What was flying like before 9/11?

[Wandafishcake]

I was 14 in 2001, I remember that security processes at airports got much tighter and more time consuming following 9/11, but I can’t properly remember what it was like before? Was the security much quicker and less intense? Could you take more things into the cabin with you?

I used to travel for work and was living in Germany in 2001. I remember not being allowed to take drinks onboard unless they were purchased airside. I know it was then because it was around the time we started paying a deposit on plastic bottles and drinks cans in Germany. To get your deposit money back you had to take the bottle back (with the receipt) to the shop where you bought it. The shop assistant's face was a picture when I brought my water bottle back a month later on my next trip! We left Germany in 2004 so it was definitely before 2006. I think after 9/11 the quantity of hand luggage was reduced to strictly one item per person - maybe only a really small one in the days after 9/11. I do remember panicking and watching the rules change everyday... and wondering how I could get through even a short flight without tissues and lip balm

I did get to go in the cockpit quite often as a child in the 70s (my father was a travel writer).

Air France was the last international carrier to ban smoking. I always flew with them if I could.

@Anyoneseenmyglasses

I flew on a lot of internal American flights. Comedy pilots and sarcastic cabin crew. Like catching funnier buses. I once arrived slightly drunk clutching a bottle and they held up the plane and crew and cheered me on. They said my luggage might be on the following plane but it appeared on the carousel even though no one was sure where it was! I remember sharing some of my gin with a randy member of the crew who was moaning about not being able to smoke on planes anymore. It’s like awhile other world!

Yes, this takes me back! Some of them were hilarious, but I occasionally worried they would have no idea about emergency exits or basic first aid if needed. When I flew American Airlines London to JFK years ago while pregnant, the colleague I was travelling with fainted and gave herself quite a nasty knock on the head off an angle of the bulkhead, and the cabin crew — identikit French pleats and lipstick — were so in command of the first aid stuff (a huge snowstorm blew in and we spent several hours in a holding pattern because we couldn’t land) that I wished they were going to be around to deliver my baby.

I remember going into the cockpit of a BA jet as wewe flew over the Turks and Caicos Islands - wonderful view. Chatted to the captain for a while then went back to our seats. That'll never happen again

If you were going to meet someone off a flight at Glasgow Airport you could freely walk right in to arrivals and straight up to baggage claim, which was practically by the front door!

There were a few less restrictions but I don't remember it being much different. We've experienced terrorism in the UK since the 60s and so couldn't leave bags unattended etc.

@MountainDweller it was 2006 for Germany too:
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/german-minister-calls-for-ban-on-carry-on-liquids-on-planes/a-2138181

It must have varied because I remember lots of security checks most of the time. I flew to the US and took several internal flights and the security was immense. 1980. We were hours in each queue.

Likewise Thailand in 1989. Lots of bag searches and body checks.

I don't so much remember it for package tour type flights, and I once took an internal UK flight from Manchester to London and nobody even checked my documents.

I visited the cockpit once in 1980 and got to press a button, but that stopped after a pilot let his son do a bit too much and the plane crashed, I think. Early 90s possibly.

@Cocomarine

Cutlery! I’m sure it depended anyway on the airline, but I think that BA provided metal cutlery even in economy. I couldn’t say if it changed immediately after 9/11, but I think it was a factor.

We used to fly often to Canada as the airport we flew to was the nearest to family over the border in the US, I remember in the late 80s and early 90s that meals were served on crockery with metal cutlery. This was in Economy.

@Wandafishcake

Could people visit the cockpit pre 9/11?

Myself DH and children all visited the cockpit of a passenger plane about to take off only 2 years ago!

I assume all those saying that they've/their DC visited the cockpit recently are talking about while grounded?

It was amazing seeing the cockpit mid flight in the late 90s but I can't imagine it being allowed anymore during flight?

I flew 2 days before 9/11 then 4-5 days after (on one of the first flights back).

At the time the only things I noticed were that before business class passengers would have proper cutlery, including steak knives (!) but after it was flimsy plastic cutlery throughout.

And, completely understandably, the cabin crew looked terrified.

