Security...what a joke!

[ph-ndr]

Originally Posted by canadair

The current state of "security and screening" is probably the result of high level meetings held on the subject:
So, we need to be seen to be doing something, what is really obvious every time it goes through the machine?
uuhh, little tiny scissors? yup, knives?, oh ya, nail file? yes! Guns? well on the rare occasion some idiot has one, certainly.
OK, and of those items what does almost everyone have?
well not too many people have guns and knives on a daily basis, but you know we see little tiny scissors and nail files in pretty much every bag!
Well, then we have our solution, an item we can confiscate from almost every passenger, now we look like we are REALLY achieving something!!
Right then, little tiny scissors and nail files it is!

( has anyone seen a valid survey on how many homicides are the direct result of a nail file on a yearly basis?)

Well luckily due to the extreme diligence of the current security staff this can no longer happen, but in previous ( pre 9-11) years had the purser called up to inform us that the aircraft had been comandeered by a nail file wielding gang of thugs, I would have been laughing too hard to make a valid decision!
However the solution would have been easy, as most FA's used to have as an MEL item at least one massive! nail file, said group would have been out gunned anyway.

In fact this may all have deeper conspiratorial roots, it may actually be a massive behind the scenes lobby by the press on nail people,
Take away the means to perform much needed nail maintenance, and the sales will soar!

I think you'll find nail files stemming from the same worries that were post 9/11, looking at the way the attacks were carried out and the "weapon" used. This way pretty much any object loosely fitting this description. This is as with other turning points in aviation security a completely reactionary method, and as numbers can tell, it seems tohave worked. People are aware that any number of strangely normal objects have been used in commandeering an aircraft, thus a long list of things have been prohibited, and this makes granny feel safe about flying.

This is a system designed with the security angle of making the layman feel secure, not a system deisgned to make an aircraft a location where it is impossible to combine bad intent with dangerous objects. That kind of security is what you find in banks, where the items to be secured is money in its immediate form and it is mostly physically impossible to gain access to significant parts of it and get away without going to extreme lengths. A big difference between the bank's pile of money and the 9/11 attacks is the aspect of reuse, which makes the proposition of taking that security model across to the airline/aircraft/airport world.

-A