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?

I'm laughing with you, not at you. I know that they're a little sexually repressed over there, but the lav simply isn't big enough for two of you to play those games...

Mike

Well, perhaps they were concerned about what might go on in the shower rooms on some of those EK flights out of DXB. :D Given DXB has one of the more active "sex tourist" markets on the planet -- more spread out than AMS and more diverse than BKK -- perhaps the security screeners at DXB were a little more than just a little familiar with those games. :D

I've seen FRA security do the same thing with Mach 3 Gillette cartridges.

Those were in your carry-on? :confused:

How can you use them as a weapon? Seriously asking as a question!

Crazy stuff.

Just at T4 (for the moment?). Of course, this can/will change.

Pencils could also be used to write incendiary articles, narratives, novellas, or poetry. Kudos for the screeners at Santo Domingo for preventing another catastrophe!

And an ethernet cable! Phew! I'm so glad they stopped that terrorist act before it got underway. The cable could connect a computer to the internet, you could log on to a web site, purchase sharp objects, and have them delivered to you.

A flight attendant carrying perfume samples? They don't have 911 in England, but I hope someone called. That flight attendant could have sickened, even incapacitated those passengers with allergies or "multiple chemical sensitivity."

Big pat on the back for screeners everywhere. It feels good to save lives!

Well let's think about this using "security logic." It's not as far fetched as you think. :D

Gillette makes a razor called the Mach 3.

Mach 3 is a speed capable of being achieved only on military planes.

Military planes are/have weapons.

Therefore, by the transitive property, the Gillette Mach 3 Razor = Mach 3 = Military Planes = Weapon. Shorten that down, you have Mach 3 Razor = Weapon. Weapon = prohibited so therefore, the Mach 3 must be prohibited.

You now have your reason. Ta-Da! :D

Don't worry. They don't have 999 (or 112) in the US. ;) Somehow we survive.

If you follow this logic then any item could be used a weapon, e.g. you could hit someone on the head with your laptop etc. Does not mean that laptops should be excluded rom carry on.

Some people can kill with their bare hands. From now on, no hands will be allowed on flights. This will also solve the problem of too much carry-on luggage. :rolleyes:

Don't forget lead poisoning!*

* yes...I know there's no lead in pencils anymore :)

Shhhh! Don't give them any ideas!:p

Wow, now I think that CDG was actually decent compared to some of these other nightmarish scenarios.

112 is global, including the USA

No. It's valid in the US but only on GSM cellphones and it's certainly not global.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_telephone_number - scan down to 'Emergency numbers'.

Gosh, not even 'global' in North America. The USA and Canada have 911 and Mexico has 066, 060, or 080.

It is just a matter of time now, I am afraid... :rolleyes:

GSM (which stands for GLOBAL Spec for Mobile or something like that) is global, including the USA, as you note. I'm not sure how you can say it's "certainly not global," -- when was the last time you went somewhere where there was no GSM coverage? Given that you can find GSM coverage here, here, and here, amongst many other places, I think its fairly accurate to refer to GSM as "global".

But for everywhere there is GSM service, is 112 always an emergency service response number?

Sounds like someone needed a 20ft Ethernet cable at home...

I had a tiny sewing kit with prethreaded needles taken from me at CDG last Sunday.

There can be GSM service, but it's useless if you don't have a GSM phone. To of the major US phone networks (Sprint and Verizon) are CDMA based and therefore 112 does not work on these (millions of) phones.

And to answer your question :) Japan?

Whatever they take from you at the security checks, always make sure that it can not be used anymore afterwards by the thief of the moment. ;) A bottle of booze: open it before throwing it in the trash can; a cable: find something to cut it in pieces. But I'm not so sure about what I would do with the previously mentioned Gillette cartridges... :p

When TSA confiscated my soldering iron last Monday, they wouldn't give it back to me to destroy. Said it had to be done on the other side of the checkpoint. Funny thing is that TSA has never confiscated anyone else's soldering iron (electric). Suspect that it was a retaliatory confiscation over the shoes on the belt/bin with another TSO that day. TSO Pierce wasn't a happy camper that day.