Airport security workers - is anyone actually trying to bring anything dangerous through airports these days??

[CassandraBarrett]

Perhaps I have the job title wrong - I mean the people that check your hand luggage to make sure there's no contraband.

I can understand scanning for knives/guns. Though from reading Jack Reacher I think ceramic weapons are a thing and won't set off the beeper?

But to have so many people wait for so long while customs checks the half centimetre of warm water that lies forgotten in a bottle. Or re-scans the lip balm in a hand bag (not a liquid, a solid!) Or the last little inch of nappy cream in a banjaxed tube.

What's the point?? Are these things genuinely potentially dangerous (or could dangerous things be disguised thus)?

How many attempts have airport security fended off in the last 20+ years?

I would love to know if it's a massive waste of time or if there have been more terrorist attempts that the general public are blissfully unaware of....

I'm guessing it's classified and they wouldn't say.

But I do think a lot of the rules are pointless. Actually my lip balm always seems to make it through, but how is it that liquids need to be in clear bags to be scanned when they're in hand luggage but not when they're in hold luggage? And if the machines are different, why have they never been upgraded? It's 16 years since they changed the rules on liquids in hand luggage. Surely the technology is there.

Yeah, it's probably classified.

You make good points. Why the plastic bags? Why for hand luggage but not hold luggage?
Why do I have to take my hair dryer out of my suitcase and put it in a tray that goes through the SAME machine anyway?
Also, good point re the updating (or not) of machines

The plastic bag thing is for volume, as is each of the limits of 100mL. If you had any more you could mix them together to make explosives (if you have the right ingredients of course!). Limiting the volume limits the damage that could be done. If it's in your hold baggage you can't mix it during the flight.
Ni idea about the other rules (didn't know about the hairdryer).
I'm that person that always, always sets off the alarm & has to be patted down/scanned.

how is it that liquids need to be in clear bags to be scanned when they're in hand luggage but not when they're in hold luggage?

Because the passengers cannot access them once in the hold, so they can't do anything with them on the flight

@Cookerhood hmmm yes I see about the volume. But if a group was determined to cause mischief could they not just send 5 people through?

Yep, I had to take out my hair dryer. And my Kindle. What could a Kindle do I wonder??

@RoseAndRose ah yes, that makes sense

The clear bags are so they don't have to think about volume and so it's easier to identify the contents as multiple containers rather than one big one.

Hand security requires more checks because you could mix several different things together on the plane to make something dangerous. In the hold they won't mix so it's less of a risk.

A hair dryer looks like a hairdryer when you can see it. If you packed it with all your other wired electronics in a big bundle of wires it could look like a bomb on a scanner.

The clear bags thing and liquids thing is no longer a thing in Schiphol airport. Leave everything in your bag too. So the technology is there on that front

@Cookerhood hmmm yes I see about the volume. But if a group was determined to cause mischief could they not just send 5 people through?

I agree, but I think that's why the plastic bag is 1L max - not enough volume to cause trouble even if several people got together (I'm not sure what is to stop them taking a folded up bag or something to mix it in though!).

Not long before covid hit, I went on a hen do to Barcelona.

When we were waiting to be picked up just outside the airport on arrival, my friend rummaged in the pocket of her cardi looking for something - and pulled out a 6 inch long, razor sharp kitchen scissors. She'd had it at home that morning and dropped it in her pocket to take upstairs and forgotten it.

It had made it through two sets of airport security without so much as a query. It actually frightens the pants off me that that was possible and I'm not the best flier anyway!

Thing is that the scanners don't even pick everything up. We went through with MIL who has dementia - we helped her understand what she shouldn't pack and what she had to take out and put in trays. We got through x-ray and she promptly opened a compartment in her bag and took out her bottle of water to have a drink! She knew it was there, she'd put it in without us knowing, but completely ignored all the signs about liquids and us telling her not to put liquids in her bag. It seems that water isn't a liquid to MIL!!

Another time we went through and the x-ray machine held back our son's "Thomas" carry on bag - they searched it and found the culprit - a pork pie in his lunchbox! Apparently the jelly around the meat looks like liquid!

