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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate going through airport security

35 replies

dilemma456 · 12/08/2010 22:09

I had to do it today. I always feel like some kind of criminal. Bags through machine. DP made to remove belt.

Me through scanner - it goes off. Sent back to remove shoes and replace with blue plastic bag things. Back through machine. Patted down, nothing found. Asked what's in my knickers for Gods sake. No idea why scanner went off - is underwiring in bra enough?

And finally - plastic fork confistcated from bag - the folding sort that you get free with salads in supermarkets. I'd just forgotten it was there. Appears they thought I'd hold up the aeroplane with it Hmm

I know its meant to be for our own good but I always hate it.

OP posts:
AlegnaDnalyel · 12/08/2010 22:19

Jeez YANBU, I'm dreading going abroad. Haven't been out of the country since 1999. The thought of all the bloody checks they do now, and if I may get it wrong scares the shit out of me. Confused

lifeas3plus1 · 12/08/2010 22:24

I went through airport security in SA once when I was about 8yrs old.

I'd forgotten to take my belt off so the scanner goes off.

About 4 guards all turned around with their guns bloody pointed at me whilst another female guard patted me down and someone dragged my mom off to ask her if she was using me to conceal any weapons.

Scared the friggin shit out of me that did.

lifeas3plus1 · 12/08/2010 22:25

Oh YANBU.

Original poster
dilemma456 · 12/08/2010 23:01

lifeas3plus1 that sounds absolutely terrifying. Being asked (by a woman) what's in my kninkers pales into insignificance in comparison.

I had to cross the Mongolain / Chinese land border a few years back there were a terrifying number of men with large guns

OP posts:
Vallhala · 12/08/2010 23:22

My friend and I went on hols to Europe about 6 years ago. Both perfectly innocent of any wrong-doing, she was stopped whilst security checked her hand luggage. (Apparently this always happens to poor friend, a seasoned traveller, so she is well used to it, but it troubled me!).

Security honed in on an odd item in her baggage.

"Excuse me Madam, but what is this?", disdainfully holding offending item up in puzzlement between finger and thumb.

"Ermmm... it's a potato".

"A what?!"

"Ermmm... it's a potato... ermmm... my boyfriend's a potato farmer...."

My pal had packed a "happy travels" pressie from the boyfriend - a stretchy rubber "stress potato" which he'd been given by a client!

Needless to say that security had no connections in potato farming and really didn't know what to make of the alien item in her luggage!

LimaCharlie · 12/08/2010 23:26

I know its horrid but sadly a necessity in this day and age. And I always feel like I look guilty and shifty even though I'm very normal boring

Some friends of mine from way back when, although having nothing whatsoever in their luggage or about their person were tailed by sniffer dogs through Amsterdam airport - they believe purely down to the amount of substances they'd been enjoying whilst over there that were still in their system.

TrillianAstra · 12/08/2010 23:29

If you wan them to catch people who are up to no good then you'll have to accept that there will be a good number of false positives - people who are doing nothing wrong but who have their lives very slightly inconvenienced.

Marjee · 12/08/2010 23:53

Yanbu I recently went abroad with family. Going through security with ds sleeping on my shoulder they made me take off my cardigan - waking ds in the process then SIL had her gold bracelet stolen from the scanner! I'm convinced it was the security staff, they turned her to face the other way while they frisked her!

bruffin · 13/08/2010 00:03

DH has been stopped because the sniffer dogs "identified" him. The dog went for his pocket. It was only when he got back he realised he sometimes puts the medication he is on in that pocket.

Kaloki · 13/08/2010 01:20

I had to have the handheld scanner thing used as I set off the metal detectors. Which would have been fine, except it was my genital piercing which set it off, and my mum (who doesn't didn't know about it) was stood beside me. There was me trying to say, "I have piercings", and gesture down there subtly, only for them to make a big show of waving it over my groin to hear it beep. Blush

Alouiseg · 13/08/2010 01:38

It makes travelling such an unpleasant experience, I always get patted down which my ds' think is hilarious Hmm

I yearn for the good old days of flying and I'm only 40. Air hostesses used to give me a mini apron and let me serve drinks, my brothers went into the cockpit. You could park nearer than 25 miles away from the terminal, Mummy could neck a few Gins in a quietish bar and Dad could flirt with the air hostesses. It's got such a nasty business since 911.

ratspeaker · 13/08/2010 01:48

Marjee
It may have been a fellow passenger stole the bracelt

I try to makE sure the previous person has passed through and collected their stuff before putting anything of mine through
I have been known to oops- dropped my bag before it went on the tray
makes it slower but you wouldnt go through a supermarlet checkout when the person before you was still packing their stuff, so why should it be the same at the airport?

kickassangel · 13/08/2010 01:51

thing is, these measures would only really catch an 'amateur' terrorist. a really proper, serious one would think of a way through.

until they strip everyone naked, do a full body search & then put them in paper clothes - no baggage allowed, of any kind, AND do the same to all staff (including ground crew) there is no sure-fire way to make it safe. that is obviously too extreme, but the effect of current security is a bit like pissing on the fire of london - shows you bothered but makes no difference.

