airport security measures

[Geoff_N]

OK so we all know that there are no planes landing at Heathrow today and that extra security precautions are in place.
But what I don't fully understand is that while untested liquids including milk and water are not allowed in hand luggage, they are allowed in hold luggage. Is there extra heavy duty scanning equipment used for suitcases than for the new scanners used in the departure screening of passengers and their handluggage?

Geoff

[SharonBell]

Since we are flying to Florida today, I am anticipating a strip search. Could be fun!  Mothers, cover your children's eyes, cuz it won't be pretty!

[Ed]

Well, from the mix of reports I've heard on the radio today, the security services apparently fear a fuel/air bomb being assembled on the aircraft and detonated.  They are also concerned that such a bomb might be remote detonated in the hold, and that's why all hand luggage is banned, apart from medicine, passports and baby food - these to be carried in a transparent bag, just in case one of these nutters is carrying a mobile phone to trigger the explosion.  They are expecting chemicals to be concealed in fizzy drinks bottles, lotion bottles, etc., and then mixed later to make a volatile compound.

I don't really see how this fits with the theory about fuel/air bombs, because they rely more on being sprayed in a fine mist prior to detonation than on the potency of the liquid used - petrol works fine, so why complicate matters?

Dunno - whatever - I'm just glad the bastards didn't succeed with their plot.  Imagine the utter carnage if they'd succeeded in bringing down ten planes, as they are supposed to have planned to do.  Doesn't bear thinking about.

[Ed]

I hope you have a pleasant and safe trip, Sharon.  It could be a bit of an ordeal flying today, even on an internal flight - I get the impression the whole world is on high alert today.

[Geoff_N]

You can't take books and papers on either. I am having trouble with the thought of flying for hours with nothing to read! I'm not on a flight for a few weeks, but I hope they allow me a pencil and some writing paper - or I will have severe writers withdrawal symptoms!

Geoff

[Ed]

Yeah - I think banning books is a step past paranoid.  I can see it now, the hijacker, wielding a Harry Potter novel, fans the pages, grabs a flight attendant and screams, "Stand back, or I give her a thousand paper cuts in the name of Allah!"   

I know it's because something could be concealed within the book, but that's always been the case.  C4 is invisible to X-rays, too - it's the trigger mechanism they look out for on the scanners.  Sooner or later, if they're determined enough, I think they'll succeed in bringing some planes down.  When you consider how many baggage handlers and other ground crew there are, it wouldn't be difficult for a terrorist to get a job at an airport and then get himself stowed away in the luggage hold.  The one thing we've got going for us is that these tossers have to die with the people they're killing, otherwise they're committing a sin instead of a sunnah, and that takes away their reason for doing what they do.

Aparently El Al has these restrictions all the time.  I just hope British airlines don't go the same way.  Sooner or later it reaches the point where it isn't worth the hassle and inconvenience for the passengers, and they'll stop flying.

[SharonBell]

We made it safely, were allowed to bring books (thank GOD!) and just followed directions. Some idiot woman in front of us had a cup of ICE in her bag, and she couldn't understand why the security folks were searching her bag. DIMWIT.