The next victim in the war on terrorism — the duty free store?

by Scott Carmichael on

Not content with merely harassing passengers at the security checkpoint, German police and pilot unions are calling for a ban on the sale of all flammable products at airport stores.

The ban would include most perfumes and beverages with a high alcohol content. The ban would even extend to disposable razors and metal cutlery at airport restaurants. Of course, a ban like this would most likely be the end of airport duty free stores, who depend on alcohol sales to pay the bills.

A spokesman for the police union had this to say: “The security interests of citizens need to have priority over economic interests”.

Sadly, when we start going down this slope, anything and everything that could potentially be used to start a fire should be banned. Say goodbye to toilet paper, plastic luggage and many sun tan lotions. The concept of naked passengers suddenly seems less insane.

The demand to cease selling these products reminds me of the in-flight entertainment ban that lasted just two days after the Christmas day bomb attempt. Any time there is a (botched) terror attack, people are always quick to point out what they think could be the best way to prevent a repeat.

Body scanners wouldn’t have caught Northwest bomber

by Sean McLachlan on

Here’s another hit for airline security. Not only have we discovered pat-downs aren’t effective, now it turns out that full-body scanners wouldn’t have detected the Christmas bomber on Northwest Flight 253.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was overpowered by passengers and flight crew after trying to detonate nearly 3oz of the chemical powder PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate) hidden in his underwear with a syringe containing a liquid accelerant to set it off. Neither of these items would have been detected by the scanners because they use a millimeter-wave technology that´s only good for detecting dense objects such as metal, plastic explosives such as C4, and thick plastic. Powders and small amounts of liquids can’t be detected.

Conservative Minister of Parliament Ben Wallace, former adviser at the defense firm Qinetiq, which developed the scanners for airport use, said that in test trails the millimeter waves passed through not only clothing, rendering it invisible, but also liquids, powders, and thin plastics. The very things Abdulmutallab hid in his nether regions to avoid detection in case he got patted down, which he didn’t.

Wallace said that x-ray scanners probably wouldn’t have worked either.

The machines’ limitations were confirmed by Kevin Murphy, product manager for physical security at Qinetiq. The company is developing an improved version.

Last week the Transportation Security Administration ordered $165 million worth of millimeter-wave and x-ray scanners at about $150,000 a pop.

What are the odds of a terrorist attack on your flight?

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Well, that’s a rather unsettling question to start your day, isn’t it?

Fortunately, blogger Jesus Diaz is here to reassure you: You are twenty times more likely to be killed by lightning than a terrorist attack. (Somewhere, a Congressman has just asked a staffer to start drafting anti-lightning legislation.)

In an entertaining infographic over at the gadget site Gizmodo, Diaz writes that over the last ten years, there has one terrorist attack for every 27.2 million hours flown, or about one every 11.2 billion miles in the air. That’s the equivalent of over 24,000 trips to the Moon and back.

See? Nothing to worry about. Carry on with your day safe in the knowledge that the odds are overwhelmingly on your side.

Check out Gizmodo’s chart here.

Argument over elbow room results in flight diversion and 30 day prison sentence

by Scott Carmichael on

We’ve all been there – you get to your seat, and someone else has already taken ownership of the armrest, which includes part of your space. In most cases, a quick smile and “hi” is enough to create a mutual understanding on sharing the one and a half inches of precious space.

Sadly, not everyone shares that concept – like 31 year old Khodar Ahmad. This Toronto man was on his way to Frankfurt when he got into a fight with his seatmate. His attitude was apparently aggressive enough to warrant a flight diversion to Montreal, where he was kicked off the plane.

This is where the story takes a really interesting twist – Ahmad was lucky, because even though he caused a flight diversion, the cops were not waiting for him in Montreal. So, instead of being arrested and forced to pay a fine for the flight diversion, he was simply left on his own. At that point, this idiot should have counted himself very, very lucky.

Instead, he waltzed over to the Air Canada ticket desk, and demanded that the airline put him on another flight, or even a bus back to Toronto. His scene caught the attention of the local airport police, who arrested him. He’s now in a Montreal detention center where he’ll spend the next 30 days. It is pretty impressive to do something so monumentally stupid once – but twice in one evening takes a very special kind of stupid.

Homesick Indian man locks himself in airplane bathroom for a free trip back home

by Scott Carmichael on

An Indian man working as an airplane cleaner in the Saudi city of Medina was feeling so homesick, that he locked himself in the bathroom of an Air India plane for a free trip back home.

The man was discovered 30 minutes into the flight, most likely when the flight attendants unlocked the bathroom door to allow passengers to relieve themselves. The 25 year old man was not carrying his passport, as the cleaning firm he was working for, had taken it away from him (most likely to prevent an incident like this).

Air India points out that there was no real reason for concern, as the man had to clear airport security before he could go to work. Once in India, he was arrested and booked under several sections of the passport law. It is very unlikely that they’ll send him back, since he is an Indian citizen. The procedure for getting the plane ready for passengers only involves an announcement asking ground crew to leave the aircraft, and not an actual check that they do so.