Aviation security overdone?

[Tex]

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/06/18/3527383.htm

 

Leave your guns at home everyone...

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

Emerald Qld has just been upgraded security wise to meet this deadline. When there's a Q-Link or Virgin plane in, there are people in fluorescent yellow vests standing around everywhere, watching the car park, pedestrian crossing, drop off points, entrances & exits and patrolling the terminal, decked out with ID, ASIC, & other tags. Inside they are scanning everything. But the silly thing is that the Council (who own the airport) are planning a separate area in the terminal for charter passengers so they don't have to go through security, even though these flights go to Brisbane and other regional airports. I got off a charter flight from an unsecured airport this afternoon and we just all trooped to a side gate at the Emerald terminal and wandered off unchallenged. I regularly pick up & drop off to this airport - the staff numbers have gone through the roof. What I don't get, the people who have easy access to explosives (mine workers & drillers) are the people who won't be checked because they get on a chartered jet. The Mums & Dads going for medical treatment, holidays, weddings, conferences, business trips, public servants, trainers, - these are the ones getting the full treatment that means booking in an hour before the flight and sitting in a "quarantine" waiting room for ages. My other beef is that there are few places that you can see planes through the fence, and these have "no standing". The airside is being screened off from the land side around the terminal & parking areas.

 

The charge for each adult passenger getting on or off an RPT has gone up to $19 (children $9.50), RPT charges are $12/tonne (Fokker 100 = $552, Dash 8 = $228), security for passengers is "contract + 10%" what ever $$ that is. So all this protection, although farcical, is not cheap. It is added to the cost of the ticket. Charter used to be the dear option. I priced the 2 RPT flights to get me near to where I needed to go - $806 to $1,166. The charter seat on the company plane cost us $505 and got me right to the town I needed. Charter used to be the dear option. I despair.

 

Sue.

 

 

[Tex]

An amazing joke that is not funny in the slightest....

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

Here ya go, air terminal of the future:

 

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At a terminal being renovated here at Love Field, contractors are installing 500 high-definition security cameras sharp enough to read an auto license plate or a logo on a shirt.

 

 

 

 

Doesn't seem so much interest in bus depots or cruise liner terminals....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[boingk]

I like that the article is putting forth the view of it all being excessive. I believe it is, too.

 

Hell, all the more reason for us to buy, maintain and fly our own planes.

 

Cheers - Enoch

 

 

[winsor68]

Airport security won't let you through with a knife in your belongs... which really doesn't matter because KNIVES ARE PROVIDED inside at the business class lounges!!!

 

How could anyone doubt that the whole airport security measures are a BIG fat joke and that the laugh is on us the paying public!!!

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

yeah, but there was butter that wasnt feeling too threatened by The Q Lounge knives, they make the $2 shop disposable knives look positively luxurious......Now the platinum lounge....maybe they have better knives, but given that you spend more time flying than the average crew to get to that rank (assuming you arent prepared to pay a 2nd mortgage on your house to buy your way in) maybe its not that much of an issue.......

 

In any event you are trying to apply logic to a completely illogical set of constructs that are more driven by politicians pandering to emotion than any facts!!

 

Andy

 

 

[winsor68]

In any event you are trying to apply logic to a completely illogical set of constructs that are more driven by politicians pandering to emotion than any facts!!

Andy

So true... so illogical.

 

I can assure you the knives provided in Virgin Australia lounges are top notch... lol

 

 

[dazza 38]

I have a FIFO job.I fly between Brisvegas and Roma every two weeks. Brissy is over the top and very anal, when it comes to security. Eg- WTF is the idea, that i have to take my Lap Top out of its bag? Also , watch out, my steel cap boots are loaded.Take them off and put them through the xray machine.

 

At Roma , no security.Just get the ticket and walk on. Double standards. I guess country folk are more trustworthy than city Folk.

 

Anyway as mentioned above-That is going to change as of 1st of July (at Roma). We are going to get stuffed around at both ends now.

 

 

[Tex]

It is a very bad joke... I had to empty my carry on out of Brisbane to Cairns because I had a (very nearly empty) roll of electrical tape... it was confiscated WTF!

 

 

[kaz3g]

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/06/18/3527383.htmLeave your guns at home everyone...

Yep. One cement mixer truck, 5 tonnes Nitrim fertiliser and 500 litres diesel would take out a whole city block if parked in the right spot.

