Dear Minister. Your airport security is a farce because...
 

I watch passengers carry cigarette lighters (ignition source) onto aeroplanes every day.

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A very high percentage of your " Security staff " come from....................never mind

most airports have a "tradies door" that permits people in overalls to walk airside without much more than a casual glance at an ASIC from a disinterested contract security guard, yet if aircrew approach the same door they are turned away. Can I wear overalls too?

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after jumping through security hoops (that vary from place to place) I conduct a walkaround of my aeroplane and stop to chat to any number of unscreened airside workers. In full view of the public that you are taking for fools!

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Mr. Buzzy
 

Hate to be the one to further encourage the bees in your bonnet, but I recently qualified in Dangerous Goods Acceptance (as opposed to Awareness), and as it turns out cigarette lighters are permissible - only on a passenger or crewmember's person (not in their bagggage). Sounds backwards, I know, but that is the nature of security regs in this country, as you so rightly point out. :ok:

What mr flappy said.
After being 'randomly selected' again, whilst in uniform, I asked the security person "why do you pick out the crew members all the time". His reply was, "because we have to do a certain number of searches per hour and you guys aren't allowed to complain. It's just easier this way".
Walking through BNE security recently with my wife, she asked me what the security person with the wand does. I told her to smile at the lady and she would find out. She did, and she did.
So if you want to get bomb sniffed at security, just smile at the operator and they'll pick you because you look easier. Frown and scowl and they'll likely ignore you as you pass by. Of course they will deny this, but after the umpteen dozenth time it's happened to me, I'm convinced.

Flappy and Trent....

I suggest you have a close read of the aviation security regs, Australia.
My understanding of them is that they are NOT allowed to wand,search(read HARASS) Air Crew IF there are members of the public that they COULD stop instead.
IF you are the only ones going thru security, then they have every right to ask you,preferably in english, to submit to swabs etc.

LIGHTERS are permitted to be carried on ones person as per IATA DGR table 2.3a

Trent 972; I wonder what would have happened if unsmilingly, you had looked right into the security blokes eyes and replied
''Wanna bet?''

G'day Apache. Had any garlic bread lately?:E

Given that this indicates that the selection of people to screen is not random then a letter of complaint should be written. :suspect: I haven't asked them recently but I will next time I'm 'got' and if that is the response then I'll send some paperwork in.

Of course, eventually the word will filter down to the screeners and instead of giving us the honest answer they'll come back with the 'random' response. :rolleyes:

Pinky, I will not post QF internal communications on a public website, but the memos from 'on high' have decreed that we will submit meekly to any security screening request, as is rightly so. The point I was making is that 'Aviation Security' is not best served by continually selecting aircrew in uniform to be subjected to testing because we are 'easy'. The screening officer records the number of people submitted to swab testing, if that figure also indicated if it was a uniformed aircrew person as opposed to joe public who was screened, then maybe a more representative cross section of threats to aviation security might be selected, rather than who makes the screeners job the easiest.
Apache, I've got more than enough important reading to keep up with now than to read all that crap, especially when I can't/won't argue about it with anyone in public anyway. I'll just post here and hope some journo might think there is a story in it.
Keg, what's the point of complaining. I can see the reply now, can't you.
Just like arriving into LAX at customs, a very formal request, "Sir, you have been randomly selected....." and nothing changes.

there is no difference in the alloy metal permitted on a childs pram yet prohibited on my blunt edged bottle opener.

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a wheelchair is permitted past with only a quick look over yet a roll of sticky tape in my work bag required the "professional opinion" of a supervisor.

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Serious question - can anyone tell me why we now have to present aerosols for inspection? This seemed to creep in at one particular port and now most seem to have followed suit. Aside from the international regs on GLAs, I cannot find anything to suggest that screening of aerosols for domestic flights is required, nor can I figure out what security benefit is obtained.

On asking to see said aerosol, guard glances at it and says "fine". On questioning staff about the requirement, I am offered anything between a disinterested "Don't know" through to a belligerent "We're just doing our job SIR".:suspect::ugh:

Someone once told me that they had to check that the cap was on the aerosol as otherwise it constituted DG. If this was the case, I presume all security staff have been trained in DG Awareness and should be issuing some sort of paperwork that certifies my deoderant as being safe to fly.

None of the Government required signage at security points makes any mention of a requirement to remove aerosols, nor do any of the regulations mention it.

My questions therefore: 1) Who was the git that told these morons that they should be checking for aerosols; and 2) Which git do I speak to in order to have them stopped?

(Today's rant brought to you by Rexona, and my realisation that if I start in on any of the other stupid c&#p that passes as security procedure in Australian airports, I will have an ulcer and a coronary before leaving the keyboard).

Shapel security
 

How about buying duty free booze at KL. You purchase it , it dissapears and then it's delivered at the departure lounge in a plastic bag with a sticker on it for you to carrry on. Checked by who?
But nail clippers at Australian domestics are more of a concern , you could chew through a 737 spar in no time with those babies.
MC

Icarus53
Answer to your question bought to you courtesy of VAustralia. About half way down. (Division 2.2 = Non-Flammable and Non-Toxic gases) You're probably more interested in the next line tho'.
regards

Dear Minister. Your airport security is a farce because...

....at regional airport terminals, the 10ft high steel bar & barb wire topped fence with security coded gate is only a deterrent for those too lazy to walk 50m (where the remainding 5,000 meters of airport perimeter is guarded with waist high fencing wire).

Dear Minister. Your airport security is a farce because...

I consistently walk past security staff who have their backs to the area that I walk through.Watching what? I do not know.

Dear Minister. Your airport security is a farce because...

my favourite party trick that both my colleagues and I like to do is to shout "morning" quite loudly to those guards who happen to be asleep when I walk past at 4 in the morning.

:ok:

Fine. But I'd still inform the Security bloke that I would be lodging a formal complaint! His remarks to you indicate that he/they regard Flight Crew as an easy mark. But then again, I'm not a Qantas employee. Never will be either.

Respectfully disagree with that.

Dear Minister. Your airport security is a farce because...

I fly an aircraft full of knives, scissors, needles, etc... not to mention what is in my flight bag! ;)

Yet I am required to pass through security screening, while ambulance officers are allowed unscreened onto the apron...:rolleyes: