Breathe Normally
I read as to how British airlines are now letting people bring laptops on planes again:
[T]he UK authorities announced that passengers will now be allowed to bring a single piece of hand luggage measuring 45cm by 35cm by 16cm onto planes. Laptops and other electrical items can be stuffed into such bags, but will have to be removed for screening. Liquids, except babymilk and medicines, are still forbidden.
So staff at security gates are still confiscating tubes of KY jelly, but people with laptops can cruise on through? Does no-one imagine that a terrorist who can crash a plane with a bottle of Oil of Olay might also be capable of building similar destructive capacity into a laptop? Hell, devote two-thirds of the battery compartment to liquid-explosive-of-choice, and you could probably still power the thing up for inspection as you pass through security. (In fact, the disguise is probably not necessary — plenty of laptops have dud batteries already, so you could just plug the thing in).
I’m a bit conflicted about all this airline security. On the one hand, I think why don’t we just ban hand luggage altogether, for good, if that’s the source of the problem. Sure, it will be a hassle (particularly for those of us who like to fly without any check-in luggage), but it is really such a big deal considering what’s at stake? If the airlines were to put a bit of effort in, they could supply internet-connected computers to passengers who wanted to work on board, stock up on books and magazines and provide some in-flight movies that don’t star Kevin Costner. A small price to pay to keep the planes in the air.
On the other hand, there will always be a way to blow up a plane, even if it gets to the point where you have to line up naked in the departure lounge and submit to a rectal exam by the head flight steward before he scans your boarding pass. People are always scoffing condoms full of heroin to get them through customs — what’s to stop them doing the same with nitro-glycerine? Look for the guy who starts sweating when the pilot announces there’s going to be some turbulence. Also, if these liquid explosives are so effective and so dangerous, what’s to stop someone sticking them in their checked-on baggage? As I understand it, they’re not detectable by normal explosive screening, and the sniffer dogs aren’t trained to detect them. All you’d need is some way to detonate them — perhaps you could use that laptop that you weren’t allowed to take on as hand luggage. Windows Task Scheduler would probably do the trick as long as the laptop didn’t crash before the plane did.
I don’t have an answer, other than to point out that flying in a plane is a risk like it always has been, and no matter what security measures are put in place, terrorism will always form part of that risk. It goes without saying that we should do everything we can to minimise the danger, but it also goes without saying that we can’t eliminate it, and that we shouldn’t pretend we can. Each of the various hoops that passengers are made to jump through in airports could, with all the available information, be classified as either genuine prevention or security theatre. I don’t have a way of judging which is which, but I do think that when there are obvious inconsistencies like the one I’ve outlined above with the laptops, it encourages people like me to think that it’s all a bit of a charade. If the security measures are really going to keep us safe, then sure, bring ‘em on, but if they’re not, then why don’t we stop pretending and accept that we’re taking a risk when we board a plane, just as we are when we take to the road. (If you are about to object that the dangers on the road are different because no-one’s intentionally trying to kill you, I’d suggest that you straddle a pushbike one day and look into the eyes of the Commodore driver who is trying to nullify your existence by sheer weight of horsepower). If the authorities are putting any of their efforts into reassuring passengers, then I think they should redirect those efforts elsewhere. If a passenger is concerned about the risk of flying, then they shouldn’t fly — that’s a perfectly reasonable, rational decision to take, and none of us should have to submit to security hassles simply for the sake of encouraging that individual to believe that air travel is safe.
2 Comments
- mim replied:
I thoroughly agree. I was checked in a couple of days ago in New York by a guy who wasted ten minutes whilst the queue lengthened out the doors and onto the street, trying to decipher my residency VISA for Germany. The guy at the check in desk. In the USA…suddenly these guys feel like they have to check everything, when in actual fact, it has never been his business whether or not I can live in Germany when I get there..I can fly there whever the hell I like, and stay there for 3 months without any kind of VISA, and even if I couldn’t..why the hell is the check in guy thinking he has the right to question me on it??? Even worse was entering the States, and being questioned by the Customs guy, who wanted to know who I was staying with in New York, how I had met them, etc. To which there is no right answer. I’m staying with my girlfriend (wrong..you might be trying immigrate illegally), or a colleague from work? (wrong, you might be trying to work there)..so I end up mumbling something dodgy about the friend of a friend..leading to further suspicion and questioning, and having my photo taken and my finger prints scanned for God’s sake. His jsutification? “Because you come from the other side of the world, that’s all.” Luckily he hadn’t spotted the bottle of water in my hand luggage. (This was pre-water-as-terrorist-indicator..just two long weeks ago)
August 18th, 2006 at 6:54 am. Permalink.
- Francis Xavier Holden replied:
I’m off to HK, Scotland and Ireland in october I’ll let you know how I get on when I get back.
If I forget to shave I have the look of a dark, shifty, olive skinned, huge honk, middle eastern appearance male. Dark glasses seem to add intrigue. Even if I shave. I suppose.
September 7th, 2006 at 10:49 pm. Permalink.