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IT IS SOMETHING that vexes travellers constantly: airport security.
While nobody will argue that it’s not necessary, fliers often complain about the uncertainty they face at different airports.
Should your shoes be on or off? Laptops in a separate tray or in the bag?
Sometimes, you’ll be asked to do different things in the same airport.
Largely, the direction of aviation security is steered by the US. The US places requirements on countries who wish to send flights to the States to maintain security standards commensurate with the US.
That means that if the US doesn’t want liquids, we don’t get liquids.
The notion of securing an airport is a mammoth one. For example, Heathrow handles around 190,000 people every day, excluding staff.
That’s in an area less than five square miles. So, the entire population of the county of Cork passes through an area the size of Fermoy every day.
No such thing as airport security
However, one expert believes that the entire industry is flawed. And warns it is just a matter of time before something disastrous happens.
Rafi Sela of AR Challenges has applied the strategic design to Ben Gurion Airport, Israel’s busiest international airport.
Sitting in the middle of one of the most threatened nations on the planet and handling 14 million passengers, it is a tough ask. However, it is often called the most secure airport on the planet.
And while you may be imagining sniffer dogs and armed guards abound, Ben Gurion is actually so laid back that it’s possible to arrive 25 minutes before an international flight and still have time for a giant Toblerone in duty free.
Sela says that this is because of something called Trust Based Security.
Whereas the aviation security industry currently treats everyone from a baseline of suspicion, the Sela advocates actively searching for suspects and assuming everyone else poses no threat.
“The only system that works is an idea that finds intent.
“The problem is that this is tricky because the staff are very well trained.
“The US decided they would look for water and breast milk and other stupid nonsense and they don’t focus on the people carrying them.
“The TSA is an enormous organisation that is now looking for water and cologne and have forgot that they are looking for dangerous people.”
That thinking, Sela argues, costs a lot of money and wastes a lot of time.
“99.9% of the flying public are benign fliers – they pose no threat.
You’re looking for a needle in a haystack. And America are looking at each strand of hay. But if I use a fan or a magnet, I’ll find the needle.
The Ben Gurion system can be applied across the world, Sela argues, but it will take a mindset change and a lot of redundancies in the US.
“Even in Israel, they’ve come up with automatic systems. You can come 25 minutes before an international flight and make your plane.
“That something hasn’t slipped is down to luck rather than anything else.
“If you harrassed a passenger in Ben Gurion like you do in Heathrow, they wouldn’t take it.
“I have a biometric passport in Israel and check in takes me 20 minutes. Our system can check backgrounds and can see if I’m stressed.
“Nobody wants to do it because the US would have to let 100,000 people go.
“The machine does the first cut. So if you’re anxious, the machine will pick you up and point you out as unusual. Then the people will look at you and see that you’re stressed.”
However, he says that there is no cure-all.
“There is no 100% security. But the machine is better than people. Screeners get tired, you can only look at luggage for so long.”
I read before that most security measures in airports are to give passengers peace of mind and do little to actually enhance security.
However, taking my shoes off and having my shampoo confiscated doesn’t give me peace of mind. Its just bloody senseless and annoying
i hadn’t flown in years and a few years ago i had €30 worth of shampoo, shaving foam, shower gel and aftershave taken off me by a nazi.
i wonder who gets all that stuff.
They have to destroy it; No way no how can they keep any.
You might wanna know the reason they brought that change in, maybe it will make you feel better maybe not but you should know.
There was a disrupted plot to blow up a dozen airliners over the ocean with liquid explosives, where the liquid was disguised as normal stuff. I agree security can get so stifling that it ruins the freedom it protects, I think the NSA – Aussie – UK surveillance has gone that far, but this is a case of minor inconvenience for a major pay off (preventing your plane from blowing up).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_transatlantic_aircraft_plot#The_alleged_plot
So a small 100ml bottle of nitroglycerin wouldn’t do no harm?
You can do a lot of damage with many different chems of you were willing to find out about them. So really? They shouldn’t let any fluid of any kind on to an airplane
Remember they did 9/11, the biggest terrorist attack in human history, with boxcutters, fake bombs and their bare hands. The 9/11 commissions central finding was the security services and political leaderships had a ”failure of imagination”. We suffer from this still here in Ireland, whenever you suggest we need a few jets people say nothing will ever happen where we need one, if one day a plane crashes into one of those nuclear reactors on the west coast then everyone will be saying why didn’t we have the capability to shoot them down (we have surface to air missiles now, at least, not as good as interceptors but good enough and cheaper at 4m than a dozen jets would be at 100m).
