Security at Terminal 5 (Heathrow)
 

I'm actually in the terminal at the moment. The good news is that the queues for security were pretty short. The bad news is that the person I had to pass by was the stereotype of the rude, unpleasant and unhelpful security officer. Not just for me but he seemed to take delight in making up his own rules for every passenger and then becoming quite aggressive if, for example, a mobile phone was not placed in its own tray o pass through the x ray machine.

I was so annoyed that I sought out a supervisor. In some ways this has made my annoyance worse. I identified the security check number and the initial response was "I'll go to speak to him on your behalf". I watched him head off and then, after looking around to see whether I was watching - I was sneaky enough to have stopped behind a pillar - he walked away laughing with another worker.

In some ways it is such a pity. I should be praising Terminal 5 for efficient security procedures. Instead it appears, in the hackneyed phrase, that it has an institutionalised culture of customer contempt that reaches beyond more junior operators up to higher levels.

Did you get the offending person's name? All airport johnnies must wear an identity badge.

Even if you did not, each "line" in the security areas has a number, so that and the time of the incident should suffice when you make your written complaint to BAA.

As BAA don't apparently give a toss about how the pax are treated as long as money can be extracted, I doubt that anything will happen. Even a reply is something I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for.

Although sent to Colin Marshall and marked 'personal' might work

radeng
 

Colin Marshall. How very dare you. The best CEO in BA history IMO. Me thinks you mean the highly incompetent Colin Matthews CEO of BAA.He couldn't manage a walk round the block never mind a FTSE 100 company. I'll never forget his performance in front of the govt transport committee after the T5 opening. Mr. Marshall was a total difference of how to run a company.

A Classic Colin Matthews story..

When he became a BA Director he decided to gatecrash our Ops conference (planned weeks before) and regaled us all with his history of firing staff at Ford.

Went down like a lead baloon.

I've always found it amazing that some people (mainly men IMO ) get themselves into very high positions in large companies on the back of what? Colin Matthews is a good example it seems to me. He runs one of the most incompetent companies in this country, and what happened just before xmas 2010 at LHR typified this totally. To have a main runway at one of the most important five airports in the world out of action for 4 days was completely inexcusable. For him to then come onto national TV to say he wouldn't be taking his £500k bonus was complete arrogance. Mr. Matthews - just run the bloody airport well - its not difficult. His answer was to buy £50M worth of snow equipment in the middle of March!! The clever people in this world are proactive not reactive:ugh::ugh:

Ianjlloyd

Real shame you didn't video it on your phone. Next time perhaps? I would still write in though. Good luck:D

Juan Trip

Sorry, I meant Matthews.

My thoughts on his and BAA's performance are basically libellous.

There's almost certainly a special BAA by-law whcih prohibits this:ugh:

Farci is right

BAA Heathrow: FAQs: Filming, photography and recording

I'm surprised that they haven't got complaining in writing a criminal offence. Probably because they haven't thought of it yet.

We should all just accept that mobile phones in a tray with your loose change etc are as dangerous as toothpaste not in a plastic bag, a laptop still in a briefcase, or a belt still holding up your trousers.

The rules are there for our safety :hmm:

Radeng
 

I'll tell you what. That phrase they have at the top of their website is 'potentially' libellous.( Alledgably.)

Making every journey better.

Mmmmm. Jury out on that one I'm afraid

Went through T5 security about 6 hours ago and had the most cheerfull people looking after the tray system and arches.

When asked if I had a laptop in my laptop lookalike bag, I explained no, it's a cpap machine. Oooohh, no problem sir just put it in the tray with the bag closed, and off she went to tell the person watching the xray screen it was coming through.

Try going through LCY.
Makes BAA @ T5 look like the best and most polite security in the world!

RJ.

JUAN TRIPPBeing pro-active is soooo last century. What has happened in the last 25 years is that people are paid for different reasons. Briefly ...

Then: Learn the business; Work your way up the company, learning from all and (hopefully) helping all; plan ahead and budget for worst case. If it doesn't happen - you were ready for it and the business ran smoothly. You got a bonus because nothing went wrong.

