‘Pointless’ Airport security to be cut?
Thursday 28th October 2010, 2:59PM BST.
Jersey Airport follows the security guidelines set by the Civil Aviation Authority
JERSEY Airport could relax security checks if a national review of current regimes is carried out, following criticisms of needless airport security measures in the UK.
British Airways chairman Martin Broughton spoke out against ‘pointless’ security measures at an airline conference in London yesterday. He said that passengers were subjected to ‘redundant’ security checks, such as removing their shoes and having their laptops inspected.
Senator Paul Routier, the States Member with responsibility for the Airport, said that if security checks at UK airports were relaxed, then Jersey would automatically follow suit. Jersey follows guidelines set by the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK
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It’s not so much the rules that bother me; it’s the inconsistency and downright obnoxiousness of those manning the security points that really get my goat.
Some airports make you turn on your phone others don’t. Some are shoes on, some are shoes off. Some want to see your laptop, others don’t know if an Ipad is a laptop or not. My personal experience with Jersey is one of incredulity at the rudeness and distain which they reserve for passengers. Don’t get me started on parking patrol at the front of the building. The recent comments by the head of BA are spot on. We should stop following the US like a bunch of snivelling lapdogs and make our own, clear and concise rules. After all, the poor souls on 9/11 flights took off from the US!
Now, I am no terrorist. But why go to all the bother of mixing chemicals or ruining a perfectly good pair of trainers to blow up a plane. Why don’t they use this supposed network of terror, club together to buy a machine gun (according to the newspapers, allegedly available in most inner cities), stand at the bottom of a runway and blatt away?
These rules, in my opinion, are there just to make us quake in our boots and accept increased spending and less liberties. I lived and worked through the IRA campaigns of the 80’s and 90s in London and I don’t remember this level of paranoia and fear being propagated.
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And not before time…Still I am sure it keeps a few jobsworth in employment but no use against a terrorist who will have long since thought of a way round
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Agreeing with #1. My main gripe with airport security is the fact that many of them seemed to have graduated from the Hitler school of charm. To be fair I’ve not got much of an axe to grind with security in Jersey. The line is fast moving and they do tend to try to exchange the occasional “good morning” with a smile. The line at Gatwick South Terminal particularly, or ANY airport in the US just makes me want to give up the will to live. You wait for ages only to be met by stern faces belonging to people who relish the power, happy to split up families into different lines on whim and then treat you like a cold blooded murderer if you dare to then try to rejoin your family or question why you have to queue seperately in the first place. Then they cast your deadly mini bottle of eye drops in the bin because they weren’t in a clear plastic bag. Also, why do we have to take off coats? Surely walking through the arch detects anything untoward and why do laptops have to be unpacked but not cameras, mobile phones etc?? Is there any logic?
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Glad to see common sense is back.
That is one of the reasons I hated flying and started using the boat.
Too many jobsworths groping,made you feel like a criminal,treated worse than cattle,herded in and out,step here,take your shoes off,can,t carry this that and the other,cancelled flights delayed flights,you wonder why you ever bothered even going anywhere with the hassle you get at airports.
What used to be a pleasant and relaxing start to a holiday gradually turned into a nightmare in recent years,thanks to the the smiling assassin and his W.OF.M.D
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@Mattg
Having worked at airport security i can tell you it’s a pretty dull job by all accounts, i was barely more than a factory quality control inspector so it’s no wonder some of my colleagues were glum and cheerless
. Of course a few of them love the limited power they have too, just like some honorary police i guess.
Coats – especially bulky winter ones – should be passed through xray, and laptops could conceal all kinds of things from plastic explosives to guns and knives and you could hide these within the laptop case too so it makes sense to unpack it and scan the bag and laptop seperately, big cameras are often requested to be demonstrated as being functional too.
So far no explosives, knives or guns have been used on flights departing from Jersey so my colleagues MUST be doing a great job
.
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Thank goodness i am sick and tired of taking my shoes off. Every airport appears to have different rules and regulations there should be consistency and the staff could be politer.
