Toothpaste Terrorism?
Departing YMML for points overseas recently was asked to show my little plastic ziplock bag with any fluids or pastes. Mine contained only a nearly empty tube of Colgate (just enough to clean teeth a couple of times on flight).
The knuckledragger inspected the bag and told me "Mate, it's not what's left in it, it's how much it has stamped on the container that's what matters". He was alluding to the fact my 110g tube of toothpaste which contained maybe 5g of contents was outside the prescribed limit of 100ml per item. Or it would have been if full.
I invited him to keep the toothpaste and he then started implying that I had some plot to bring down the aircraft using the empty space in my toothpaste tube. I started thinking I must have caught this guy on a day he had sent his brain back for repair under warranty. I persuaded him to confiscate the toothpaste and let me continue my journey to Malaysia, which after consultation with a second guard, he eventually condescended to do.
What's with this? Where does it say in the regs that it's all about the size of the tube, not how much toothpaste it contains? When it's patently obvious that there's bugger all substance left in the tube, why would they even bother?
Is there any history of toothpaste being used to bring down an aircraft?
This all seems like bureaucracy gone mad.