Now: Get a degree in 'management'; get posted into a company half way up so that you have no REAL WORKING knowledge of how the biz functions. Save money, cut back on routine maintenance - if it was done every month, make every other month; if it was 6 months, make it 9 etc. Keep a record of all the money that you save to impress the bosses. Move on. IF THE WORST HAPPENS WHILST YOU ARE STILL THERE then:-

Rush in and 'fix' it. Be there 24x7, sleeves rolled up to show the boss how hard you are working (the staff already know) then spend most of the money that you would have spent on planning and routine maintenance. Try to impress the shareholders/interested parties, how much you are spending so that 'this never happens again'. Make sure that everyone above you knows that it was you that fixed it and collect your bonus. Then move on quick.

Simples.

Nothing compares to Security Staff in Atlanta...especially trained for your traveling pleasure by Ingrid and Hortense's House of Pain and Pancakes in Amsterdam.

Pity about Atlanta. Haven't been through there since 1987: they were very friendly but did want to see what the big bottles were (large size olives - couldn't get them here). Then ended up with three of them chatting because they had relatives in the UK.

Copenhagen is a pain: Frankfurt somewhat less so. Nice is fine: they have this habit that as the queue grows, they open more gates! I think T5 shut them....

The unsound thought that crossed my mind in T5 4 weeks ago was that if Profiling were ever introduced, and done properly, all the security staff would be selected for the exercise well before any of the passengers around at that time.

But we are not allowed to say such dreadful things, and so my lips are sealed.

I'm sure that they are recruited and checked out by BAA with enormous care, with a thorough investigation into every single person's background, rather like the MoD Positive Vetting process which took 6 months when I was PV'd. After all, I have worked for BAA and so I should know.

If not, the whole process would be rather futile, wouldn't it?

Capot,

I am sure your tongue is very firmly stuck in your cheek!!!

You do have to question why airport security exist. The obvious answer is to make flying safer. But how exactly? By preventing little old ladies from taking knitting needles onto aircraft? Seeing if six year old girls are carrying prohibited items on behalf of those they are travelling with? Or is to to force those with malicious intent to chose a more elaborate method to circumvent security procedures? The trouble is, until profiling is implemented as a security measure we will always be vulnerable to attack. The bad guys don't need much in the way of equipment or tools to do damage. All they need is intent, intelligence, knowledge, training and just a little but of luck. The gormless prats in security have proved time and time again that they haven't a clue what a terrorist looks like - just so long as he's not carrying a yoghurt of mass destruction they'll let him pass.

PM

On the BBC yesterday there was a story about some idiot trying to hijack an Alitalia flight with .... nail clippers.

Yet another thing that will be (again?) prohibited air-side - probably inconsistently throughout Europe and the Americas

Pregnant white Irish females?And profiling will magically render us invulnerable? If bearded Arab-looking men know that they are more likely to be searched thoroughly, will they will still be too stupid to find others to carry their contraband through?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Piltdown Man http://www.pprune.org/images/buttons/viewpost.gif
By preventing little old ladies from taking knitting needles onto aircraft? Seeing if six year old girls are carrying prohibited items on behalf of those they are travelling with?

Pregnant white Irish females?

A little more history on this one would be appreciated.

Try this:

Nezar Hindawi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But Nezar Hindawi wasn't picked up due to screening at the airport. It was due to people using some common sense. She was bought a one way ticket in cash by a suspicious man. She had already been identified as suspicious prior to arriving at the gate.

Horrible attitude
 

I just had very much the same experience. Short queues but the most foul woman directing people. Very rude and didn't even seem to notice her behaviour was unacceptable in a civilised environment. When I asked why she was so cheerful I got "I told you in English it is very simple" ! and all I did was stand in a line. Sadly visitors see this as the ugly face to the UK. :=

A couple of years ago friends of mine, two respectable well-dressed and well-behaved professional middle aged couples, flew LHR-YVR on BA in Club World through T5 which had only recently opened. The point I'm making is that they are not exactly the dregs of humanity!

Wife 1 was picked out for a random search. Fair enough. Husband 1 decided to wait until the search was done, not interfering, just waiting. I think that's fair enough too, but he was rudely told by a security 'official' to 'get moving, nothing to see here'. His reply was : "I believe I have a right to wait here until your colleague has finished with my wife. If I'm wrong, please call your supervisor to explain why I can't wait."

