I too have had small knives go through x-ray unnoticed and been surprised to see them at the other end. This week however, I was impressed by the X-ray at Luton for a domestic flight to the Isle of Man.
My bag was selected for search and I supposed it was due to the enormous quantity of computer gear in it. With items lying on top of each other they can be difficult to identify.
After he had rootled through the whole bag, whilst asking the usual questions about my having packed it myself, he said that they could see nail clippers. I said that I would be surprised.
What he found in some remote nook of the (very large) bag was a pair of electrician's side-cutters.
These looked like those large nail clippers with handles about 3" long. The actual blade is about a half inch long. He held them up triumphantly and was not pleased when I said, "Wow, thanks very much - I've been looking for those for ages!" (True)
As they are a very good pair, I did not want to lose them. They let me go back land-side to post them back to myself in a padded envelope!
The
truly amusing part of this is that - I had already checked my bag and placed my Leatherman in the hold bag. ALSO, I had removed a box cutter. I suspect that, had the x-ray found that, they might have been rather more concerned.
The other serious weapon on board, after the litre bottle of alcohol, is a lap top computer, weighing 2.5Kg and made of metal and hard plastic. If that were to be aimed at a person's head, it would have a serious effect.
I agree - we are no safer, or more at risk, than we were 14 months ago. The risks may now be from a different angle but I have lived and worked in London for 25 years, we have lived with post boxes sealed, so as to prevent bombs being placed in them. At one time, every litter bin was a potential bomb site.
I have been half a mile away from an IRA bomb, I have worked in a building that was bombed only a few weeks later. I have heard bombs at a distance. I have been in a building that has received bomb threats. In the course of my work I have had to TAKE bomb threat calls. Friends of mine have been mugged in London more than once. Yet, I have not been so much as mugged or had my pocket picked and no bomb has ever hurt me.
Across 25 years? I guess that it is called statistics.