Knives OK on planes; soft drinks still a terrorist threat
The Derby Telegraph in Derbyshire, England, reports that a man got a 7-inch knife past the security checkpoint at Birmingham Airport, while his daughter’s soda was confiscated.
The man, Nick White, says he’s a construction worker and he forgot he had the knife in his pocket when he and his 13-year-old daughter went to the airport. He realized it was with him when he approached the security checkpoint and, not knowing what else to do (he didn’t want to just throw it away), put it through the scanner along with the other stuff from his pockets. And no one said anything.
His daughter, meanwhile, had her soda taken away due to the ban on liquids on airplanes.
Once they were on the plane, White thought the whole thing was pretty funny, and he and his buddies took pictures of him posing with the contraband. According to one of his friends who was traveling with them and who snapped the photos, “The air stewards were walking past and saw me taking the pictures. We were talking and laughing about it, not trying to hide it. They didn’t say anything.”
Now, to you and me, this looks like a clear case of the security personnel completely failing to do the ONE THING they’re supposed to do: keep weapons from being taken on airplanes.
But check out the magnificent spin put on it by a spokeswoman for Birmingham International Airport:
“Both the airport company and airline partners feel that Mr White’s actions were incredibly foolish and cautions against anyone thinking of copying such behaviour. There will always be people who either act recklessly and endanger others, or seek attention through the media.”
See that? It’s the guy’s fault! He’s the problem here, not the security guards who didn’t notice a 7-inch knife moving across the conveyer belt in front of them. They’re suggesting he did it all on purpose as a means of testing them. He insists that’s not the case, that he truly did forget he had the knife with him. But guess what, airport? Even if it was just a test: you failed.
Our planes remain free of soft drinks, though, thank goodness.
(BONUS: Because the news article was written by British people, it contains delightful British terms such as “holidaymaker” and “fizzy drink.” Jolly good!)
June 13th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
How about Clamato brand drink? Can you sneak it on a plane? It looks like V-8 but with the added enjoyment only clams can drink. Surely it’s not too dangerous. Please tell me I don’t have to dump my Clamato at security. Please Eric. Please.
June 13th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
At least the flight I was on in March was safe from my brand new tube of Bath and Body Fresh Vanilla Body Lotion after it was confiscated. They didn’t throw it away, though — they took it to a back room where I’m sure all the employees gather after work to divvy up the loot.
June 13th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Birmingham Airport has had more security scares than any other airport in the UK I can think of. It always seems to be the one journalists test, and yet they never seem to learn.
What I truly love about all this knives/liquid nonsense is that I can’t take a bottle of water and my pocket pen-knife onto the plane. In fact, a friend of mine nearly had his car keys taken away because they were “suspiciously sharp”. But I can go into duty free, buy a glass bottle of vodka, take that onto the plane, and then proceed to smash it to pieces and stab my fellow flyers. I’m sure that a little fiddle with a wire somewhere and I could have a Molotov cocktail too. It’s madness I tells you!
June 13th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
The rules about liquids and children are even more ridiculous. Did you know that if you are traveling with children, you can bring on juice or milk, but not water? (And no security personnel knew why.) They also won’t let you hold your toddlers through the metal detectors; you have to stand at least two feet away while they make the poor things walk, terrified and screaming, through by themselves. (But carrying a baby in a Baby Bjorn is no problem.) Airport security is an absolute joke.
June 13th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Oh how ridiculous. It’s so insane, the way the media places blame.
And Amp, I had to take my 2 year old out of my baby carrier at the airport. It was 5 am so she was sleeping too. What a pain.
June 13th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
It’s the media’s fault. Why do you hate America, Eric?
June 14th, 2007 at 6:03 am
I’ve made it through security on two different occasions with large metal scissors in my bag. Once I had given a friend a haircut and tossed the scissors in my bag and forgot they were there. The other time I had been cutting out some laminated stuff for my classroom and put the scissors in my purse absentmindedly. I never realized they were in there, and neither did anyone else, until after I had flown with them.
I have, however, had numerous Swiss Army knives confiscated (the tiny kind that you hang from a keychain that have mini scissors, tweezers, a nail file, and a plastic toothpick). Nice work, TSA!
June 14th, 2007 at 7:18 am
They got her diet coke, but what about the mentos?
June 14th, 2007 at 8:03 am
That is not a 7 inch knife in the picture. Knives are described by blade length, in this case 3 inches at the most. It is a folding pocket knife, not a Rambo style survival knife.
June 14th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
My colleague had WET WIPES confiscated from her on a US domestic flight earlier this year. And on a German domestic flight in April, I had my shower gel, hair gel, shampoo and toothpaste taken off me. It’s madness.
June 14th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
A few months after 9/11 my friend was having her bag searched, and the person checking it made comments about how good the Marjorie Hinckley book was in her bag. Hee hee.
I’ve had water confiscated, yet come home and found sharp objects in my bag. I think if the sharp objects fold up into a metal casing, they have a hard time catching it.
June 14th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
I once breezed through security with my sock knitting needles in my purse: they’re metal, seven inches long, very sharply pointed on both ends, and there are four of them. Also in my knitting kit was a pair of scissors to cut the yarn with, and I had one of those tiny Swiss army knives clipped to my keys. No problem. My sister, poor trusting thing, DECLARED her identical Swiss Army keychain, and nearly missed the flight while they had her fill out a form, seal the knife in an envelope and mail it to herself. And yes, she had to pay for postage. When I flew with my two year old, they made him walk through security, which was fine, but then a guard reached down and TOOK MY SON’S BINKY OUT OF HIS MOUTH, looked at it to verify it was not a weapon, and then handed it to me while my son flipped out. C’mon, people! In what way is a plastic binky a threat!
June 14th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
This is GREAT. We should all collaborate to make a list of the most hilarious things we’ve had confiscated while at the airport. WET WIPES… *snghf*
The only thing airport security has ever robbed of me is my time, and, one time, my flight.
June 14th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Maybe he thought it was one of those new 6-inch steel spike binkies. Babies love those!
June 14th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
Flying from Germany to New York I had my fingernail clippers on my keychain confiscated because they had one of those folding nail file things on em. And it wasn’t one of those good sized keychain fingernail clippers, it was a teeny tiny one.
What did they think i was gonna do???
I’ve been straining the uttermost reaches of my warped and twisted imagination to come up with SOMETHING mischievious I could have done, but I can’t think of anything plausible….
darn Germans….
June 19th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
YOUR WEIRD! YOUR WEIRD!