For some reason this tread has ended op with the opinions of:
a) I am a pilot and therefore above security
b) Get into line like everybody else
The point I was trying to make is that current security measures are not effective. They are expensive, time consuming, degrading, but other then window dressing they are good for nothing.
Security is in the business of either trying to make it look good, or trying to make some money out of it. If there was a serious point to it, I would gradly cooperate, because it would make me feel safer, but at most airports there just isnīt.
Security staff are not trained professionals. These people are not trained for the job, they are hired straight of the street and put on duty the same day. A few examples of what this leads to: My id concists of an officially approved government id, for which I needed to be screened and the plastic card which my company makes on their PC. Guess which one interests them; yes the nice plastic card (it has bright colors which must attract them). The other day I tried out my expired id, and I had no problem getting in. So i decided to try my airmiles card, guess what.... no problem I was in (I did have to take my shoes of though
).
If you ever have to go to a US embassy you can see what real security is about. It will take you about an hour to get in with a briefcase, but you feel really safe inside. The problem is that this level of security is not feasible at an airport, so letīs stop pretending that it is.
I am wandering when (we) the people will say enough is enough. Every time some new security measure is put in place we have to bow our heads because it is nessecary in the interest of safety. But is it really. I know somebody who runs a bar at my homebase airport. Since we have black labelled water as a terrorist substance he is doing great business. With the price of water increased from 1 euro to 2,50
he is really getting loaded. Why is it illegal to bring in a bottle of water, but itīs ok to buy a bottle of whisky once you have passed the golden barrier. Those bottles are not screened, apart from the obvious fact that at 40%+ alcohol they are dangerous substances in themselfs....
The most utter nonsense must be the code green, yellow, red thing. I cannot remember when we were in code green. It seems to me that we are always in code yellow which is sometimes increased to code red (usually after an attack has been commited
). So the government announces code red, now what am I suppost to do? Look over my shoulder the whole day, checking out all my pax for suspicious people (which I would offcourse do according to the politically correct norm), just call in sick maybe and sit at home in fear? Reality is that this bahaviour from the government only serves to create fear and does not help me at all. If they go for code red (and they probably have good reason to do so), why inform the public......
Last week I was re-reading brave new world. I have to say that we have come amazingly close to the fantasy of a man half a century ago. In some ways we have outpast that fantasy
