Possible terrorist attempt at STN today?

[jettesen]

Just heard on London News, that 2 men were arrested today at Stansted. They were caught with knifes in their handluggage. Were caught at security before boarding a Ryanair flt to Oslo. The scandanavians have got it in for FR!!!! First the handgun, now this???
Any one heard any more?

[The Nr Fairy]

Surely it's 1-1 if we're getting confrontational about it.

If I remember rightly, the Swedes picked up the man with the handgun at security AT VASTERAS.

It seems the Brits picked up these two with a knife at security - AT STANSTED.

[Edited for geographical accuracy - Oslo isn't even IN Sweden !

[Self Loading Freight]

I got my bags searched and an item confiscated a couple of weeks ago, on a flight to Amsterdam. The item in question had cleared security many times before (and was in no way dangerous, but one of course has no right of appeal - attempting to disagree is very counterproductive. I could easily have been banned from flying, and then - hey - I'd be in the same boat (but not plane) as the people in this incident). You lose a lot of what one might otherwise imagine are basic human rights when going through security -- dignity, the right of property and of ordinary justice can be suspended on a whim. But that's another thread!

I'd forgotten my gizmo was there. It was just rattling around at the bottom of a holdall that I often use to carry a mixture of electronic stuff and small tools around. Doubtless the things that were confiscated this time were real knives, but that doesn't mean they were intended for use on voyage.

I don't, as a rule, use or carry knives. Many of my friends -- especially those who live and work in the Scandinavian countryside -- do, to the point (ahem) at which they are as unremarkable as ballpoint pens. Do you know which pens, how many pens or even whether you have a pen in your jacket at the moment?

I would suggest that on the balance of probabilities, the knife carriers have as much to do with terrorism as they do with the 1968 Portuguese entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. Yes, you should always know exactly what you're carrying around when you board a plane, but with flying in Europe increasingly part of everyday life it's human nature to lose the details in the clutter of normal business.

R

[Dave Gittins]

It is all too easy to have the wrong thing about you when you go through Airport Security. A friend of mine lost a pair of expensive hair dressing scissors at Tenerife because although she had remembered to secure them in her hold luggage on the outbound, she had kept them in her handbag for 2 weeks and plain forgot in the scramble going home. There was nothing she could do and was WILD.

I have a swiss army knife and set of nail clippers in my pocket on a permanent basis in the UK and always have to remember to take them out before commercial flight ... and often it's a last minute .. oh sh1t type of suddenly remembered .... I've had them a long time and wouldn't wanna lose 'em. Same with an inscribed leatherman I keep in a Transair shoulder bag that I use for logbook, license, GPS, ICOM spare batteries and checklists. I will lose it one of these days with keep moving it from place to place.

If you see me on the news someday .... honest Guv I didn't mean it ....

[unwiseowl]

BBC just reported six men arrested, not two!

[jettesen]

I think we should point out that it is infact ILLEGAL to be in possession of an offensive weapon in public. So what were the knives doing in a carry on bag????? Obviously the questions at check in are not working. "did you pack the bags yourself?" If you did, then you would remember that you had a knife in there. " have you left them unattended at any time?" " is there anything sharp in there". How can you pack a bag and not know what you've put in it??? Especially when there's been so much publicity about it. What were the knives doing in the bag in the first place???? It isn't that easy to forget what you have packed in your bags surely?

[timzsta]

The BAA and security at STN have come in for a lot of flak recently on another thread on this site. So I think as I have criticised on other threads. I should say "well done" for preventing what "may" have been a terrorist attempt.

[cwatters]

> There was nothing she could do and was WILD.

Perhaps there is money to be made here? Why can't BAA sell jiffy bags and stamps at the security check?

[carbootking]

a news crew araound lunch time set up in the term near me didnt take much notice till the press officer turned up and a pax she then started moaning about how the aircraft she was on had just started taxing on to runway then all off a sudden stopped and went back to stand ware it off loaded people the gist i could work after they switched camera off was a man stopped at security and not allowed to fly then when at police station found he was with others o that plane hence stopped plane and tookj off other people this was wot the press guy told the lady . then i heard this news later.

[HalesAndPace]

I guess carbootking must have been using a BAA keyboard, with no keys for commas or fullstops......I think I get the gist of the post. Did the aircraft return to stand after the pax in question had been stopped??:confused:

[spork]

Aha! A hairdresser has her scissors taken, we all lose our nail-clippers, but a Norwegian is held by police, not allowed to fly, and makes the national news. Oh - did I mention he is a Muslim (http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_817766.html?menu=)? I'd be very interested to know how big the knife is.

[timzsta]

Wot where the "suitable words of advice"? Fly with Scandinavian?

[BEagle]

I have a jolly useful little penknife which has a fully folding 1.7 in blade, couple of screwdrivers, small pair of scissors, bottle opener and can opener. Typical aircrew survival device. It normally lives on my keyring, except that every time I fly commercially I have to remember to put it in my hold luggage. Nearly forgot last time as the check-in lady and I were chatting about how she also used to fly in VC10s...then she asked the standard security questions and I remembered, apologised and popped it into my hold luggage....

But Lufthansa got the last laugh as my case spent the night in Frankfurt, whilst I spent the night in Friedrichshafen with only the clothes I was wearing!