Security checks

[Wot No Engines]

This is not intended as a gripe over what happened to me today, but as a real concern over security. This was on a QF flight from Adelaide to Sydney.

I have flown over 40 sectors in the last 5 months - including several from Adelaide, each time carrying a security cable for my laptop - so I can lock it in hotel rooms, etc. It has been inspected several times and passed - until today.

It now seems to be considered a weapon - apparently, it can be used to tie someone up :hmm: (This is what I was told). No problem with that, however, I was carrying about 10 other items that would have been just as effective for that purpose (if not more so).

Belt
Tie
removable shoulder strap
modem cable
network cable
etc

Should all of these now be banned, or are we being subjected to over zealous, random, inconsistent prohibited items ?

I just want to know whet is allowed and what is not.

Is the same the case elsewhere ?

[Pandora]

Wotno,

unfortunately we are rapidly progressing towards a world where eveyone on a aircraft including the pilots will spend the whole flight stripped of all their possessions, tranquilised and tied to the floor for their own safety. I appreciate that certain things can be used as weapons, indeed a women's self derence course I went on once showed us how to use virtually anything in your handbag as a defensive item. The problem is that security is not a highly paid profession and so lists are made to help the hard of thinking decide what is a potential weapon and what isn't.

Let me give you a few examples from where I work. I alsways used to carry a small spoon in my flight case because the ones that came with our breakfast trays are rubbish. It was confescated on the grounds that cutlery was banned. Knives - yes. But a spoon? On another occassion the security staff threatened to take my sewing kit off me, as a sewing needle could be used to disabled someone. I pointed out that on SEP training it was recommended that your pin on your namebadge was the correct thing to use to force down the oxygen masks if they did not drop automatically. Logically a namebadge pin was as dangerous as a sewing pin, yet it could be used in a ememrgency situation. What were they going to do? They let us keep our sewing kits and badges.

But the best one was the absolute terror that has overcome certain security staff that the flight crew may attempt to kill each other with the fire axe. Their proposal was that the axe should be located on the outside of the door (ie the potential hijackers side) in order to prevent the dangerous pilots having it. They nearly got away with it, too, until one of our a/c had a fire in the cb panel behind the copilot and needed the axe to access it with the fire extinguisher.

I know this has not helped in answering you question 'what is allowed?' But I hope it provides an insight into what you are up against every time you pass through security.

[Pax Vobiscum]

Wot No Engines

Had the same question a year or so ago at Stansted. I managed to convince the security person that garrotting somebody with a laptop security cable was not a major threat!

My guess is that it all depends on who's asking the questions whether you 'get away with it' or not. Some consistency (at the same airport, never mind worldwide) wouldn't go amiss.

We all get a long list of "dangerous articles in baggage" with our tickets (so I no longer carry lead acid batteries or fireworks :D) - it would be helpful if a similar security list could be produced.

[newswatcher]

.....and there was me thinking that just switching on my lap-top during t/o or landing was a threat to flight safety. Now just off to make some "Wind & Fire Wheels" out of my spare CDs. :=