Hundreds of crackers due to be sent to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan had to be defused after it was discovered they were classed as explosives.
Major Iain Dalziel-Job, 60, of the Scots Guards Association, learned of the regulation as he prepared to send 650 Christmas parcels to the soldiers.

The British Forces Post Office website defines Christmas cracker snaps as explosives, banned on RAF aircraft.

There are no such rules for passenger aeroplanes.

Major Dalziel-Job, from Rosyth, had arranged for the festive packages to be taken by truck from Edinburgh to London on Tuesday before being handed over to the BFPO and then flown out from Brize Norton.

He told The Sunday Post newspaper: “Every cracker has got to have the snap taken out of it because the RAF won’t fly them with the bit still in.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7135383.stm

A tad of an overreaction?

“Major Iain Dalziel-Job”. . .quite a name.

And the RAF might be acting a bit over-sensitive on the matter due to that Nimrod that crashed a while ago; it was determined just a little while ago that it was probably a fuel leak that caught it on fire, and they’re really getting a lot of flak (pun intended) over that.

Uhhhhh…..: explosives banned on RAF aircraft?????

Then what do their fighters and bombers drop and fire? Biscuits?

LaMa - 10 December 2007 01:53 PM

Uhhhhh…..: explosives banned on RAF aircraft?????

Then what do their fighters and bombers drop and fire? Biscuits?

Little notes politely informing the targets that they’re supposed to be good chaps and play dead now, thank you for your cooperation, do come around for tea after the war and we can chat and compare stories.

Or perhaps the ban is just on explosive cargo on cargo aircraft.

I think they just plain didn’t want them to have any fun scaring the hell out of the natives.

The natives who shoot back?

I can imagine some uncomprehending Afghans stealing a bunch of those holiday crackers now and trying to use them to blow things up.  In fact, that idea might be worth encouraging.

It would add an interesting new twist to the suicide bombers, too:
“All right, I’ve heard how these things work.  It will take three of you.  Here’s what you do.  Makri, you wear the vest with these explosive ‘cracker’ things tied to it.  Sanp, you grab his arms.  Kharpusht will grab his legs.  Then you both pull him hard in opposite directions until he goes ‘bang’. . .”

“Yes, you there in the back?”

“Yes.. which of us wears the funny little tissue paper crown?”

“Hmm.. whoever sounds best reading the awful jokes, I suppose.”

On an related note, my family has made a tradition of ‘Good Neighbor’ Crackers.. Based on an episode of a British Comedy by the same name, these are essentially a toilet paper roll with wrapping paper and ribbons around. When pulled, one must shout ‘BANG!’. On the plus side, they usually have very good chocolates.