Airport Security

GingerBob_3

Recently at a UK airport I observed operatives in the Security Theatre moving freely from landside to airside and back, i.e. not passing through the metal detectors. Surely this is a major breach of security, or am I just being overly cautious in my thinking?

Blue264

Could you be more specific please? Which airport and who do you mean by 'operatives'?

GingerBob_3

Blue264 wrote: »

Could you be more specific please? Which airport and who do you mean by 'operatives'?

I'll not name the airport at this point, but by operatives I mean the security staff.

London50

As far as I know all the security staff at any airport are well vetted prior to getting the job so SHOULD be cleared not to use the scanners.
I understand your thinking re this but like with all air side staff the risk IMO would be minimal :0)

GingerBob_3

London50 wrote: »

As far as I know all the security staff at any airport are well vetted prior to getting the job so SHOULD be cleared not to use the scanners.
I understand your thinking re this but like with all air side staff the risk IMO would be minimal :0)

Possibly. However, if this sort of thing was seen at, say, an airport in Egypt I'm sure it would be worrying to most people.

richardw

Their airside/ land side demarcation may be different to passengers, are they going back before the boarding card check line without being checked?

GingerBob_3

richardw wrote: »

Their airside/ land side demarcation may be different to passengers, are they going back before the boarding card check line without being checked?

I didn't see them do so. I just observed them bypass the metal detector, but one assumes thereafter they have relatively free reign. I did later see one of them "deep" in airside.


It's easy to imagine various scenarios that would compromise security. For instance, someone brings a gun past the boarding card check and passes it to a member of the security team in the general mayhem that constitutes the long pre-screening queues. That security person then bypasses the metal detector and passes the gun back to his accomplice, airside, at a later time.

London50

GingerBob wrote: »

Possibly. However, if this sort of thing was seen at, say, an airport in Egypt I'm sure it would be worrying to most people.

I agree but if I remember correctly there was a delegation sent from the west to see just how the airports {I believe in Egypt} re this very problem and to help advise/threaten the country that if the problems were not sorted then flights to those places would be curtailed/stopped.
I thought when I read your first post you were talking about the UK, I for one would not be pleased to see that type of thing going on in areas that have or have had "problems" in the past.
I suppose that we all take a chance these days where ever we go as you are just as likely to find the fanatics in your local shopping cerntre/train station ect as you are in what we look on as a secure and close watched airport {just remember the Glasgow attack a few years back} :0)

Moto2

London50 wrote: »

As far as I know all the security staff at any airport are well vetted prior to getting the job so SHOULD be cleared not to use the scanners.
I understand your thinking re this but like with all air side staff the risk IMO would be minimal :0)

That's not the case
No one is exempt, even drug dogs need to go through or be thoroughly searched

lisa110rry

A person with a pacer will not go through the "tunnel", but will be patted down instead.

Not so very long ago, a lady forgot and went through the "tunnel" and soon after died because her pacing was affected.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11247611/Woman-dies-after-airport-scanner-interferes-with-her-pacemaker.html

London50

Moto2 wrote: »

That's not the case
No one is exempt, even drug dogs need to go through or be thoroughly searched

As I said "AS FAR AS I KNOW" , I do not have much in the way of dealings with security as a law abiding person, still searching a drug dog would not take long even for the most stupid person:rotfl: