Base - SE UK major airport.
I have never taken my watch off and even when I have beeped I have never been asked to remove it. Recently I've had some numptie wipe his hands roughly all over my uniform jacket as though it were a towel even when it hasn't beeped. How long before we have tubs of vaseline and endoscopes behind a screen? I'm not joking!
Until we started positioning regularly as pax about 3 years ago I never flew without my Leatherman tool which includes a 3 inch blade. In the nine years since Sept 11 it was spotted twice and on both occasions allowed through as it is a tool of the trade. However, this is a shocking indictment on the ability of "security" to spot such things. If I fly 200 days per year thats two spots in 1800 scans. Utterly appalling, imho.
The ludicrous obsession with metal indicates the total absence of reason or logic in this process. The internet is full of ads for ceramic knives, but then knives are no longer a credible threat to security after that daft door was fitted to "negate" that threat...right...?
The obsession with liquids too is totally irrational, esp the morphing of "liquid" to include solid mascara and allowing risotto but confiscating rice pudding as happened to a colleague of mine recently...
A few days ago I watched a contractor take a big toolbox and a 25litre bucket of paint through out security channel, neither were examined, nor are the police festooned with weapons. A TV documentary trying to get actors in fancy dress through security would be a hoot!
Would anyone notice if I lined my flight bag with 2-3mm of plasticene (aka Semtex)? I VERY much doubt it. What does that tell us about the point of all this harassment?
I agree entirely about the excessive intimacy of current search procedures, I have been very close to crying sexual assault on a number of occasions and when I've told the goon to back off I've received no reaction whatsoever, they're obviously taught to ignore such advice. A 999 call will probably change that though.
Anyway, as we all can see this farcical harassment is so utterly pointless as it catches nothing, puts off no one and is only there so if another atrocity happens our craven politicos can slope shoulders and cry in unison, "It wasn't our fault, look at all the draconian procedures we put in place to prevent it, you can't blame us". There are a thousand easier and more practical ways to get nasties onto an aircraft, starting with airport service vehicles which cannot be searched.
Then look at the stupidity of the traffic barriers around our airports, STN with its battleship-built tank-traps - and a hundred yards away the airport is "protected" by a chainlink fence.
Futile, pointless and an utter waste of money - except for the vast and ever growing "security" industry which has a real vested interest in ever increasing this idiocy to big up their business.
Call me a cynic if you like, but am I wrong?
Last edited by Agaricus bisporus; 5th Aug 2012 at 11:16.