April 7: Civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju today said he carries matchboxes and lighters on flights because, being a VIP, he is not frisked - and unwittingly landed the national carrier in an air pocket.

India's Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) does not allow matchboxes and lighters anywhere on a flight.

However, Air India, the national carrier, appears to be confused about whether matchboxes will be allowed on board or not.

At 10.30pm tonight, the Air India website, under the link http://www.airindia.in/baggage-tips-and-restricted-items.htm, says: "Items such as the following will not be permitted to be carried on person/in cabin baggage or in registered baggage while travelling on board our flights. The list given below is not exhaustive and prevailing rules will apply."

The first entry under the head "Items Which Cannot Be Carried In Hand Baggage" is "Lighters".

Scroll down the site, and up pops a graphic that shows matchboxes under the inscription: "Matches, Lighters permitted on your person but not in baggage".

The Hindi version also says passengers are allowed to carry matchboxes and lighters on them.

On a television channel, Air India's former executive director Jitendra Bhargava downloaded the airline graphic on his tablet and showed it to the anchor.

A BCAS official later confirmed that "passengers are not allowed to carry lighters or matchboxes either on person or in baggage".

Late tonight, an Air India spokesperson said the airline would take "corrective action" if there was any confusion. "We strictly follow DGCA guidelines on security. If there is any confusion arising out of a graphic in our website, we'll look into it and take corrective action."

Earlier in the day, Raju told bemused aviation security experts: "Before I became minister, all my lighters and matches kept getting confiscated.... (After becoming minister) people stopped frisking me... my matchbox also came along with me."

Raju's confession came at a BCAS event.

The chain-smoking minister went on to question the logic behind the ban on carrying such inflammable items on aircraft. "I have yet to come across an incident worldwide where a matchbox became a threat," he said.

When reporters asked him whether matchboxes should be allowed inside planes, he said: "I don't know. I carry a matchbox in my pocket. Even now, here also, I carry it. There is no secret (about it)."

BCAS officials said there were good reasons behind the ban. "Someone could try to set fire to ignitable elements within the aircraft as an act of terrorism or even individual madness... that is why these products have been on the banned list for long," said a top official.

"This is done globally and is not an Indian invention. There has been no case of a lighter being used for terrorist activity because internationally, airport police have been looking out for them. We will try and explain the situation to the minister," said an official.

The officials, however, welcomed Raju's advice to make security less obtrusive. "That is globally the trend... heavy-handed security and bans are not the way forward. Still, some things will always remain banned on board aircraft," said an official.