 

One little Cessna or a RAAus aircraft wouldn't do much at all.

 

The court I work at has security guards but the do their job low-key. We don't have x-ray machines or baggage checks and we have virtually no trouble because our clients are treated respectfully. No doubt many people coming to courtr a carrying weapons, especially those living on the street, but they are not out to cause trouble. Some arrive with a brown paper bag to cover their bottle of " orange juice" and leave them at the front with the guadsm to collect after court -- if they haven't been locked up!

 

But when I go into Melbourne, everyone has to submit to the wand, their bags a x-rayed and more. I know I feel almost violated by this assault on my integrity and I wonder what it actually achieves.

 

We seem to have become a nation of pussies.

 

Kaz

 

Kaz

 

 

[facthunter]

It is BS really and always was. I dont disagree that there should be some surveillance but most of this is DUMB. I'd like to see some way of detonating the stuff while the person walks through a strong blast proof room. (alone).. Nev

 

 

[Flygirltam]

I travel every week for work, spend alot of time taking off my shoes, removing my laptop out of my bag and hoping I haven't forgotten to take my tweezers out of my carry on bag. What makes me laugh is when they bomb check the pilots .... seriously if they want to bring the plane down, they just push the stick forward!! LOL

 

 

[Tomo]

This is why I like flying in PNG

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

As kids we get to hear that childrens story about the emporers got no clothes.......we have to be told the moral of the story because at that age when things are black and white it seems inconceivable that anyone could be so dumb as to conform and just fit in ignoring the truth........

 

Yet us regular corporate self loading bagage idiots conform to the "emporer has no clothes" every time we fly....... In fact when I shop for shoes, the first thing I ask is, does it have a metal support rod in the sole...if it does, no matter how well it fits or looks I simply wont buy it...... so I dont have to remove the shoes at the security check, similarly a belt with a bigass buckle is definately out.....

 

recently I purchased a DVD rom for a desktop computer from MSY computers near my office in Adelaide (they are too dear in the country) but I put it in my wheel on bag. I had my computer bag, laptop and ebook reader out seperate but got dragged over the coals about the internal DVD rom. The clown on the X-Ray knew exactly what it was but had me pull it out seperate. I could see the screen and Im buggered if I could see why it had to be scanned seperately, the detail to me looked exactly the same.

 

So the question Ive always had, childish as it is....those Males and females that feel the need to pierce themselves allover with metal rings and chains and things.....including a whole bunch of unmentionable places.....what do they do......(reaches into underware while extracting a few rings to go through the X-Ray machine...."excuse the bodily fluids")

 

What utter B/S how on earth did we get to the position we are in now where this is all accepted as just normal practise?

 

Andy

 

 

[boingk]

What utter B/S how on earth did we get to the position we are in now where this is all accepted as just normal practise?

Wankers, mate... plain and simple. Wankers.

 

That, and corruption. Old mate in charge of policy development has an interest/mate/family member in security or a perhiphery BS service and thinks they'd do better if he implements some C.R.A.P (Cretinous Rules And Procedures) which mandate the use of their products/services.

 

That... and apathy. People will whinge and moan but not actually do anything or bother to find out why they should. [rant] Example - I was in final year of university when the election for the current govt was on. People thought they'd tell me just how great Labour was. I was doing a Bachelor of Social Science - Criminal Justice, and thought it appropriate to inform them of why they were wrong. Most were not impressed. Several years later and guess who's right... yeah that's right... the guy who told you right at the beginning, the guy who actually knew what he was talking about, and from things other than empty election promises, too. [/rant]

 

On body piercings, my father doesn't have any (that I know of) and used to regularly get stopped at detectors due to, we suspect, a large amount of old-style metal-type dental work. Modern detectors can distinguish the size and location of objects so are generally calibrated to avoid such incidents but I remember clearly one time he was made to out-turn all pockets and take off shoes, belt etc... and still triggered the detector! We eventually apologised profusely and ran to our flight as it was leaving in some minimal amount of time... good old Dad still setting the detector off as we ran through.

 

Cheers - Enoch

 

 

[johnm]

I was catching Qantas at Emerald and the 2 pilots with the braid and hats walked to the door to go airside

 

One of the airport satff had to swipe the door to let the pilots out

 

At that point the airport staff made a great point of showing the pilots her ASIC card .................... apathetically ? the pilots then showed their cards (which they wear around their necks anyway) to the airport staff ? - mindless

 

Sigmund Freud might say it's sexual ? - I'll show you mine if you show me yours ?

