KerryMLC

Connecting from T3 to T5, I went through a little "room" in T3 consisting of two doors where you had to press a button at the entrance and then a button inside the room to get to Arrivals / Connections. The room adjoined the arrivals area with the main departures hall.

The door was totally unguarded apart from that design feature ( From the other side, the door looks like this:


What exactly is to stop someone coming in to LHR from an airline/airport with lax security, arriving into / connecting to T3, going to that door, having a friend who has gone through standard security opening the two doors, and letting that unscreened person directly into the T3 departures hall to board a (say) US bound flight? Is there a system like conformance designed to check this?

If not it seems like quite a big security flaw in the connection process.

Thanks!

elitetraveler

Looks like you need to a code to open it --

corporate-wage-slave

Was this after a lift? I think it featured in the Casey Neistat video of his trip with wife and child to South Africa.

If it is where I think it is, then your suggestion doesn't work, you are still in the arrival stream on both sides of the door. A departing passenger can't get there, and any arriving passenger still has to pass through security. The reason it's a one way door is so that passengers don't double back to the bus area.

KerryMLC

Good suggestion, but I think (emphasis there!) this may be wrong. One side of the door is next to T3 Lounge H, just beyond the information desk (it's signed "Arrivals/Flight Connections"), and the other side of the door is the "Flight Connections to 2, 3, 4, 5" area. I didn't pass any one way barriers before that door either on the "post-security" side... and if you connect into T3, you walk past that very door after you've gone through T3 Flight Connections security and before you walk through the double doors into the departure lounge.

In my case, I went through T3 Flight Connections security, then went from the T3 AA lounge to the Flight Connections signs nearby to get to T5, went through those doors to get to "T3's Flight Connections to 2, 3, 4, 5" (now as an uncleared passenger) and could have gone back round if I wanted to reclear T3 security but in my case proceeded on to T5.

corporate-wage-slave

OK, I know where this is now (and incidentally you've solved the "how Casey got from T3 to T5 and back again" mystery: his party initially went to Flounge T3 and I would guess SS invited him over to CCR using the same route as you). I better not go into the details, but though there's possibly a risk, as there is with many one direction flow doors all over LHR, in reality I doubt this would be a practical bypass, there is another blocker.

KerryMLC

Thanks for that confirmation, good to know! Although it begs the question of why the door exists in the first place, given that T5 doesn't have an equivalent (apart from the Transit Round-Trip).

I'm guessing the blocker is either the two doors being linked (so two "friends" would be needed to get you in the reverse flow), some sort of automated presence detection in the "room" so the first door won't open, or plain old CCTV/ remote monitoring. Of course, the biggest blocker is the fact that Flight Connections Security is slightly pointless anyway and plenty of airports manage without it

corporate-wage-slave

There are paid for lounges in T3, such as Aspire, and it is OK to use them when not using T3 to depart. Hence the signposting is only in the lounge area.
[A pedant writes: you mean it poses the question; begging the question relates to unproven logical fallacies].

steviewire

I had a rather serious experience entering through a similar door in January. Having transferred from T5 to T3 I checked in at the AA desks for my outward AA fight. I then continued and approached the BA and other airline desks. I stopped at the BA desk as I had a question regarding a future BA booking. The BA staff could not completely answer and advised me to consult with another agent who was was through a door immediately on the left on the way to T3. I entered though the door which led to another door back to security. I realised at that point it wasn't where I wanted to go so I turned back to be let out by a member of staff who asked no questions.

After a visit to the lounge I made my way to the gate, checked in there and waited to board. I was then approached by three armed police who asked me to accompany them for questioning. Once they explained the reason for questioning I fully understood why they had stopped me, basically I had gone out of the checked area. They took me for another security check asked more questions and then after about 30 minutes escorted me back to the gate. Fortunately it was a mistake on my part but I was following guidance from a BA staff, also I should not have been let back into the clean area without being questioned so someone was at fault. The area between the two doors is filmed so they had me on camera and possibly the person who let me back out may have had to be questioned.

So there are serious security implications on entering through a door but from memory the first door I entered wasn't a key pad entry and didn't have 'no admittance' sign.

Fortunately for me the AA flight was delayed so I just got back in time for boarding.

It is good to know that the authorities do take incidents like mine seriously and follow it up.

Each time I pass the door I smile remembering my past brush with the law

Genius1

This door is part of a double set (an airlock of sorts) between arrivals and departures in the temporary T3 Flight Connections Centre.

Passengers in departures can use the airlock to go from departures to arrivals, but not the other way around. Only one door in the airlock will open at any one time and there are other security measures in place.

Genius1

It is absolutely not pointless. Many countries have terrible security, and so the DfT's requirement for UK airports to screen international connecting passengers is completely justified in my opinion.

teahan

Many other countries manage to differentiate between passengers from "clean" countries and others. It makes everyone's life easier:
- Passengers from clean countries avoid a pointless security check, enjoy a shorter connection;
- Passengers from other countries benefit from quicker security.

Ber2dca

LHR can be like a maze and it seems pretty easy to end up in surprising places unintentionally. Of course, one hopes that IF pax end up somewhere they don't belong, police ask questions first and don't pull a Charles de Menezes.