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 remember being taken to see the cockpit several times when I was a child/teenager (often travelled as unescorted children between relatives) and being allowed to watch for 20minutes or so.

Nothing to do with 9/11 but I remember smoking on planes which now seems completely insane.

@Dumpedwife

The biggest change came in after the Pan Am Lockerbie bombing. Pre Lockerbie it was like hopping in and off a bus but not cheap so air travel not so frequent. Pre 2001 liquids and shoes weren't searched.

The liquids thing came after Lockerbie and 9/11, I took a 2 litre bottle of Vimto to NZ in 2006! It started at Heathrow after it was found that some scrotes had liquids to make a bomb mid-air, all hand luggage was banned initially, flights were postponed etc. Just glad that our security services were so on the ball. The questions about packing your own bags, not out of your control and taking anything for another person were used by the RAF flights back in the 1970s.

We have just been abroad and actually I was thinking it feels like things have rolled back again a bit in terms of restrictions. We flew internationally and were allowed a cabin suitcase plus handbag each on board. We also had bits of shopping from the airport with us. All kinds of electricals. I also realised when we landed that I had a pair of scissors with me in our first aid kit - all scanned but evidently missed by security!

I'd forgotten about the El-Al security. Long before 9/11 their security was tight. I think they had entirely separate check-in and security. When a flight landed at Heathrow the passengers were escorted down to Immigration and Customs by armed police.

@PastMyBestBeforeDate

I'd forgotten about the El-Al security. Long before 9/11 their security was tight. I think they had entirely separate check-in and security. When a flight landed at Heathrow the passengers were escorted down to Immigration and Customs by armed police.

They did yes. Usually completely separate cordoned off by security staff with big guns. And that was check in alone.

I remember when you could smoke on planes, when my mum insisted we all sat in the smoking part so she could light up - grim, though I can't imagine non-smoking was much better. Late 80s.

My brother did a cockpit visit over the Atlantic with American Airlines in about 1990.

We had a delay outbound the last time we flew in 2019, we all had a visit to the cockpit, although we hadn't set off yet!

I was talking to my 16 year old daughter and her friend about it yesterday and they couldn’t understand how it happened.
We were saying that in the “old” days a hijack ended in a couple of deaths and an exchange of money, nobody thought hijackers would also be suicide bombers. Plus terrorists claiming to be Islamic and the level of fanaticism that they displayed was pretty new.

I recall being on an RAF trooping flight and the pilot asked if any of the children would like to come up to the cockpit, this was mid flight, OH, a teacher, was most put out that he was too old!

You used to get proper cutlery with meals. Both my grandfather and father ‘collected’ teaspoons from any plane that they travelled in. I think I pocketed an Austrian Airlines one too.

There was screening before 9/11. I remember that from flying as a child, our luggage was searched a few times. Even the 9/11 guys were screened and searched.

Cockpit visits for children and little stickers after you met the captain :)

It didn’t change here as much as in the US. We already had security checks for hand luggage and only passengers were allowed at the gate. Things became more thorough but the basic process was the same.

The main difference is that pre 9/11 if you got a lift or a taxi to the airport you could be dropped off right outside the front door not in some car park.

The main difference is that pre 9/11 if you got a lift or a taxi to the airport you could be dropped off right outside the front door not in some car park.

We’ve always been dropped outside the front door of terminal 5.

@Wriggleon we were on standby on a return long haul flight, needed to get home a few days earlier than planned. We had met the flight crew in the hotel we were staying in. We were a family of 4 but could only get 3 seats so the flight crew said one of us could have one of the jump seats in the cockpit (747) for the flight. Think my DF sat in on the takeoff but I was allowed to sit in for most of the flight and landing. My DB wasn't too bothered as was much more interested in the films and my DM hated flying, so the less she knew about the process the happier she was. I loved it and at the time I wanted to be a pilot.

Every year, we watch Home Alone one and two, and the air travel experience in the second film always amazes me! They get up really late, run through the airport, and their kid manages to get on the wrong flight. I know it’s a movie but wow that’s lax security.

It’s so weird to imagine smoking on flights. I remember in the early 00s going on an extremely crappy flight of bought cheaply online and the plane still had the old ash trays with remnants of old ash in them. Even as an ex smoker the thought of lighting up on a plane makes me feel a bit ill.

@Hoppinggreen

I was talking to my 16 year old daughter and her friend about it yesterday and they couldn’t understand how it happened. We were saying that in the “old” days a hijack ended in a couple of deaths and an exchange of money, nobody thought hijackers would also be suicide bombers. Plus terrorists claiming to be Islamic and the level of fanaticism that they displayed was pretty new.

In 1986 a Jordanian named Nezar Nawwaf al-Mansur al-Hindawi tried to send his five months pregnant Irish girlfriend on an El Al flight from London to Tel Aviv with a bomb in her bag. Thankfully it was found and disaster averted. This level of fanaticism isn’t that new.

Everything was different before 9/11, the World truly seemed brighter and more content. Travel was easier though, although security in the States was always higher in airports, I remember being in JFK in 99 and the whole place was swarming with armed police, far more than usual.