So they had to re-draw the play book after it happened, and the terorrists continuing to adapt with liquid and other such plots has shown it is necessary.
I don’t need shampoo bottles on the actual plane with me, and I can buy a bottle of OJ onboard, it’s a minor inconvenience to stop my plane blowing up.
If you wanna worry about security interfering too much with our lives, I’d encourage you to read ”NOWHERE TO HIDE” by Glenn Greenwald about the Snowden whistle-blowing on mass surveillance, a far bigger problem than this.
Sonny you need to be less gullible, you’re as thick as an american.
Ryan u should read a bit of history and stop believing everything u read in the media if u believe 9/11 was the worst terrorist attack in history , do u think the locals in the Middle East think Americans r terrorists? R do they think it’s perfectly acceptable to invade their country , overthrow their government, take/steal their natural resources, arm everyone possible.
You sure about that? I know for a fact customs workers don’t ever buy cigarettes! I know a custom worker and they take confiscated items no problem. They wouldn’t be able to take 3000 smokes or quantities like that, but 2 or 4 hundred is no problem.
The rules in Dublin airport change depending on who you get at security. I watched them make an elderly lady take off a pair of flat sandals two weeks ago even though she had two knee replacements and couldn’t walk through the detector anyway. My similarly flat shoes were deemed fine. Completely illogical and caused unnecessary stress to an infirm elderly traveller.
Ya it depends if you get someone who’s on a power trip or someone who uses common sense.
I fly two return trips each week, normally ex-Dublin to UK and later in the week UK to Eastern Europe return, then back to Dublin at the weekend. I find the UK the “strictest” with shoes generally off and not a lot of tolerance, Prague, Budapest and Bucharest are more like Dublin.
Strangely though, some of the “yellow packs” at Dublin have their own agenda and it’s impossible to even discuss something. Example, due to all my travel, the ‘wearing out’ or re sealable plastic bags and the impracticality of travelling with a handful of sandwich bags (or purchasing new at every airport), I purchased a clear plastic toilet bag with a little plastic zipper of the same dimensions as “the plastic bag”, it was purchased at an airport, tagged airport security approved and became my companion for liquids on 50+ airport security clearances (incl UK which is strict), until last week a jobs worth argued the toss with me that it must be their type of bag (new one for me) – of course I debated the actual purpose of a clear plastic bag (to see what’s inside) and the bag type itself is insignificant once it meets the criteria – I was threatened with removal from the airport for refusing to comply with a security instruction, unpacked my liquids and placed in their bag – but as a frequent traveller only too aware of the risks this was imbecilic.
DAA search unit have no authority to remove you from the airport, should have told him to f*ck himself
You are probably right, but do you really think the airport garda unit (who would have authority to remove you) would side with a passenger rather than airport security?
I highly doubt the Airport Police/Security would entertain a plastic bag call to be honest, let alone the Gardaí, should have called his bluff, he would have pulled his horns in.
Some of them just like to feel important and intimidate you to the point of confessing to any crime even though you’re a 5 year old!
What I don’t get is passport control between various countries. In Switzerland, it took an hour to get through passport control. I think they were learning off everyones’ details by heart and quadruple checking that the person in front of them was the person in the picture. “Nope, it’s still me. I haven’t changed in the ladt five seconds.
I remember back in 1990 when I was 10, myself and my 2 brothers, who were 12 and 13 respectively, were at Dublin airport, ready to venture over to London for a couple of weeks, first holiday. We were pure excited as we went through security and on to the plane. Everything was fine until we emerged the far side at heathrow airport to funny looks and whispers. It’s only now I see how silly our 3 heads looked with 3 bowl haircuts, wearing 3 matching Italia 90 shell suits,that was bad enough but my oul buck had one on as well. I saw the photographs of that holiday recently, hard to look at. Nothin to do with security really just thought I’d mention it though!
The liquid quantity restrictions are ridiculous, like 99 ml is fine but 101mls is a potential liquid explosive. Drives me mad.
Ben Gurion airport is a dream.
You go to check in, all luggage is x-rayed as you wait. You are then processed and you waltz through with all the water you want.
No hassle no fuss.
The most relaxed Airport I have passed through.
Ben Gurion is fine until your identity gets red flagged over some anti Zi0nist FB comment, you get pulled aside and grilled for several hours even with the possibility of being deported back on the next plane.
