 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I did have the inexperienced security staff query my climbing rope (not sure what they thought I would do with it) and my son's climbing rack. To give them credit they had never come across this before so weren't sure what to do so they called their supervisor over. It made me smile that they didn't query my rack or my son's rope. The supervisor said OK no problem.
However I did discover buried in my rucksack a pen knife that they never noticed. And a pencil which I could have used to stab someone. I have seen people with crutches and knitting needles on planes
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I had a small roll of electricians insulating tape taken away from me as a "risk". Because, apparently, I could have tied someone's hands together with it. Shocked
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Did they take your shoe laces as well?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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2 of my sons were stopped at GVA security, one had an indoor firework and the second a flat phone battery.
They let one off and charged the other.
... getting coat.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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A toddlers cutlery set for a 12 month old, designed so they are so blunt a 1 year old can't damage themselves. Confiscated by Gatwick security.
The weird thing was on the return trip we'd accidentally put the first kit into hand luggage instead of the hold and it featured a set of razor sharp first aid scissors. That was allowed.
Also had a bottle of Stroh Rum 80 confiscated by Austrian security (in the days when you could still take liquids in hand luggage) as it was too strong and a fire risk. Apparently the weaker ones would have been fine.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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My emergency plastic orange whistle. Was going mountaineering in reasonably remote area, shop-wise, and couldn't replace it, so that was annoying to say the least.
Apparently I could have brought the plane down by deafening everybody. Doesn't matter that there's already one under everyone's seat...
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A jar of Oxford marmalade. Apparently it is classed as a liquid. I offered to open and hold it upside down over my head but they still took it!
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@welshskier,
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I offered to open and hold it upside down over my head
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Then it would have been classed as a gel, and confiscated
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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From the opposite side, just after 9/11, I was behind a couple who were arguing at check in. They were having great difficulty understanding that their son couldn’t take his fairly realistic looking and sized toy M16 machine gun on as hand luggage, and it would have to go in the hold..............
I also had an unopened bottle of water purchased from a vending machine at the gate confiscated, as I went through the gate.
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| Grizzler wrote: |
My emergency plastic orange whistle. Was going mountaineering in reasonably remote area, shop-wise, and couldn't replace it, so that was annoying to say the least.
Apparently I could have brought the plane down by deafening everybody. Doesn't matter that there's already one under everyone's seat... |
Good grief. My plastic whistle lives in my rucksack permanently and has never been confiscated.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Not confiscated, but coming back from Vail, via Denver we caused a major alert at X-Ray. I'd been over in HQ in California and received a Special Award for 10 years service, which included a glass obelisk about 20cm high with the appropriate details engraved on the glass. My wife had flown from the UK out to Denver, me from SFR, and we did a week in Val on the end.
My wife had the obelisk in her hand luggage. I passed through fine with my wife behind me, and then all the security staff froze, and two armed guards walked towards us moving their hands to their pistols. "Whose is this bag?" I quickly point to my wife. "Ma'm, STAND STILL, and please confirm this is your bag." She says it is and moves towards them saying she's happy to unpack the bag. "NO ONE MOVE". They reach into the bag and carefully remove the box, then take the obelisk out. They all relax and laugh.
We ask what's the problem and they show us the X-Ray image: the glass of the obelisk blocks and refracts the X-Rays so it looks solid - with serrated edges - just like a large Bowie knife.
We're chucking over the incident a bit later, airside, when a guy walk past with a bow and arrow, wrapped in bubblewrap. Sometimes, it just doesn't make any sense.....
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I had a small roll of duct tape confiscated at Bournemouth a few years ago. Perhaps they thought I might fix something with it. They didnt take the lengths of the same tape, taken from the same roll, that were holding my rucksack together 
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I've had a 2cm long screwdriver bit from a leccy driver confiscated.
I have gone through with a foil sachet containing pre-fab fondue (the consistency of plastacine when cold) though. To me the packet couldn't have looked more like plastic explosive if I'ld tried. One time incident, as it tasted pretty average when I used it so I've never bothered again.
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You know it makes sense.
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Think the tape think is pretty standard tbh, I've had a roll of parcel tape taken.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I once had a set of Jump leads taken off me .............
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Poster: A snowHead
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Shortly after the shoebomber heightened security I had a perry whistle attached to my ski jacket confiscated. Yes the exact same whistle found on every lifejacket under every seat.
Rationale was " You might blow it and cause a panic". The irony above did not seem to persuade the muppet who went into full " I'm stupid but NEVER BACK DOWN mode".
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Grizzler wrote: |
My emergency plastic orange whistle. Was going mountaineering in reasonably remote area, shop-wise, and couldn't replace it, so that was annoying to say the least.
Apparently I could have brought the plane down by deafening everybody. Doesn't matter that there's already one under everyone's seat... |
Ah sorry didn't see this obviously my experience not unique.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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My mum had nail sissors confiscated. Don't know what they were exoecting a female pensioner could do with those.