 

All I can say is I am glad airport security don't wear six shooters - there'd be a stack of dead bodies in the corner

 

 

[kaz3g]

I travel every week for work, spend alot of time taking off my shoes, removing my laptop out of my bag and hoping I haven't forgotten to take my tweezers out of my carry on bag...

Handbags!!!

 

I have become so frustrated with the court security in Melbourne x-raying my handbag and then doing it again and then asking me to remove some supposedly suspicious item, I now just tip it all into one of their plastic bins and hold them up while I restock it at the other end of their machine. Aarrrggggghhhhhh!

 

Kaz

 

 

[boingk]

If I were the pilots, I'd be saying something along the lines of:

 

I've got clearance, and a job to do. Get out of my way or I'll report you for obstructing a commercial flight.

 

For some reason people tend to do what I ask when I get stern with them... must be something about being 6'2" and cut like a suit hahaha...

 

 

[johnm]

to be sure to be sure - Dazza 38 - Roma will get a X ray machine one day - you can bet on it - Emerald just recently got one

 

Boingk - at Emerald when they were going thru my pack .............. looking for sticks of TNT (no doubt) - I had my ASIC card on me and showed them - they said 'it don't matter - you are not exempt from the search even with an ASIC card' - security kept on looking for 'the bomb'

 

 

[sain]

The thing I find deeply sad are the signs up at Sydney airport warning people not to make jokes about airport security. From memory it even says something stupid like "its illegal". It'd be fascinating to see them attempt to prosecute it

 

There are reasons why they do most of the stuff.. the laptop take apart thing came about origionally because of explosives being packed into one. Eventually they wound that back to take it out of the bag (so they can tell that the "internal" bits they are seeing arn't just copper/lead foil in the bag). These days the scanners are high enough resolution that they can determine that anyway. *shrug* who knows why they are still doing it.

 

 

[Zibi]

I guess the main thing with security for planes is that once the plane takes off there is no way to get on or off from it until it lands.

 

That means that if there would be any hostage situation to happen, there can be no police / special forces intervention until the plane runs out of fuel.

 

That being said I think most of the airport security is getting over the top. Most of it was implemented to make the governments look like their doing something in the war against terror (not that you can define that as a war anyway) to keep the public focus out of internal issues for a while.

 

One think I'm grateful for is that the worlds is still a bit behind the US where you can be groped, but can't grope them back: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/19/carol-price-woman-accused-of-groping-tsa-agent_n_1609223.html ;)

 

 

[dodo]

The thing I find deeply sad are the signs up at Sydney airport warning people not to make jokes about airport security. From memory it even says something stupid like "its illegal". It'd be fascinating to see them attempt to prosecute it

It is true, and has been successfully prosecuted. The reason it is illegal is that in our culture, the usual protest against these stupidities is by making jokes. So the jokes were made illegal.

 

However, there is a very true saying that you can't legislate for stupidity...

 

I got some very dirty looks for saying to my elderly mother (loudly) about the bloke looking self-important with a bomb dog - "Look Mum - that cops got a guide dog!"

 

He didn't say a word, but the look I got...so I just looked innocent and dumb at him. He wasn't happy.

 

dodo

 

PS all quite true and accurate, except the bomb dogs are not really dogs, they are more correctly EDCs (Explosive Detection Canines). I had to do the accounting for their dog food once, so I had to learn the terminology.

 

 

[Yenn]

Governments are getting good at raising the cost of everything, just to make it look as if they are doing something. Don't worry about the war on terror which isn't a war. They are good at re defining things we all understand, such as war and marriage. What will be next? Retirement, that time when you work for no money until you drop. Democracy, that government such as the UN with the power of Veto, or maybe when you don't get a legal chance to not vote for a lousy politician.

 

 

[Guest Howard Hughes]

I travel every week for work, spend alot of time taking off my shoes, removing my laptop out of my bag and hoping I haven't forgotten to take my tweezers out of my carry on bag. What makes me laugh is when they bomb check the pilots .... seriously if they want to bring the plane down, they just push the stick forward!! LOL

I love being checked at major airports and being found to be 'clean'. I then tell them not to worry, we left all our scalpels, pocket knives, scissors, needles and drugs on the aircraft!