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I would like to see consistency across the board. Shoes at some airports, belts at others, not sure at all about braces! In the Caribbean recently and they were letting food and drink pass through without it even going through the X-ray machine. Terrorism is an international threat so let’s have standardised procedures the we will be prepared.
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Airport security is covered by international agreement. The big problem with any form of security, is you only know that it hasn’t been done properly when there is a bloody great bang.
Wouldn’t you rather be alive to feel harrased?
The first aircraft hijack was 1921, about ten years later the same pilot became the first person to be hijacked twice. Airline staff, I know from personal experience, use security as an excuse for their own shortcomings.
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At Gatwick recently I mistakenly left a bottle of OJ in my bag as it went through the x-ray. I was rightly stopped and my bag was searched, but the young girl was so busy re-scanning everything else again that she left me with the OJ.
I had to remind her I still had it….she was nice enough to let me finish it though
Retailers all rubbed their hands with joy when liquids were banned over 100ml…..now look at all the expensive “travel size” toiletries you can buy!
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1. Spring Heeled Jack
‘I lived and worked through the IRA campaigns of the 80’s and 90s in London and I don’t remember this level of paranoia and fear being propagated’.
I lived and worked through the 7/7 bombings and subsequent terrorist alerts etc. The level of fear and paranoia following these events were truly, well, terrorising!! With respect the IRA were/are an entirely different kind of terror threat to Al Qaeda. One put bombs in bins/cars etc but never blew THEMSELVES up, (not deliberately anyway). AQ don’t care how they do it and they aim for maximum death and destruction. Personally I think the ‘OTT’ security is a necessary evil. You can’t make an omlette without breaking an egg!!
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Let’s take a step back here and think about why all this extra security (i.e. costs to you and me) are “necessary”.
Seeing as there is one large threat to the West one has to think that if we weren’t stirring up the Islamic hornets nest then they wouldn’t be trying to kill us by blowing up\crashing our planes.
All for the sake of a TAPI gas pipeline from Turkmenistan running through Afghanistan…
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It’s the tick the box attitude that winds me up. Security enforce rules and have no idea why they do it. God help you if you query anything.
Last year I travelled with a friend who forgot to put his 2 liquid items in a plastic bag. i passed through security first. He got stopped – the liquids were in a separate tray, just not in a bag – and security wouldn’t let them through. in front of security I emptied my plastic bag and handed it back to my friend through the ‘gate’. he put his liquids in and of course was let through. What was the point?
We can carry several containers with 100ml but nothing over it. yet when we go through security I can buy a 500ml bottle in the shop. Ideal for mixing chemicals.
I’ve had a nail clippers taken off me in (without any nail-file or knife like object attached) case I hijacked the rockhopper to Guernsey, yet i can purchase large glass bottle which could easily and more effectively be broken and used as a weapon. I guess i was potentially going to clip the pilot to death.
You can’t bring a cheap disposable razor through yet you can buy much sharper razors airside.
The list goes on and on.
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I forgot the worst ‘offence’ of security.
on numerous flights taken in the last 12 months neither i nor my wife have once shown any form of identification. Check-in online and you will not be asked once to show id at the airport.
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@ #13 – Yes. Heathrow Airport didn’t ask for any form of identification either when I flew to Singapore…and I didn’t check in online either!!
The idea of not being allowed any liquids is plain ridiculous. When I fly, I have my very young children with me so that means I must have their drink on the plane for during take-off. The last time we flew from Birmingham, my bag was set aside for manual checking cuz they detected a “disallowed” item. They eagerly pounced on my daughter’s bottle and made either of us drink it but THEY MISSED A LIGHTER in my hand carry (which I didn’t realise till I unpacked when I got home! Why disallow liquids more than 100ml when you can get bottled water to take up the plane at the cafe past the checkpoint??
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Caught i flight from Goa, had my light taken off me due to saftey issues, bought another one on the aeroplane from duty free!!!!!!!!
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You lot complaining about people who are maintaining your security make me sick.
The security is there as the alternative to planes falling out of the sky or public air travel ceasing completely.
I work with explosives and can assure you Jersey airport security are doing their job
2 months ago my wife took her 82 year old mother on holiday; her mother is in a wheelchair.
