View Full Version : Stainless Steel Cutlery on Air China!
d2k73
25th Nov 2005, 20:04
My parents were on an air china flight from Bangkok to Amsterdam today in a B747, they informed me that when they were served dinner, stainless stell cutlery was provided. I am shocked at this and in my opinion the sheer disregard for the passangers on bored any many below. Just wondering has anyone ever experianced this and is this legal?
Cheers
Danny
d2k73
25th Nov 2005, 20:19
I should have forseen that this thread would attract such immaturity!
pigboat
25th Nov 2005, 20:23
No chopsticks??
Stainless is more or less standard fit with many airlines today.
Surprised that many object to this, as it happens every day.
What else is new?:p
d2k73
25th Nov 2005, 20:44
I hadnt realised that this was standard practise as all the recent flights i have been on have used plastic cutlery. I really thought since 9/11 airlines stopped using stainless steel cutlery for obvious reasons....
nwuklad76
25th Nov 2005, 20:59
You are quite right. Post 9/11 the department for Transport (dft) as did many other countries banned all airlines from using any metal cutlery on board. I worked in security at the time and can remember having to have all the airside catering outlets remove their metal cutlery too!
As the years have gone on items such as these have now been allowed back if airlines wish to use them. Passengers are also now allowed to carry innocent grooming articles such as nail clippers and nail files now too, as well as rounded end scissors.
Lets face it though there are plenty of items loaded as standard safety and service kit that could be used to cause far more harm than a fork or a very small table knife!!! I mean.... airlines were never made to stop using champagne flutes or wine glasses were they!
Safe flying everybody!
reverserunlocked
26th Nov 2005, 02:21
KLM World Business Class is steel cutlery. They oddly store the cutlery packs in the fridge (along with all the other cold stuff, dessert etc) until they prepare the meal service and holding the fork hurts as it's ruddy freezing!
Do you really think that someone is going to hijack an aircraft with a dinner knife??
We restarted using steel cutlery in 2002.
Mutt.
slingsby
26th Nov 2005, 04:40
No, nwuklad76 is correct. As the years have passed, everything is returning to a near normality as far as "on board" items are concerned. Even in late 2002, metal cutlery was the norm for our F/J pax when operating away from any euro destinations.
Genghis the Engineer
26th Nov 2005, 07:47
One suspects that most people have realised that 9/11 is now so much a part of our cultural knowledge that NO set of airline cabin passengers will ever allow such a thing to happen again - although I'd rather not test it, I suspect that even if you turned up with a machete now the pax would most likely throw themselves in front of it. (Personally I'd try to use the floatation seat cushions as a shield).
If anybody here has ever studied martial arts (if not, I run a club about 20 miles West from LHR and you'd be welcome to join us) will have been taught that a knife is the most dangerous weapon anybody is ever likely to come across (and VERY dangerous, it takes little skill or strength to kill somebody with a sharp knife). But, to take a suitably blunt table-knife and make it genuinely dangerous would require a fair bit of time, the actions would be impossible to conceal, and also you'd require tools which almost certainly would not be possible to smuggle on-board a cabin (and if our terrrorist had, he'd probably (and sensibly) use them as a weapon instead).
So, I'm with Air China and others, stick with sensibly designed stainless cutlery. One assumes that steak knives are still banned !
G
It seemed to me that the serrated edge of a plastic knife appeared to be sharper than on metal. Banning metal after 9/11 was not necessary in my opinion.
Globaliser
26th Nov 2005, 12:29
1DC: It seemed to me that the serrated edge of a plastic knife appeared to be sharper than on metal.Agreed. One of my regular airlines' plastic cutlery is much better for eating with than most metal airline cutlery I've ever encountered, including that airline's own. Just doesn't look quite as good.
BRUpax
26th Nov 2005, 13:21
Glad you mentioned that 1DC. The thought had struck me many a time during the past years. One airline I regularly flew with would provide a (sharp) plastic knife and a stainless steel fork! You might not be able to kill with such a fork (open to debate though) but you could cause quite a bit of damage to the eyes.
Dream Land
26th Nov 2005, 15:37
I was based at the busiest airport in the world after 9/11 and could bring a fill in the blank through my security gate on any given day, the TSA was only for show. Staff not forced to go through any xray. At my current intl. base the bags are scaned but not the pilots.:oh: :oh:
SLF@LBA
26th Nov 2005, 15:52
I think that you'll find that your parents were on China Airlines (Taiwan) rather than Air China (Peoples Republic of China) as CI fly the route AMS-BKK-TPE.
LB1985
26th Nov 2005, 18:41
What about glass duty free bottles? One or two of those would probably do more damage than an airline knife or fork.
SkySista
27th Nov 2005, 09:06
Just this week i nthe enws in Aus, a bit of fuss when a pollie made the comment about wine glasses. Fair right though, knock the end off of one of those and it'd do more than any knife!!
PAXboy
27th Nov 2005, 12:20
d2k73 This subject has been debated many, many times here in the past years and the answer is fairly consistent - metal cutlery is the least of your worries.
I have always found plastic to be sharper, it has to be. Because you cannot exert as much force on the plastic before it breaks, it MUST be made sharper to compensate and fulfill it's purpose.
Airlines are very happy to bring your weapon on board for you. A litre bottle of spirits will work well, when broken across someone's head. But they also encourage me to bring my weapon of choice on board. So much so, that it features in every advertisement: A lap top computer. Some of the big ones weigh 2.5kgs and that is a useful weapon to bash people over the head with, before you threaten others with the broken bottle.
Don't let people on board and no one will get hurt.
I stand to be corrected, but I believe the destination is the overriding factor with the ‘choice’ of cutlery.
If my memory serves me correctly on TG (in first & business) ex BKK to LHR it’s plastic, to FRA it’s plastic knife, metal fork, to CDG, JKT, SIN etc… it’s all metal.
INLAK
28th Nov 2005, 08:08
Ever broken a CD/DVD in half??......sharp as a lance.
strake
28th Nov 2005, 08:58
What about a rolled-up newspaper or a stick ? Lethal at close quarters...lethal.
The main weapon of course is surprise. Surprise, fear and... Sorry, the TWO main weapons are surprise, fear and a ....
The THREE main weapons are surprise, fear and a fanatical dedication to the Pope...well, maybe not the Pope anymore.
Sorry, I think I've made a Spamish Imposition.