You have something to back that up frank? Bluffer.
It is a pretty relaxed airport as in well run and efficient, but still, I don’t think I’d have a go at their security for harassing me…..The security staff are pretty authoritative and them big guns are a pretty convincing way to get me to do as I’m told with no questions asked!
If you’ve had the temerity to have visited the Occupied West Bank or Gaza you won’t find it relaxed, be certain of that.
We went through Heathrow this year and my 5 year old set off the metal detector (no idea how as she was wearing leggings and a t shirt. They put her in a body scanner but she was too small for it to detect her so they just let her go. On the way back we flew through Charles de Gaulle and the 18 month old set it off (in pjs and a vest and nappy) and they used the hand held detector which alarmed at his nappy and let us through without any investigation. We went through Dublin, Heathrow, Kuala Lumpur, Auckland and Paris and all treated things differently. Baby bottles were tested in some places but not in others, had to be in plastic bags in some but not others, sometimes scanned sometimes not. Some places made you take cameras out of bags to be scanned individually others didn’t care. Some let me carry the baby through and others make him walk through some scanned the buggy some didn’t. Surely it should be the same everywhere? I set off the metal detector in Paris in the same clothes I was wearing in Auckland and Kuala Lumpur but didn’t set it off either of those places. And I found a bottle of carpool in the bag that I didn’t have in the plastic bag and wasn’t asked about it anywhere!
My biggest peeve is one I experience every trip I make.
We all know ow the rules of airport security, yet without fail, every time I’m in the airport, there’s someone that lands at security who apparently has never flown before. 1000 layers of clothes on, three bags with enough fluids to rehydrate the Sahara and an attitude to boot.
A couple of months ago, I was delayed 15 mins because a lady, in her late 40s, had a suitcase that contained nothing but jars of jam. She refused to let it be confiscated. Holding everyone up. Another trip, another gentleman carrying enough toiletries to open his own salon, refused to give them up and forced a massive delay while he insisted that a manager come and explain the law.
Passing the first Lady, I couldn’t help but mutter “First time in an airport?”
The rules are stupid. I completely agree. If I was to blow up a plane, I go the airline route. I worked airline for a few years and security is incredibly lax. We used to go for smoke breaks down on the tarmac. If I was going to blow up a plane without airline access, I’d get a load of my mates to bring on explosives in miniature bottles then combine them all in the Jacks when we got on.
I think that a few other commenters got it right in saying that it’s about making passengers feel better, not having to to let so many staff go along with a pinch of not admitting fault and a large dose of public contracts for mates.
I came through Heathrow recently, got on my aer lingus flight, opened my bag and found a full can of zippo lighter fuel and a screw driver that I’d forgotten that I had.
Jesus, they were poor to miss it but you were a complete donkey too. Nobody came out of that one looking too good.
I was 8 when they asked for fingerprints in Shannon. Very weird…..
surely that’s illegal, it had to be the yanks was it?
Well if you are entering the US they will take your fingerprints…done at pre clearance in Dublin and Shannon
That’s not airport security, it’s US Immigration who insist on that.
It’s pre-clearance for US Immigration and Border Agency, you think about it and it makes perfect sense, biometricks are the best way to ensure you know whos coming in and out of your country, fake passports can’t get around that.
Imagine if we did it for refugees in the European Union, we’d see how many are making claims in how many diff states.
It’s not US immigration, it would be NSA.
The hypocrisy becomes more clear when you go on a ferry, you can bring what you want, you can drive on ffs.
That’s because a boat can’t be blown up at 33000ft or smashed into a tower!!!!
no planes were smashed into towers either only missiles
Oh no Tony, you’ve hit his ‘On’ switch.
I think there were planes but don’t belive a few lads with box cutters flew them into the towers
Jesus who’d want to be a Traveller after reading that…..
Careful now or the hiace brigade will be complaining
It’s a fear based enterprise. it’s all about having people living in fear and talking about fear. You’ve a higher chance of dying from an extra-terrestrial attack.
Kinda how the terrorist IRA work. Fear and threats.
lol what decade are you living in you poisonous troll….lmfao. After the ira won democracy civil rights and paved the way for unity they left the scene.
get a life lol
You were clearly born/grew up after the troubles and swallowed a bit of cartoon propaganda.
