bag has a canister of compressed air. FAA guidelines restrict any container of compressed air even though there is one for every life jacket under every seat.

I have never taken an avalanche airbag on a plane but my older son has and I vaguely remembered what he went through. The first thing is you have to let all of the compressed air out of the cylinder. Standard maintenance requires you do this once a year anyway and so I went into a room with lots of space. I put the backpack on and pulled the trigger cord. A large hissing noise ensued and I expanded to twice my normal size. As I write this I wonder if an avalanche airbag would be a great bear deterrent.

I took off the backpack and found the release button to empty the air out of the inflatable bag. Then I removed the canister before folding up the bag and repacking it like one would a parachute. Now that I had the empty cylinder, I didn't know what to do next and so I went to the source of all information: the Internet. I did a search on flying with an avalanche airbag and made sure to include the manufacturer's name. The result came back with step-by-step instructions on how to disassemble the cylinder and bring everything through airport security. Furthermore it listed the two airports in the world where you will have the most problems: one in Canada and one in Germany. Oh and if you are going to Japan, just leave the cylinder home and rent one when you get there.

The important thing I needed to know is to unscrew the top from the cylinder so TSA can inspect the inside of the empty cylinder which looks like a small metal water bottle. The top contains the release valve and a pressure gauge so you know if you have enough air in the cylinder. I tried with all my might to unscrew the top only to be thwarted by Bubba who cranked that sucker tight at the factory. I had to enlist the service of my wife and together we unscrewed the top so everything is now ready to head to the airport when that time comes.

The last helpful hint I got from the Internet said it is okay to check the airbag but carry the cylinder on the plane. That way you can explain what it is to TSA. Having heard horror stories about passengers called back to baggage check-in because of questionable items in checked bags, I will be sure to heed that advice. After all, I don't want to miss my flight dealing with questions. If I run into problems, I'll be sure to post a follow-up entry.