Originally Posted by
Alsacienne
Hassle? Needs some definition as for whom. To spring this on ground staff would not be a good thing ... think of the strength of ill-feeling when deplaning FR passengers cannot access the terminal at STN as a starting point.
Think of the strength of ill-feeling when passengers are held captive without an explanation.
to walk across the apron - depends on the distance and any taxying aircraft or other moving vehicles ... could cause delay or put lives at risk ... and what about any disabled passengers on the aircraft?
Other taxiing aircraft and moving vehicles have brakes, which the pilots / drivers can apply so as to avoid putting lives at risks. Yes, of course it could cause delay -- but that's different from "it's impossible"
enter the terminal through some random door - contamination between incoming and outgoing passengers possible, who has the key and who controls the movement of 150+ passengers? Not a good spontaneous idea.
On the overall scale of things, how serious is this risk? I would argue that the risk is immeasurably small. Since the incident is by definition unplanned, no malicious actor would be able to pre-position so as to take advantage of it. Not to mention that security screenings miss something upwards of 75% of contraband in tests, so allowing 100 passengers potential access to the departure area isn't really a big deal.