Alouiseg · 13/08/2010 02:01

You're so right Kickassangel, while we're discarding lip glosses, removing shoes and being frisked. Some fanatic has moved onto the next big thing.

I dread to think what it will be next :(

Tee2072 · 13/08/2010 07:36

Absolutely true Kickassangel. And many members of security staff have pointed this out.

Its to make the public feel 'safe', supposedly. All it really does it piss them off.

sunnydelight · 13/08/2010 07:43

Doesn't everyone hate it nowadays?

nancydrewrocked · 13/08/2010 07:47

These measures have nothing to do with the actual prevention of terrorism and everything to do with appeasing the "public" by providing a perception that something is being done.

It's an inconvenient, time consuming, misery inducing joke.

SkiHorseWonAWean · 13/08/2010 08:08

There's a woman on these boards who is a pilot. She tells that in the light of "equality" her and her colleagues are subject to these searches.

As if she needs to smuggle a fucking explosive on to a plane to cause damage. Hmm

alexisfaith · 13/08/2010 10:55

DH was on a work trip to South America. The day he was flying home, he had the most violent bout of sickness and diarrhoea. The security staff had been appeared suspicious of this sickly, sweaty 'gringo' but let him through security. Later, as he sat on the plane, really feverish and trying to sleep before take-off, armed police boarded the plane and removed him at gunpoint for being a suspected drugs mule. He truly wasn't carrying any substances, legal or illegal. He was taken to an interrogation room where all manner of words were put in his mouth and false statements claimed. In his sickness, I'm surprised he didn't agree with them through fear. He needed to use the loo with his stomach bug. A guard went with him because they thought he was getting rid of evidence. My DH was absolutely terrified of ending up in prison through false accusation and cultural miscommunication. After a couple of hours, he was free to go. Terrified each time I go through airport security now.

makeupmummy · 13/08/2010 11:03

I agree,hate it and think pretty stupid! Me and dd, aged 6, shoes off in Paris?! And can someone please tell me why the putting of, eg, a Dr Hauschka lip balm, in a ziplock bag suddenly means it is not any longer dangerous, but presumably could be pretty lethal if left unfettered in a handbag?

cupcakesandbunting · 13/08/2010 11:09

YABU. I don't mind the mild inconvienience if there's even the smallest chance it might prevent 300 people being blown up at 30,000 feet and plus I quite like being felt up frisked by the security women. It's the closest I'll ever get to acting out my lesbian prison wardern fanstasies Grin

Plus, DH and I are both dark haired/skinned so we always get stopped because, as you know, it's always the dark people that blow people up... Hmm

titchy · 13/08/2010 11:13

I always get searched too. Only ever travel with dh and dcs. Not quite sure why a middle aged white mum would be an obvious target... ds who is 9 was also searched as he set the scanner off - he was quite chuffed about it though Grin

dexter73 · 13/08/2010 11:17

Doesn't bother me at all. I would rather spend a few minutes being checked than think that people could be getting on to planes carrying whatever they fancied.
In Barcelona we had our luggage scanned and had to walk through scanners to get on the train!

Original poster
dilemma456 · 13/08/2010 11:19

Oh they searhced DD's shoes too they seemed extremely suspicious of the lift up flaps for the dolls Clarks so kindly supplied with them. You'd think they'd never seen them before!

OP posts:
AbsOfCroissant · 13/08/2010 11:19

Hm, I don't know if YABU or YANBU.

I am a bit meh about going through airport security, but have gone through it a lot (over 20 flights last year). My problem is that about 50% of the time I'm searched/questioned. I do not look dodgy, don't even have dark skin (have pale skin, but dark hair) or a Middle Eastern sounding name (my manager is also stopped and searched by US airport security because of his name). The most recent incidents were having my bag searched because apparently I was carrying a screwdriver (er, it was mascara) and then because they had to search my umbrella Hmm. It could be worse: someone I worked with had the same name as this guy

However, if I EVER encountered one of these freaking MORONS who decided to try and create a bomb from liquids, each is going to get a kick in the 'nads for everytime I had to go through security since the liquid ban came in (I think it's a suitable punishment Grin)