Self Loading Freight
16th Jan 2005, 19:23
From Cix, an online conferencing service, reposted with permission.
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I was once prevented taking on board a flight from Chicago to London two plastic bubble guns I had bought in the airport toy shop for my daughters. The guns were shaped like three plastic balls joined together to form the barrel, each ball a bright primary colour, the handle was a clear plastic reservoir for holding water. They were still both sealed in the packaging, which carried the makers details, instructions for filling with water and soap liquid to make the bubbles. The only metal was the tiny friction motor that operated when the trigger was pulled to blow air through the reservoir and into the barrel which resulted in hundreds of bubbles spraying out. I think that they cost about $10 each.
The funny thing was, after kicking up a stink, showing them my
passport complete with stamps for the previous 6 or 7 years showing an average of 6 flights into and out of O'Hare per year, business card (for a Chicago based company - I ran their EMEA ops) AND suggesting that they looked in the shop that was just 30 metres from the security check, they agreed to give the 'guns' to the Captain to hold until we reached London.
Before we left the stand, he came down the aisle with the flight engineer laughing their heads off and making all kinds of jokes about the damned things. They couldn't believe it. Gave them back to me, solemnly but suppressing guffaws, asking the people in the surrounding seats to keep an eye on the potential terrorist in their midst and asking that they inform a flight attendant if I appeared to be 'getting into a lather'. :-)
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The poster said that this was around seven years ago, so well before 9/11. We should have a list of the silliest security stories...
R
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I was once prevented taking on board a flight from Chicago to London two plastic bubble guns I had bought in the airport toy shop for my daughters. The guns were shaped like three plastic balls joined together to form the barrel, each ball a bright primary colour, the handle was a clear plastic reservoir for holding water. They were still both sealed in the packaging, which carried the makers details, instructions for filling with water and soap liquid to make the bubbles. The only metal was the tiny friction motor that operated when the trigger was pulled to blow air through the reservoir and into the barrel which resulted in hundreds of bubbles spraying out. I think that they cost about $10 each.
The funny thing was, after kicking up a stink, showing them my
passport complete with stamps for the previous 6 or 7 years showing an average of 6 flights into and out of O'Hare per year, business card (for a Chicago based company - I ran their EMEA ops) AND suggesting that they looked in the shop that was just 30 metres from the security check, they agreed to give the 'guns' to the Captain to hold until we reached London.
Before we left the stand, he came down the aisle with the flight engineer laughing their heads off and making all kinds of jokes about the damned things. They couldn't believe it. Gave them back to me, solemnly but suppressing guffaws, asking the people in the surrounding seats to keep an eye on the potential terrorist in their midst and asking that they inform a flight attendant if I appeared to be 'getting into a lather'. :-)
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The poster said that this was around seven years ago, so well before 9/11. We should have a list of the silliest security stories...
R