You should read some neutral material about the troubles era because it was far more blurry and grey than the cartoon set up you just portrayed. Those of us who grew up with peace are a bit spoilt in the sense that we never got to stare it in the face. They might have protected nationalist areas and won concessions but they also:
-Regularly did sectarian killings, despite not being a sectarian organization by dogma
-Failed to phone in appropriate warnings for bombs, or bombed areas with loads of civilians in them
-Killed non-combatants with no political power (Mountbattan)
-Disobeyd their own general orders by firing on Irish state forces
-Killed a mother of a dozen kids (regardless of which story about her having a radio or helping the solider was true it’s still a bad thing)
-Though it was never national policy many of them did dabble in organized crime
-Committed robbings for personal gain (eg the McCabe killing incident)
They also didn’t ”win democracy”, there was an offer of a local assembly with nationalist votes etc back in the 70s. If you wanna get really technical they were in favor of jerrymandering by wanting an all island vote on Unity that ignored the NI border. Unlike the War of Independence they never got anywhere NEAR a public mandate, only a small smattering of backbench TDs. SF is winning significant support only since the peace was done, and for economic reasons moree than the past, in fact the past and so many leaders and TDs having involvement in violence in the past is what has a SF glass ceeling with the Irish middle class they can’t break through, and probably never will until someone like P.Doherty or Mary Lou is leader and the likes of Ferris step down.
They also didn’t leave the scene, they splintered with a psycopathic (but small) breakaway group, the RIRA, planting a bomb and giving conflicting warnings that led people into the path of the explosion, killing more than 30 people wiping out 3 generations of the same family.
The world is not black and white mate, you do yourself and the public discourse no favors by pretending it is.
Aww you’re hilarious.
I really think that the terrorists have already won. It’s our freedoms that are taken away not theirs.
The real threat is airside IMO. The staff and cargo going onto the planes need more stringent controls
yep, it is now, one to watch.
I was told in liverpool airport the other morning to take my air max off as the air bubbles would set of the metal detector. I was baffled.
I travelled back to Dublin from Boston the July before 9/11 went through a very sparse security check, when I was through and turned the corner my mother who was not travelling was behind a low partition and I was able to walk straight up to her, she leaned over the partition and slipped money in my pocket to treat myself to something in duty free.
They where renovating the airport at the time so I presume all of that was temporary but nobody stopped her or even noticed. I flew out of that airport again in the October after 9/11 and when I went through security there was a line of about eight either security guards or army, uniforms, helmets and guns held out on front of them right behind the security scanners. Huge change.
I have travel about 7000 miles a month through different airports .The UK is worse than the US and Ireland is in between both , Africa is very difficult at times but mostly down to corruption. I think if you invade other sovereign nations and murder the population you get paranoid and need more security.
I will say it was once only brown people who got hassle but it’s everyone now so maybe we are all viewed as terrorists now we are all dissatisfied with our governments
Heathrow security is the biggest pain in the ass… Different rules and methods in every Terminal…
The machine picks up if you’re nervous! How does it do that?
Posture, body language. From what I’ve read, it’s programmed to read “stress”. Apparently you can scan for it as its a studied phenomenon that being stressed looks a certain way. Must freak out any nervous flyers though. Can you imagine being stressed because you had to get on a plane and ten Mossad, or whoever pulls you out of line at the airport! Eek!
Trust based security….
I can imagine how this system was dreamt up… Let’s see we need a way to treat Palestinians and Arabs like dogs, cavity search them, interrogate them, basically assume them all to be criminals plotting the downfall of Israel, while on the other hand letting Jews and White Anglo Saxon Protestant Americans through with a smile and wave…
But we can’t call it ‘profiling’ because of the negative feelings, it might add to the western worlds arguments that what were doing is basically crimes against humanity.
I know let’s call it ‘trust based security’ we’ll be vague, imply we have machines and bada bing, bada boom sell the whole thing off with some metaphors about magnets and haystacks.
There is zero security at the entrances to Dublin airport .
It is wide open to a “lone wolf” or Westgate-style attack, which Western intelligence agencies fear the most in Europe.
There is also no visible armed presence to deter terrorists as there is at most airports.
In the past you and your luggage were physically checked and x-rayed at the entrance.
Wait until these coming false flags take place around Europe, getting a train will become just as much interrigating as flying, armed cops with sub machine guns waiting at smart card terminals waiting for those whose registered tickets red flag the system.
*Paid advert for the Israeli Embassy
Travelled to USA in July: Shanon, Philadelphia, San Francisco and then a week later took another internal flight. After the last flight I found a scalpel blade in my handbag, which had never been picked up by security. Left it in my bag and got all the way back to shannon with it………
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