But if you send 5 people through, that's 5x as many people who might get picked up as suspicious by security, and 5x as many people that you'd loose in a plane crash or whatever is being planned.

I think the kindle/laptop thing is partly to stop you hiding other things under them.

Some of it is performance, some is the experience that 9-11 brought that a plane itself could be used as a bomb. It makes passengers feel better anyway apparently.

We got pulled up for one of those tubs of sudacrem that we were given in our Bounty pack when our DD was born. Once through security, eldest daughter was sat causally sharpening her colouring pencils before we got on the flight. A pencil sharpener...with a very sharp blade which was never queried.

Still remember being made to remove my earrings at JFK - no idea how I’d get any kind of dangerous weapon in there

also When we went abroad last 5/6 years ago they refused to allow my sons plastic water pistol through. It had a few drops of water in - I was cross, he was screaming as they took it off him. I really didn’t get why that was a threat when the other plastic water pistol made it all the way to
our holiday in my hand luggage.

i think it’s probably all for show

A couple of years pre-pandemic I was in security when a chap had his handsaw confiscated. He was seemingly quite bemused that it might be an issue.

The amount of damage you can do with a pencil sharpener blade is quite limited.

Mixing chemicals, resulting in the production of noxious gases, very hostile.

Just because the tub says sudocrem doesn't mean that's what the contents really are

I was glad they found DS's inhaler. We were flying at short notice for a funeral, had a very tight turn around to unpack/ repack following our holiday and an early departure. I failed to find it in the pockets of the bag when queuing and thought I'd forgotten to pack it in the haste. I was unusually relieved to be pulled over as there weren't any other potentially dodgy items in the bag so knew it was the inhaler they'd found. They were surprisingly suspicious about the peak flow monitor though!

When I was going through security last year a chap got pulled over after the x-ray to have his bag looked through. It was absolutely stuffed full of pick axes, jagged knives, ropes etc etc - it seems he was going ice climbing and forgot or hadn't realised that all that equipment wouldn't be suitable for hand luggage. I think he was genuine but I certainly wouldn't want anyone to have the bag of 'equipment' in any plane I was on!!

As PPs have mentioned a lot of this is 'security theatre'. Much if it is to make you feel safer and an attempt to limit any obvious attempts.

It's also a bit ridiculous that once on the plane you get little glass bottles of wine! You can bring several litres of duty free alcohol or perfume in glass bottles into the plane too.

If you are in first class you get proper cutlery. Makes confiscating tweezers seem ridiculous.

A friend had her brooch confiscated as it has a pin on it. DH had a set of metal salad serving spoons his mother gave him last minute as we left confiscated. No spoons allowed but here is your glass bottle once on board

My dad accidentally put a flick knife in hand luggage on way back from Tenerife a few years back.

Security didn't flag it.

Makes me feel very uneasy what can get through !

I came through Gatwick last week and they are trialing new machines where you leave everything in your suitcase including liquids and send it through the machine as is. I still had to take my boots off but it’s definitely progress!

It’s not a thing in the US either now if you get TSA pre check or Global Entry. Not sure if the TSA interview is worth it though!!

I’ve not bothered putting my liquid foundation etc in those plastic bags at any airport for about 5 years and I’ve never been pulled up. It also always amazes me the inconsistencies at worldwide airports too. Some staff are really thorough, others are busy chatting to each other and not even looking at the screens. Having said that, when I was last in Spain, we visited a botanical garden where there were hundreds of the most amazing and huge fir cones just lying around. I decided to bring home about 8 and rather than put them in my case and risk them being crushed, I put them in a carrier bag in my hand luggage. I had a feeling they might cause issues so I watched the very bored looking security officer’s face as she scanned her screen. I saw her eyes suddenly widen and she pressed the stop button and called a colleague over. There was lots discussion about what they might be viewing and predictably I was called over to open the bag in front of them. There was much laughter when they realised what they were as apparently she had thought they were hand grenades! 😮

I’ve often wondered why duty free spirits are still sold in glass bottles. Smash one on the metal armrest of an aircraft and you’ve got a pretty offensive weapon!

Probably because it looks like a gun?

😂😂😂