Great pics all. Anyone got any old-skool pics, circa DC-10 era? Or any more good short-haul pics?

Funny that, because I was asked to remove my shoes at Heathrow Airport yesterday morning at the first security checkpoint. It looks like this procedure is a little more ‘normal’ than you thought.

I can additionally confirm that a number of airports have been x-raying shoes ever since the liquid bomb threat. Not sure why Schipol have not been/aren’t. Perhaps their personal x-ray gates are more powerful/sophisticated than others? Did anyone see the BBC news report on the full body scans at Domodedovo airport? Look like a great idea.

Are you suggesting that everybody who passes successfully through a metal detector is not carrying something they shouldn’t be? The ‘terrorist’ who passed through Amsterdam’s lax security with explosives on Christmas Day was not carrying any metals.

Careful not to go throwing wild accusations at an airports security. One of the most important factors in airport security is the security staff knowing what’s going on and the passenger not. It wouldn’t be much of a security system if we were able to suss out exactly how airport security worked. Therefore, I’m sure they are doing their job adequately – if not, maybe US carriers would suspend flights altogether.

So, when a bag has been x-rayed, whatever is inside can legally be carried onto an aircraft? Presumably you also feel that once a passenger has passed through a metal detector, then they too are considered to pose no risk to an aircraft when in flight? Tell me then, what is the point of this second supposedly more thorough check at the gate, which appears to be nothing more than a repeat of what I (and everybody else) had already experienced earlier in the day? We were promised extra security; body searches and bag searches. Frankly, I couldn’t care less if a bag has been through an x-ray machine a dozen times, a bag search should be exactly that – a ‘search’. A quick peek at the contents simply isn’t enough.

Did they swab your bag with a wand and test the swab? If so, that may negate the need to do another full search. Otherwise, maybe they are happy with the scanning x-ray procedures of Schipol security.

No, I’d say it was more ‘mediocre’. A very good check would be subjecting all passengers to the same checks as me. Two thirds of the passengers on the aircraft did not endure the pat down or ‘baggage search’ that I did.

Not that I want to disagree with everything you are saying, but I want to make sure you have a balanced opinion before you start a hate campaign against Schipol security……Take in to consideration the extra resources required to search every passenger. Perhaps this is not possible or it is just felt unrealistic at this time. Also, did you fly (even a month ago) when the pat down was (for example) every sixth passenger? Did you feel safe then? Of course you did, because you had faith in the security (perhaps this idiot last month throws this argument out the window!). Again, they (security) should know what they are doing and what they are capable of.

Find a girl, settle down, if I want I can marry… (though I’m not ready for that yet!)

Also, pay the credit card and overdraft off!

True. If carriers like BA and bmi wouldn’t mind losing revenue from feeder traffic into LHR, some slots could be freed up. I, personally, still think more would need to be done to help ease the congestion and restraints – be it a third runway or new airport.

This person was on the ‘Watch’ list but not apparently on the ‘No Fly’ list . It looks like all these agencies CIA , FBI and the rest of the alphabet soup Security Agencies are still not talking to each other .

Incidentally, I was speaking to a bloke the other day who was saying that he went out to the States about 20 years ago on a 1 year working visa and has only just been deported. He said that after his first year he wanted to stay, so he did (illegally). He even remained working (and paying taxes) for the following 19 years. I questioned that by paying taxes, they must have surely known he was still in the country and over staying his welcome, but he said the IRS don’t communicate to other organisations and that they all have major communication issues in general.

He said he only got caught because he was on a fishing trip in Miami with some friends and while they were offshore the cops found some drugs floating in barrels near to the shore so they roped a whole section of it off for investigation. When the blokes came back from their fishing trip the cops had to stop them to check their papers and picked him up – he now can’t return for 10 years 🙂

If it drifts back in to commercial aviation, will it be moved back?

The flight was a Northwest Airlines (Delta) flight – 253 – from Amsterdam to Detroit on an A330-300 large commercial aircraft, made by Airbus. Northwest/Delta have 21 of these type in their fleet 😀

Had there been a run off area, this may well have been a non event.

Haha, speaking of classifications, I just remembered how we all like to dispute the category of ‘events’. I think this is definitely a ‘crash’ instead of an ‘accident’ or ‘incident’.

Wrong on so many levels. China are sensible enough to limit the number of children couples can have (fair enough, that’s for population limitation), but the UK can be far too generous some times.