After 9/11 the reality of a dangerous world started to hit home, it really did open Pandora’s box in terms of terror and evil.

Another shift in how you perceive life was the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004. Horrific loss of life and devastation on a scale incomprehensible to us here in the UK.

Speaking of smoking on planes, does anyone remember when they used to advertise smokers holidays? They were coach tours basically designed for people who smoked. I always wondered why smokers needed their own tours. I’m guessing they all constantly lit up while being driven around.

Removing your shoes was thanks to Richard Reid, the shoe bomber. It was after 9/11.

The changes after 9/11 weren't significant for international flights. Just a bit stricter on sharp objects. The main focus was on domestic flights, the hijackers deliberately targeted domestic flights due to the lack of security.

The fear of fire caused by smoking onboard has now been replaced with the fear that there are probably over 200 personal electronic devices on board at any one time. A lithium battery fire is the new danger.

I used to buy 6 full bottles of wine and carry them in a bottle-bag for life so it was patently obvious what they were (they were my "under seat" item). But the changes to that were not directly related to 9/11, but another terrorist plot foiled a couple of years later in the heightened tensions caused by 9/11. I think all the tiny liquids in clear plastic bags rules came in after the shoe bomber.

After 9/11 though, air Marshall's were introduced into planes.

Potential weapons were eliminated, so only teeny tiny Swiss Army knives or scissors for sewing were allowed (is it under 4 inches or something?). Knitting needles are potentially still allowed, but not metal and lots of security people take the, ff you anyway.

Also, as a result of 9/11 but the more economic impacts, in flight catering changed forever. No more free glass of wine/tea/coffee (except maybe 1 on transatlantic length flights), no more dinner on a short haul (it dropped from hot meal/wine to sandwich/tea/coffee to "drinks and snacks to purchase" fairly quickly).

There is also a lot less feeling of magic and a lot more fear around flying.

And the day after 9/11, I had to fly home from a conference. Many flights were cancelled (anything to London area, most flights to European continent, and everything transatlantic were all stopped) so lots of delegates were organising trains and ferries to get back to Europe, or trains to London to wait in hotels until flights were going again. I was lucky that my flight was going nowhere near closed airspace so it was delayed but flew. (And all the delegates had been lining up to use the pay phone in the uni halls where we were staying for the conference, as no one had a mobile in those days, so it was hard to organise changes or clarify plans were ok, and there was also a lot of sharing change with each other for it).

We were allowed carry our passport, a book or newspaper, wallet and bottle of water onto plane - everything else had to go in the hold. Even ladies handbags. We were given transparent carrier bags to hold the few items we were allowed. And there were a lot of army/police walking around the terminal (landside and airside) in pairs with rifles and sidearms very visible.

Completely different. Not referring to 9/11 sequalae specifically but differences from now to them. Used to be so much quicker, security didn’t exist as we know it now. I recall seeing many friends and family off on international flights and not even having to go through security. Had my handbag and just explained I was only seeing people off and went through. Theoretically I could have been a wanted terrorist but don’t think such a thing existed.

You could park just across from airport as short stay to come in and drop off/pick up. Now the official parking is virtually in the next suburb and that combined with shuttle transport means you have to sell a kidney.

There used to be a smoking section in the plane. Pretty stupid in an enclosed space as the entire plane became smoking. When they changed that smokers went right off still trying to light up in their seats and they hogged the toilets so everyone else had to queue and hold on forever and tempers ran high.

You could take anything on as hand luggage, I used to take full size shampoo, conditioner etc. Also, weight didn’t matter at all, it was more size of cabin luggage so was all much heavier than now.

People were not dicks. Now there’s a few on every plane that cause delay, get dragged off before leaving or on landing. Just entitled and need to cause a fuss. People were also more chill back then, now exiting a plane is like a scene from Lord of the Flies.

There were no delays before about taking taking luggage off if people were not on the plane. Now if people’s luggage is on and people are not you lose your spot on the runway while they rummage through and find the luggage and take it off.

People are more vocal now. Before if a plane was held up slightly for people running late/transfers etc people just sat there and when the stragglers boarded people just thought ‘oh, they were the people running late’. Now half the plane claps them on with calls of ‘thanks for making us late from the get go arsehole’ etc. People also seemed to tolerate a lot more back them like reclining, lights etc, now it all turns into WW3 quite rapidly.

@BIoodyStupidJohnson

You'd think that 15 years after the 2006 attempt, they'd have thought of a way to scan liquids in hand luggage without needing to put them in a tiny plastic bag. If the scanners for the hold luggage can do it...

They can do that, technically speaking anyway. It’s pure security theatre; it makes people ‘feel safe’ so they keep doing it.

Changes to this were reported a couple of years ago news.sky.com/story/liquid-restrictions-to-end-at-uk-airports-thanks-to-new-technology-11793561

Other than increased security for a few months it didn't make a huge difference.

It probably made a big difference to internal flights in the USA

International flights had been pretty secure since the previous wave of hijacking in the late 70s and early 80s