LHR security...What the ?!%!$#!
 

We've all dealt with the double security check at LHR.
But yesterday on AA to DFW....I watched as the purser on the flight had her mascara (standard purse size) and tiny perfume samples (these have just over 1/2 teaspoon in liquid) removed by security.

I realize there is a need for security measures, but is this not a little ridiculous, if not capricious?

What it is is political correctness. Instead of searching people who are most likely to be suspicious (i.e. arab men) --- they'll purposefully search nearly everyone else just to be part of a dog and pony show that everyone is suffering equally.

If the security officials have to "double check" at the gate , then how much faith do they have in their current system outside the secure area? Raises questions.

My question is to the taking of items that are clearly acceptable on other airlines...

This kind of thing has been happening for a while everywhere. For example, last year at DXB I went through three carry-on security checks with no problem until at the last one the young lady decided the 1/4" blades on my cuticle scissors were too long. Really? 1/4" blades.

You're new around here, aren't you? ;)

Mike

Last trip in SDQ I had 2 pencils removed from my carryon. "Because you could stab someone with them." But not with the two pens right next to them, or the knife and fork supplied by AA in J. Mach 3 Gillette cartridges removed as well. :rolleyes:

Don't understand your point, as the airline does not determine what security takes or does not take - that's the government. Of course, security is applied unevenly. You have to remember that airport security is not to make you safe, it is to make you feel safe so you will continue to fly, so it really doesn't matter what they take, it only matters that they take things. That is why it is applied to pursers, Swedish grandmothers, and infants, so you will feel that they are incredibly thorough and consequently you will feel safe. The real job of keeping you safe is being done in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and such places.

Even that remains wishful thinking.

The security idiocy at airports in the UK and US has nothing to do with political correctness -- it has to do with making the ignorant majority feel safe and with growing the pool of ignorant xenophobes who don't recognize/acknowledge that racism is already in play at airports and yet call for more racism to be in play at airports.

You have to have a con for everything you take aboard. So, if you want to take yogurt with you - you have to be a diabetic, if you see what I mean. Perhaps the perfume samples should be placed in a small first aid kit - used as reviving salts.

Congratulations, you have just failed your "identify a terrorist" test.

Shoebomber : Afro Caribbean & White parents
Crotch Bomber : West African

Neither were Arabs

Yeah, but did she have these items properly stowed in her 3-1-1 bag -OR- were they just in another carryon bag - like her purse. If the latter, it's not so surprising this happened.

Leaving DXB the other day, I had a 20ft Ethernet cable confiscated, because they said it could be used to tie someone up. While my bag had plenty of other every day items that could have been used to cause havoc. Strange and stupid on so many different levels.

LHR was easy. No shoe removal, no nude-o-scopes anywhere to be seen (T3). No bag check at the gate for my AA flight either, no groping (although it appeared they were selectively doing this).

LOL, did they think you could take control of the plane by shaving the pilot?