The politicians certainly like to be seen to be 'doing something', but the millions being spent on airport security screening are, for the most part, wasted.
I have handled ceramic knives and Kevlar knives. They are undetectable by the airport metal detectors. At terminal 4 Heathrow they are very proud of their machine which will look through clothing and see solid objects of a non-metallic nature. However, the machine cannot look beyond skin. I have handled a knife shaped to be inserted into a bodily orifice which the terminal 4 machine will not pick up.
Whatever the security procedures are designed to do, they will not stop a terrorist getting a bladed weapon on to an aircraft. Getting excited about leathermen is futile.
Neither do current procedures have any chance of stopping a bomber. As any special forces man will tell you, C4 military explosive and its stablemate semtex, can be disguised from machine sniffers by the simple expedient of wrapping the stuff in clingfilm. Care needs to be taken in the wrapping, in that the person who places the C4 should not be the wrapper. C4 in a cigar tube inserted into an orifice would never be detected at Heathrow or anywhere else. You have a clock radio in your bag which is set up to take an explosive charge. Would any of our airport security people recognise its purpose. No chance. All you need now is a little help from Hamas, who have been shown by the Iranians how to make a sophisticated shaped charge and you have the means of taking down the flight deck door.
Before I am accused of giving ideas to terrorists, may I remind you that the terrorists devote themselves daily to working out how to achieve their next atrocity. We spend 5 minutes in the cruise coming up with ideas. How many ideas do you think the dedicated terrorists come up with.
If you gave 6 students from an Engineering faculty 6 months to come up with credible ideas for penetrating security, does anyone doubt that they would come up with a multitude of successful methods.
So lets get real on security. It is ineffective at deterring the terrorist although it is very effective at disarming law-abiding citizens.
The only means we have of detecting C4 in clingfilm is by the use of sniffer dogs. They are more sensitive than machines. We could save a fortune by exchanging the present security apparatus for dogs. Even then the dogs are not infallible but they are the best we have.
Next, we need to get it into our heads that the aircraft cabin can be penetrated at will by blade carrying terrorists, even if they have passed through the security screen, so the re-inforced flight deck door is essential. If that is blown by a low yield shaped charge, then the pilots must be armed and trained to defend the flightdeck. By that I do not mean that they should enter the cabin; merely defend the flightdeck. If we do not resolve to defend the flightdeck, we invite another 9/11