Thanks @Sugarbellaella - I couldn't read the first link without signing up! I guess the bottle returning must have been a coincidence when I forgot to bring one from home. I can't imagine paying 4€ at the airport unless I'd had to

I do remember things being much faster in those days - you could turn up an hour before your flight. My trip door to door was 4 hours! Got upgraded once too - hasn't happened since, except at the aircraft door when the crew saw that I had crutches and had been allocated a seat in row 23!

Before 9/11 flying was so easy & a real treat.
Flew to Cyprus late 90s from a local small regional airport. Realised in the departure/boarding lounge that I'd forgotten my sun lotions/SPFs.
So rang my parents from a pay phone & they went to my house (as had a key) got my sun lotions. They got to the airport & were allowed through to the departure lounge (as the security guards were friendly with my DF) & handed me my SPF! Madness when you think of it now.
Also Princess Diana & Charles came up to visit our area & flew into the same airport & because of my DFs fiends at the airport my younger DSisters were allowed to look round their plane. I was away at the time otherwise I could have had a look too.
Also had the airport was a major employer in the area that I lived in at the time so had a few friends that worked there. Had plenty of good night lock ins at the airport bar!
Got married in 2000 had honeymoon in South America & me & ex DH were allowed in the cockpit to meet the Captain.

In 1981 we booked a last minute stand by flight Heathrow to Miami. It was miles to the gate and by the time we got there they had shut the doors . The luggage was in the plane and went to Miami alone while we travelled on a later flight . One bag was opened by security in Miami but no other checks . Nowadays they would hold the plane to offload the luggage !

Being Irish I got searched constantly in London airports. Post 9/11 everyone else got searched too!

I only flew twice before 9/11 and don’t remember much about the security aspect but me and my brother were very young. My brother was about to have a birthday and we asked if we could go and meet the pilots in the cockpit and soon enough all the kids on the flight were taking it in turns to go up. We only had about a minute in there so I didn’t get a chance to take it in but I remember being amazed. I just wish I’d had longer to take it in properly because I’ll never get to be in a cockpit of a commercial airliner whilst in the air again.

I flew often as a child and remember regularly being invited to see inside the cockpit, I was fascinated by all of the buttons!

@WayneBruce

Yes, a word with the air steward would sometimes get a visit. The door to the pilots wasn't locked and often swung open when the pilots got lunch etc brought in. This has made me think. Are pilots allowed out on a longhall flight anymore?

Yes, the visit their families and sometimes sleep in 1st on BA regularly

@TwoleftUggs

In 2000 my mum and I flew to Amsterdam. The guy sitting over the aisle from us sat stroking a knife the whole time we were sat in the runway. It freaked us out a bit tbh, a stewardess asked him to put it away, he told her he was going to use it to cut up his apple and she left him to get on with it. A knife! It sounds bonkers now.

I always used to take a small sharp knife in my hand luggage to peel fruit. I only got stopped once, I said the the officer searching the bag after the x ray machine , “ be careful, there’s a sharp little knife in there” . He gave me a look, and a sigh and said “ I know” . Let it through though.

If you were nice to the pilots they would even let you in the cockpit!! Now that was cool!

@Autumnleavesfalling

Used to fly a lot as a child. Was allowed in the cockpit to meet the pilot. They would show you the controls and let you press buttons etc....don't think that would happen now!

There was a plane crash caused by a pilot letting his son do that. I saw a youtube video about it. Back in the 70s or 80s I think.

(Ex) non US airline crewmember (pilot) here whose Career spanned 9/11 and beyond..

Some with long memories will recall there were problems with highjackers pre 9/11…

As result cabin baggage was screened at that time, people walked though the detector arches most places..the 9/11 highjackers went through that process ..you need to look at the likes of the 9/11 commission report to see what went wrong there.

Prior to 9/11 deck visits were allowed, that stopped overnight,

As I recall it the whole issue of liquids ban etc came in a while later, post Richard Reid.

I flew back from Israel pre 9/11 and it was a bit of a shock - fully body searches in a small room by a very stern woman!

Little did I know it was going to get a bit more like that worldwide.