security (again)

[FLCH-SPD]

Daedalus, I am an employee for one of the airlines at STN and I agree with your post 100%

It is difficult to imagine that you had such a rotten time

I can assure you that Daedalus' account is far from an exaggeration and this chaos was not confined to Sunday 15th. Things have gone downhill from there and yesterday 178 of our passengers missed their flights after having checked in.

In the 6 years that I have worked at this airport, the handling of passengers at central search is the worst I have ever seen it! Even in the aftermath of 9/11, passing through security then must have seemed like a walk in the park compared to that of the past week.

The shortage of staff is only part of the problem, the whole "jobs-worth" attitude that seems to have taken storm with the security staff is a pretty big factor! I heard one of the security agents telling a passenger that the delays were nothing to do with staffing levels, but were due to passengers not sticking to the rules!! What a load of trash!!!

Today I was boarding a flight, and we were missing 78 passengers at departure time. After holding the flight for 50mins, we still ended up offloading 17 passengers, what a disgrace! What makes me laugh, is that the BAA are always banging on about security being their number 1 priority, but it seems that their efforts must only be focused on the screening area because the rest of the time they couldn't give a sxxite! Last week I called to report an unattended bag at check-in, and was told that it would be at least 40min before they could send somebody because all of the staff were working the search area and put the phone down. He didn't ask me where the bag was, what it looked like etc...! Exploding grapes are obviously far more of a threat than an unattended bag. Surely this is basic security! There are security doors hanging off their hinges, doors that don't close properly-it was only last week that I found an FR passenger wandering around the RAMP??????????

I find the whole sorry state of affairs an embarrassment, and I empathize with any passenger who has the unfortunate task of having to battle through this airport. You have my deepest sympathies!!!