At jersey airport the wheelchair went positive for explosives as I had handled it 2 days earlier (A job well done by security, my apologies for not anticipating this and washing the wheelchair more thoroughly).
My thanks to Jersey airport security staff who on being presented with this made all the necessary contacts and checks timely enough to enable both mother and wife to catch their intended flight.
I can assure you that 100mlts of even industrial strength explosive is enough to make a Jumbo fall out of the sky.
These people are doing a good job, perhaps if passengers gave them a friendly smile occasionally they would get the same in return. I always do.
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@TonyB
Just to clarify, I think the security personnel in Jersey are mostly actually quite friendly and polite. I totally understand it must be a mundane job so I do sympathise.
However, recently travelling through Gatwick my partner and I were sent in different directions to queue up. When we said “we’re together” the charming lady said “just do as I f***ing say” and grabbed and pushed me into a different line. This is just unacceptable behaviour and goes to show that for many security agents at the bigger airports we’re now all “criminal” just for travelling. The TSA agents in the US are particularly horrid, barking orders with no a shred of courtesy.
To me it still seems odd that we can get on a bus or a tube in London with no security screening whatsoever. What’s the differenc??
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@ #16 PJG: To be fair – Jersey Airport staff are really quite good and polite! Of course we are not doubting (not that I have any intimate knowledge of making a bomb) the security precaution (ie liquids, shoes, laptops, lighters) is for our own good. My problem is the ludicrousness of such an exercise gets pointless as soon as you cross the security checkpoint (ie buy a duty free lighter, bottled water and in the case in Amsterdam, get cutlery??) Trust me I am all for plane delays just so that there is nothing mechanically wrong with the aircraft!!
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I must admit it makes me smile when they ask me to take my shoes off, look down and I’ve got flip-flops on!
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It is the security at the harbour that makes me laugh when you go to France. Cars get searched and large vans and caravans just go straight on the boat. I use the word searched lightly as well. If you think someone looking at the under side of your car with a mirror and asking to look at your engine is searching then think again. And as for airport security asking mothers to take a swig from babies milk. What an earth is that about?
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PJG. Totally with you. Have the memories of Reid the shoe bomber been forgotten about so easily?
Let’s see now-
discomfort of taking shoes off versus
sitting in a burning plane hurtling towards the ground
gosh, that’s difficult
Wake up people, the security services are doing a great job while you sit in your home, but the threat hasn’t gone away.
As for the security staff, never once had a problem, except when I stupidly had a bottle of expensive wine in my carry on and the staff ushered me back to get the bag checked in and escorted me back through security quickly.
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Matt, the security person at Gatwick was as reported, totally out of order. I did my time in avation security at Gatwick, though mostly North. However the reports of today 30th October of suspcious parckets on aircraft does make the point. Before any one points out, these were cargo aircraft,all scheduled pasenger aircraft carry freight. Its the airline bread and butter. As for London tube and buses, well as i drive a London bus I would totally agree with you. The frist bus I ever had intimate contact with had been blown up by and along with an IRA member. On June 7th 2005, I left the King’s Cross Underground about 10 minutes before the bombs went off. The purpose of terroisits is to terrify. Not any high flown political or morale view, It is to terrify and bully. Forcing their view on the majority. How much are you willing to put with inconvience, or are you prepared to take a risk? That’s something every person must ask. Just don’t blame others if it goes wrong.
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The problem is the inconsistency in approach, especially between jersey and guernsey. Both should be same surely however you can leave Jersey with shoes on yet come back through Guernsey and shoes have to be removed.
Have generally found Jersey staff to be very pleasant although Gsy tend to be miserable and struggle with basic manners!
The news today further highlights the inconsistency with Gsy now having banned toners and ink cartridges in hand baggage although no mention of Jersey doing the same?
Have to remove laptop from bag yet can leave iPad in bag in jersey yet Guernsey want both removed – how does that make sense
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I’d like to thank the Airport and Harbour security staff for thier always friendly attitude – sometimes to passengers who dont deserve it.
It might be helpfull for those that winge to understand that a terrorist only has to “get lucky once”- the security people have to be lucky every day.
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