I sent the following letter to a UK national newspaper a day or so ago. So far no notification of publication. Perhaps if we all sent similar ones plus copies to local MP's, the word might filter through. The "certain UK airport" was, of course, Manchester, where they do indeed seem to make it up as they go along!
Sir
Present day life is certainly full of irony. I very recently commanded an international flight from a certain UK airport to a destination in Southeast Asia and as the now standard prelude to gaining airside and the aircraft, in preparation for flight, ran the gamut of screening by employees of the contract security company currently engaged by the particular airport.
In line with phlegmatic and what looked like long resigned local flight crews of other airlines, I trooped sans belt and shoes through the metal detector in neat formation with my single piece of baggage during its journey through its own metal/explosives detector.
Inevitably, the aerosol canister of shaving foam, the tube of toothpaste and the small bottle of prescription eye drops stowed in the wash-bag that accompanies me on my world-wide travels became evident on the machine’s screen and a well oiled procedure then swung into effect whereby I was deprived of the items by a polite but firm operative who explained that he was just following orders when queried as to how exactly such a deprivation would contribute to the overall security of the flight shortly to be taken by 300 passengers in a multi-million dollar aircraft, the overall safety of which I was directly responsible for.
The exchange saw my bag, replete with banned items, consigned to the aircraft hold rather than accompanying me to the flight deck.
The ironies underlying this by now commonplace tale are that such “nonsensical” (cf. Michael O’Leary, CEO Ryanair) bureaucratic and pointless gestures, on the part of authority, in the name of “security” now seem only to be taken to such absurd lengths in UK and USA – the two nations in the front line of “the war on terror” - and which conclusion results from a work pattern that takes me into contact with the highly professional airport security systems of many other countries that do not see the need for the idiocy described.
Similarly, in common with thousands of industry colleagues, my own background (40 years professional military and heavy-jet air transport flying) has been vetted over the decades by regulatory authorities as part of the professional licencing system and by companies as part of the employment process and both of which are attested to by the production to lawful authority of a professional pilot licence and the now sophisticated company ID card. Ironically, it is doubtful that our watchers and vettors have such attested background.
Of final irony, of course, is that my polite but firm and no doubt temporarily employed security adjudicator, of shaven head and full beard countenance, was from the very UK multicultural ethnic community, an extremist minority of which, has caused the past, current and no doubt future terror furors in the industry. Plus ça change!