rsuggitt;
What is your aviation experience? Your profile suggests none
Have you ever worked on a busy airport ramp?
Have you seen the procedures to get airside as a ramp employee?
I seem to remember recently a major supermarket chain having to shut most of it's stores due to an implied threat. (just can't remember what the threat was)
A series of suicide bombers in major supermarkets at 5pm on a Friday would cause panic on an unprecedented scale as well as possibly thousands of deaths.
If the government insists on continuing with it's current blind reaction then all airports are going to have to provide seperate crew screening areas. One major carrier is already looking at the problem from the point of view that they are in danger of losing working hours from the shifts of highly expensive personell, with the potential losses that implies.
I was delayed yesterday because an engineer who had to come from base to my aircraft for a very simple check took nearly an hour to get through security. Maybe if the airport concerned had all the security channels open, or a channel for staff the delay could have been avoided.
Airside staff, be they pilot or shop assistant can't change the system, only those in charge can, and frankly I don't think they give a s*** about the problems they have caused. They needed to be seen to do something, so they did. Sadly they did the wrong thing.
VH