Airline Crew members can bring liquids through security?
 

Maybe someone can explain this to me...

A flight attendant has a 3/4 full 2 litre bottle of water on top of her carry-on bag. She and her colleagues walk straight pass all the "NO LIQUIDS" signs and bins. She takes the bottle off her bag and puts it in the bin at security. They scan it. She puts it back on the top of her carry-on and they leave the security area.

This happened at terminal 3 at YYZ, not only that but it happened passing through the US security section, where they are overly paranoid - as opposed to the other security sections of the airport.

Do flight attendants get a special pass?

Anyone else every see something like this?

:confused:

iirc, f/a's and flight deck crew when on duty (and in uniform) are exempt form the liquid nonsense

Even back in the initial prohibition of ALL liquids, Flight crew on duty were allowed to have certain items. A deadheading FA next to me on a flight offered me some lotion.

In the US, usually they use the little coin/belt trays to mark when crew begins and ends to let the xray worker know to disregard liquids if they use the same line as the general public.

Please continue this discussion in the Travel Safety & Security forum. Thanks for your understanding.

Jouy31
TravelVuzz moderator

As long as the crew member is in uniform and has a valid airline employee ID card, they are exempt from the liquids ban.

There is no check to ensure they are "on duty." Many of them are commuting to/from work, which is unpaid, personal time. As long as they are in uniform, they get a pass for liquids.

Even when they aren't in uniform, if they have their id with them and walk thru, they are almost always allowed. Note this also applies to other airport workers bringing in their lunch, etc. Just more to show how much of a mockery this entire "liquid ban" has become. (and a reminder on how much its cost me in buying water for significantly more than $1 a bottle when I have a full case in my trunk for .25 a bottle :rolleyes: )

absolutely correct but let's not forget that what you and i pay for liquids airside is not the same as what airport workers pay <the password is discount>

Not completely true. In the first few days or hours of the total liquids ban, there was no exemption for crew liquids coming through the check-point. In one of the larger ironies of our time, the howls of discontent from airline crew when they realized they would have to pass their bags to the tender mercies of their own employers' baggage handling systems, and rely on their fellow employees for accurate and timely delivery of their items, quickly resulted in a policy revision and a crew pass for liquids and, tangentially, for non-alarming shoes.






The exceptions to this pointless silliness are quite numerous and broad and include.

TSA employees
Airport employees
Airline ground employees
People claiming child needs
People claiming medical needs
Crew

The USA is very much in the minority on this however. Most other countries in the world that impose a liquid restriction do so with the same restrictions for crew and airport workers as passengers.

The UK especially is highly restrictive and has even prescribed very convoluted procedures to prevent pilots on walkaround from coming into contact with checked luggage that may contain liquids (as a number of flight crew were pulling their liquids out of their checked bags after coming airside to circumvent the rules).

was that supposed to make me happy? Just peeves me even more.

So if I was a terrorist who wanted to take liquid explosives onto an airplane (presuming I could carry something explosive enough without triggering it on the way), I could:

1. Wear an airline or airport crew uniform, and just carry it in. Of course the X-ray would never detect the kind of liquid I had...
2. Put the liquid into contact lens solution bottles and declare them as an exemption.
3. Put the liquid in a juice bottle, declare myself diabetic (maybe take a few needles along too), and get an exemption.
4. Pretend to be a lactating mother carrying milk and get an exemption.
5. Carry the liquid as gel breast enhancing inserts. They are allowed...
6. Stuff the liquids in my pants and walk through with them, being sure to keep them in my private parts, which are never patted down. Of course if asked, I would refuse a full body scan. Or if I really wanted to make sure I wasn't caught I could just shove it in... (you get the picture)
7. Pay an airport worker to smuggle it in for me.
8. Wear plumber's clothing and walk straight through the employee's door.

Hum, seems like a very leaky system...

Nah... take the high road... switch to solid or powder explosives. :rolleyes:

and me as well. i was just trying to add to the stoopidity of the liquid nonsense. how about a tootsie-pop to get you by? :)

The biggest issue I have with the exemptions is the fact that an airline employee who is traveling simply on personal terms can arrive at the checkpoint in full uniform, get a liquids pass and then change clothes at the first restroom. There's no way to verify that they are on duty at the time they present themselves at the checkpoint. I thought the airline crews were more honest until I saw it first hand at my airport. I'm sure it's a common practice.

I've seen it where an employee was stopped for her water. She stated that she was going back to the lobby to change into her work clothes. She left, changed, and returned to the checkpoint in her work clothes. After that, she changed back into her regular clothes.

I know that if I were a passenger and witnessed that, I'd be quite ticked off. Just like other passengers, I prefer to carry my own drinks onboard the aircraft and not have to rely on a 4 oz cup of water, juice, or soda to get me by. I'd rather have my 32 oz gatorade or something. I also prefer to pay a grocery store's price and not a gift shop's price for the same drink. It's not fair to the passengers.

By the way, in case anyone is wondering. If a TSA person is flying, they have no privileges that airline employees have. They are just a regular passengers.

emphasis mine: in theory and according to policy, right? reality on the other hand......;)