Why pilots carry a hidden axe aboard airplane.

Anyone who has been to the airport before will understand the level of security that guides the complex. There are strict rules that you are indebted to observed while aboard a commercial aircraft.

Not only will your bags be checked to ensure that you are not carrying any contraband or something deemed harmful to lives, but you are also banned from taking many items aboard all together.

Passengers are prohibited from carrying weapons, or anything that could be used as weapon aboard commercial flights.

And there is at least one expectation to this rule and it is found in the cockpit of the plane. One maybe wondering why pilots carry axe onboard an airplane, each airplane carrying more than 19 passengers must be equipped with a crash axe incase of emergency. Many aircraft have axe fitted somewhere in cockpit to allow the pilots to break the windscreen if crucial during an emergency. The axe is installed as a fire fighting device so the crew can cut away cockpit or other panels in an event of electrical fire outbreak.

Meanwhile, in the past axes where commonly carried as part of an aircraft’s fire fighting equipment to help flight crew break through the plane panels.Due to anti-terrorism regulations, most carriers have replaced their axes with crowbars which is insulated to protect against shock, however it seems that not all airliners have adopted the same policy.

The axe serves as a safety tool should in case there is an emergency when the plane is on flight; the pilot will use the axe to break the cock pit or cut through the plane when it starts burning or about to crash.

Although their are strict regulations regarding items that should be carried into a plane, but the emergency axe seem to be exempted for pilot use.