He was then told to : "Get going before I tell you in simple four letter words which you might find easier to understand ........"

The way that his ensuing complaint was dealt with by BAA was disgraceful, and by BA, exemplary, even though it was not their fault.

Although I rarely fly on BA, I have to say that I have always found every aspect of T5, including security, to be a joy. I don't know if I've been lucky or if others have been unlucky. In fact, if I did resume regular flying on BA, it would be because of T5.

The link in an earlier posting about photography and filming no longer works.

Here's the new one : Heathrow: Location filming and photography

What it carefully omits, is a specific statement about how they would deal with an individual taking a family photograph at the airport. By implication, my understanding is that this is not allowed and I wonder how the high-viz clipboard boys would deal with such a situation. Would they turn a blind eye, or would they use it as an excuse to bully and intimidate members of the public?

The rules are intended to prevent someone profiting commercially from filming on BAA premises without so much as asking. There was no intention to prevent anyone taking a family photo in the terminal. However given that many of the yellow jacket brigade are, shall we say, not possesed of a good sense of judgement, many enjoy stopping people doing what's not supposed to be against the rules. I have been screamed at on the ramp at LGW for daring to take a photo of a Dash 8 I was about to board, but most times people glance and see there is no harm.
What happens like all regulation, is that over time, it is vulnerable to mission creep and the law of unintended consequences.

Possibly .......... but nowhere does it expressly state that the intention is to regulate commercial photography and that private photography for personal records is allowed. Or am I missing something?

It really is all relative.

Mrs Strake and a Strakeling had a requirement to transit Domodedevo last week. In front of them at security was a family of Mum, Dad and two kids - all obviously inexperienced with the joys of air travel. They were from one of the CRS satellite countries and Russian was plainly not their first language. The procedure for taking off belts and shoes, etc was not understood. Ludmilla, the "arch" operator was being generally rude and unhelpful by shouting at them. Her final comment to the wife ,loosely translated, was "Go back again you stupid unthinking person and take your f*****g watch off..."

Now, about T5....?

The T5 lot seem to be getting slightly better. The obviously UK born (you can tell by looks and accent) are usually somewhat better than the rest. But still nowhere near as good as Nice.

Agreed, but if the intention was really to stop people taking photos, a sign saying "PHOTOGRAPHY PROHIBITED" would be up there tomorrow, along with an automatic voice barking orders.

Also regarding T5, I always thought that all gates had access to International Arrivals but I now hear that the stands used for domestics (~ 501-506) do not and arriving international passengers are bussed. Did things change or are they not able to keep the flow sterile, even given all arrivals and departures are segregated.

May have relayed this one before, and it was a while ago - but the outline is correct:

Quiet weekend afternoon, T5, very old and frail lady in a wheelchair accompanied by a nurse and a leather case nearly as old as her. Only me and them in the security channel. The bag was thinner and narrower than 'allowed' but maybe 2" longer. At the X-ray machine 'You'll have to go back and check it in.' The old lady did not really understand what was going on. The nurse asked (very politely) if an exception could not be made. 'No exceptions, etc'. I asked the screener if she had no discretion, and we immediately got into the 'if you talk to me like that you'll be in trouble' place. I walked away. I'm still ashamed, both that my country has such a mean and spiteful culture these days, and that I felt powerless to challenge her.

What do they do if the man being screened loses his trousers as a result of no belt? Especially if going commando........

It must have happened.....

Yes. A great deal is made now of:
"We take very seriously the right of our staff to work without intimidation and....etc.etc". Unfortunately there seems to be very little recognition that respect is a two way street. Instead this laudable duty-of-care principle for employees becomes a cloak of invincibility for the more high-handed and arrogant among them.

A sigh of exasperation when the tray keeps moving even while one is in the middle of retrieving one's possessions (yes, the particular infuriation of the T5 system)? One may as well be a drunk brandishing a broken bottle.

She probably had no idea what the word meant and reacted as if you'd asked if she had no underwear/deodorant/intelligence.

Exactly, and I've sometimes pointed this out to these boneheads. They don't see it.