Rant: priority security screening at HEL
 

Not sure whether this is something that is regular and already well-known on this board (if so, I apologise, but a quick search did not deliver any obvious results for me) but priority security screening this morning at HEL was, ummm, "sub-optimal": it looks like 7 or 8 bags out of 10 were sent for secondary screening, For me, the offending item was deodorant. For others, it seemed to be either small items with liquid or laptops or other electrical items that caused the search. What is the point of telling people to leave everything in the bag if the outcome is delays due to excessive secondary screening?

You describe the "business as usual" day at HEL.
Discussed and complained many times here

Thanks for pointing the thread out to me. :tu:

had a loooong search for my 2 cm long nail file in my bag a year ago as secondary, so yes it seems normal

As a person whose bag in last 2 times were "tagged" and then security just said all good and didn't even checked, I asked why and they said machine does that randomly.
Like what the actual frakking thing is these machines? They cause all the crowds in the security line not the people...

Within the past 24 months, I've had approximately 20 overnight transfers at HEL, meaning I've exited the airside, spent the night at the Clarion hotel and continued travelling the next morning. Going through the security theater in the morning each time with the same backpack with basically identical contents (work papers and the book I'm reading are typically the only things changing between the trips) - it is a complete lottery if my backpack then goes to secondary screening. My rough estimate is that secondary screening is required some 75% of times. Sometimes the staff wants to examine my laptop or my toiletries (toothpaste etc.) more closely and/or rescan them, sometimes they just check the monitor and send me on my merry way. I've heard the "tip" from the secondary screening workers that "it might be a good idea to take the laptop and liquids out of the backpack and place them on a separate tray" but every time I try to follow this advice I'm sternly ushered forward and reminded that "there's no need to take laptops and liquids out of the bags" by the friendly (!) workers guiding the passengers before the scanners.

Cheers,

Tseta

I have a gadget bag which, when stuffed full of gadgets and cables virtually guarantees that my bag will be directed to secondary screening. Pretty much every time the staff don't even look into it.

Try transfer security during the morning rush. With bags endlessly moved to secondary screening, until the queue is eventually full, and then the whole thing grinds to a halt because the next bag cannot be moved to secondary screening anymore. Meanwhile half the staff are just are just standing around (last time they were seemingly conducting a training during morning rush). /rant

This is all super annoying. Don't know any other airport where the screening is so chaotic and slow. Safety first of course, but the deodorants are perfectly fine in any other airport. Also seems to me that the priority lane is the most congested.

Must be that ff the computer is unsure and there is someone in the back office with time to check the scan before moving the bag to secondary check, secondary check is not needed. However if the back office is too busy and doesn't have time to check the scan, it goes to secondary, and there the officer might see already from the scan that the content is ok.

Try one of the German airports…

Passengers, including myself, tend to forget possible screening delays, especially with connections, and the same applies to passport control queues from/to Schengen and non-Schengen areas. And many tend to assume they are not a problem so why would the staff need to check their bags. I have seen that a lot at Heathrow T5 and T3 in the Fast Track security lines where some passengers consider themselves exempt but then jump up and down when their bags are pulled aside. I also witnessed a few tantrums when I last connected through HEL from Tokyo onto Brussels and several passengers were losing it because of their tight connections but being held back to have their bags searched. To be fair, I was also on a tight connection after the JAL inbound flight was late, security was busy and immigration had long lines which all reminded me of the extra self-imposed stress of booking indirect routings with a short connection.

When flying, always prepare for the unexpected.

They have some very large problems with their ability to screen bags at ALL of the machines. I fly through HEL at least once a week and every time it's 50/50 how many bags get flagged for secondary screening. Even with the same packing (all similar items) mine is about 25% likely to get a 2nd screen. Terribly inefficient.

Flying a similar flight schedule out of ARN - its almost no flagged bags in fast track lane terminal 2 or 5.

At one point shaving cream always caused secondary and even not getting thru. They said that there is something that their system (mis)identifies. But not lately anymore.

Especially Hannover during an expo.

Last time I counted 11 security people for "1" line.

Helsinki security is at least trying to be as efficient as possible. If they can fix the machine problems, it would be pretty fast screening times I would say.