How can banning hand baggage be as crippling as aircraft blowing up in mid air?

Because both occurences (note that these new aarrangements are causing severe delays) both stop the air transport system from functioning viably.

I am not comparing the severity of the events, just the severity of the consequences.

Got it now?

Maybe. But it shows the level of disruption that a perceived threat
can cause to our 'advanced' society! :hmm:

As far as is being reported, the threat was neutralised this morning. So as far as I can see this is all designed to remind the public how scared they should be, and that they mustn't question Tony's foreign policy/police state ID card scheme/immigration policy/insert contaversial scheme here


Talking of Tony, does anyone think it's a coincidence that he just managed to get to Barbados before all this happened?

And since he's away will the Deputy PM be handling things in his absence? God help us... :{ :{ :{

The policy of no liquids appears to be especially relevant here, right down to 'no contact lens solution'. Sounds like the cretins hatched a plan involving liquid explosive, or liquid flammables. :uhoh:

I totally agree, I am in the fortunate position whereby if I dont take my laptop on business travel, I can live with out it, but I know many people who cant.

Definitely.
I do feel for all my colleagues and all the passengers involved, but these measures are necessary, at least to discourage bad people from acting at this time.

Good result,however I have lived with this type of theat most of my life and as our national security do a very good job they have to be lucky all the time and those Bas***ds only have to be lucky once.

Keep the good work up guys and its up to us to be very vigilant.

Rgds

K.I.L.

so are the airlines going to remove all the bottles of Scotch, Vodka etc?

I can understand it can be a problem however I cant see the business chappies among the world travelling by sea.....

Sounds like it. Perhaps they are concerned that the contents might not be what is indicated on the label.

Banning duty free spirits would be a good thing anyway - imagine what damage a few bottles of burning spirits could do in a toilet ceiling. Pax could buy their spirits on arrival at duty free instead.

Jinkster

You need to get your little Britain blinkers off, UK business people may have no chouice, but those from other countries do.

The UK relies on a lot of premium transfer traffic, who can reroute via AMS, PAR, FRA.

Do you think that those travellers are going to be attracted by (a) loads of hassle and (b) the news that somone had a serious plot to blow them up?

No, but those who can avoid travelling will, and those who transit through the UK - huge numbers do to get from the US to Europe, Asia and Africa will change to flights going through another hub - and these will be those paying the most.

I see BA hurting very quickly.

F3G - yes, got it now and before as well.

When the skies are cleared of all air traffic for 3-4 days (as it was post 911 and would be if aircraft started to fall out of the skies) due to the hand baggage restrictions, I will concede you have a point.

If in the USA all liquids are banned does that include water etc?? Surely this is a flight safety issue with crew not having access to that on flights?

Dangerous contents of hand luggage
 

If "stuff" is dangerous in some way, how does it become safe by being put in the hold? Inability to carry car keys with remote controls will cause some grief too!

The problem is with brooches that have pins - particularly today.

Yes, or a broken bottle is a much nastier weapon than a nailfile!



On the laptops issue, I have to say that my experience must be much better than everybody else's - I usually check everything in except for in-flight reading matter, my camera and my flying logbook and licences (if I'm travelling with them); I've yet to lose anything. But, for those who have had a problem, it's probably a very safe assumption that the level of police supervision of the checked-in baggage, during the current fun and games, will be really quite tight indeed!



In the meantime, I'm going to believe that this was genuine, necessary, the threat was real and that even if today wasn't the terrorists planned operational day, it had to be assumed that they might have a backup "go now" plan if part of the gang were rumbled. So, on that basis well done the good guys.



Now my own tiny note of discord. If these precautions have got to continue for long (which I hope isn't the case), please airlines could we have a decent supply of reading matter, pens and scribbling paper on board - or I'll go mad on a long trip!

G

Politicians are making and controlling the news on this one and you can bet that Blair and the Labour Party are spinning this new threat in a fashion that suits their own agenda.

When the skies are cleared of all air traffic for 3-4 days (as it was post 911 and would be if aircraft started to fall out of the skies) due to the hand baggage restrictions, I will concede you have a point.

The 9/11 aircraft did not explode in middair, to refresh your memory, they were flown into buildings killing many thousands, a completely different situation, that's why the US locked down the airspace.

You are making an illogical point and I am not going to waste anymore bandwith arguing with you.

BTW, Heathrow is now closed to incoming flights for your info.

Tom the tenor - maybe those remarks should be put in Jet Blast, and not here?

Jordan