hen asked why, the answer was that x-ray machines can't effectively screen lenses if they are packed with anything else. He muttered some rubbish about the glass affecting the x-rays!!
I regularly travel with various bits of camera equipment and Manchester T3 is the only one, time and time again where my bag gets pushed aside for screening and the agent always says the same thing.. 'have you got a pot of gel in there?' (the first time it happened they were quite adamant and quite rude over the definite - indisputable presence of a pot of gel) - it's infact a camera lens, even when I put it aside in the tray with my tablet and other equipment, T3 always, without fail, pull it up - no one else in the world has ever had a problem with it.
We last went through T3 over the last bank holiday (which combined with half term I'm sure would have made it busier than a regular Friday evening) and the place was full to bursting. Security wasn't too bad initially but we were directed through Lane 6 I believe and pretty much every other bag was being pushed aside after the X-Ray, in the central area between the two lanes there must have been about 30 bags on trolleys, as soon as one got taken by an agent another was put to the back of the queue (some were rightly justified, one women had a hair dryer, curling irons, various toiletries and a portable BBQ in hers!) but many were just opened, swabbed and sent back on their way - whether they were being incredibly thorough/overzealous or taking care of all their random quotas through a single lane I don't know. It did however create quite a blockage at the end of the lane preventing anyone getting through from lanes further along the hall.
Once through security, the Italian and the central bar were both also full to bursting, the queue for the Italian was going back down the stairs next to where you head to the lounges and the bar had queues a dozen deep at every checkout with people stood drinking wherever they could find a space, be that on the edge of Duty Free or into the gate areas - we waited eagle eyed for nearly 2hrs to get a table capable of seating 4 in order to get some food.
I've travelled through T3 a lot over the years, and on the last BA shuttles of the day when the last wave of FRs are all but gone and the baying crowds are thinning it's a pleasure to go through - but when it's busy, my god I'd avoid the place like the plague now.