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However I did discover buried in my rucksack a pen knife that they never noticed. And a pencil which I could have used to stab someone. I have seen people with crutches and knitting needles on planes
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I was sweating when I realised by leatherman knife/multitool was in my rucksack a few weeks ago in Geneva. Luckily I think all their focus was on the airbag canister, and I did place the tool so the blade was vertical (perpendicular to the scanner above - assuming there is only one scanner on the top), so it went through.
Knitting needles are allowed by the way.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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A non-snowhead reports A spanner at Gatwick airport. They though I could undo a seat!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Dave of the Marmottes, ...I took a toolbox with full ski servicing gear as hand luggage - rushing to Geneva with hand luggage only.
NOTHING in there was sharp. Wax, diamond files, guides, edge planes, metal files (with no tang). This caused A VERY BIG RUMPUS at Gatwick. The staff were VERY UNHAPPY and said so. I said 'there's nothing sharp' - and they spent half an hour trying to find a sharp edge on the stuff. I said 'I could try and file a pilot to death'. This did not go down well.
Eventually they admitted I could get on without a problem, with all the gear.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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There were similar reports of Pilots and Co-Pilots having 2” bladed penknives on keychains confiscated. The Pilot pointed out that he was actually flying the aircraft , and that there was a very large sharp fire axe behind his seat. I guess the security staff are contracted to follow orders, not show intelligence.
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It would be so easy to smash a glass or a bottle of duty free liquor and you would have a really lethal weapon, there is no sense or reason to some of this nonsense.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I remember Steve Davis once having a snooker cue denied as hand luggage. His reply, " What am I going to do, put the pilot in a nasty snooker behind the green"
So many things you could buy as weapons both after security and on board.
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Not confiscated but Mrs Cyclops was asked to remove the metal brace from her broken-arm stookie at Prestwick by the lady straight out of CellBlock H.
No about of arguing about a broken arm could persuade her.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Conversation with security type at Eurotunnel.. "An ice axe, what's that for?"... "Er, ice?"
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Tomahawk Tone wrote: |
| A non-snowhead reports A spanner at Gatwick airport. They though I could undo a seat! |
Or that you might try and undo the wing nuts. 
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I was once taken aside into a cubicle at Geneva, due to a suspicious item in my hand luggage. They were insistent there was a weapon in there, and proceeded to empty the bag, and ask me to identify my possessions. I knew there was nothing in there but they kept me there for about 15 minutes befor finally deciding there wasn't anything offensive, as it turned out to be a clip i keep in my makeup bag to pin my hair back. They didn't spot the Swiss army knife in hubby's bag which he'd forgotten to put in his hold bag.
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You know it makes sense.
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@valais2, you did well to get that through. My son, aged about 14, accidentally left a skateboard adjustment multi tool in his backpack.
That was taken, with no process for getting it back at any future stage.
Eat my shorts! 👎
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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At Birmingham I once saw a woman whose wheely carry on bag was filled, I mean filled, with Mullerlight yogurts. As I walked past she was saying, in an outraged voice, "It's not liquid, it's YOGURT." Didn't see how it ended but can guess!
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Poster: A snowHead
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A friend of ours is in the Home Office and got asked to do a trial run through Gatwick with a large knife strapped to his inside thigh.
Obviously they also carry special ID that says "this is just a test".
He was one of several people that day...he got through, so did some others.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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security theater
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| kiteman69 wrote: |
| I once had a set of Jump leads taken off me ............. |
I don't think it's as strange that they were taken from you, as it is that you were carrying them in the first place.
I had a one inch blade taken off me in Toronto, the type that comes in one of those Swiss Army cards and even Victorinox don't have the balls to call it anything more than a letter opener. I also got pulled up in Gatwick and was bricking it that they had issues with my ski boots. The boots turned out not to be the problem but he was quite interested in some packages of white powder which were stuffed inside them. I'm not sure even I was convinced by my explanation that they were socks filled with bicarb to keep the liners fresh, but he seemed to buy it 
| endoman wrote: |
| So many things you could buy as weapons both after security and on board. |
I've always thought that. They take 'weapons' off you and then you can buy litre bottles of vodka that could do far more damage if wielded correctly. I understand the marmalade and liquid thing though, if Die Hard 3 taught me anything, it was that liquids can be very dangerous....and the 4 litres from a 3 litre/5litre jug thing.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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What I don't get is that it's perfectly OK to take garottes (aka leather belts, boot laces, thick neck chain jewellery) and dangerously-sharp things (brooch pins, pendants with long points/arms, belt fasteners) etc etc - doubtless many other examples 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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My son inadvertently carried a used shot gun cartridge though Gatwick security a few years ago. It was from his first time clay pigeon shooting an we had forgotten it was in a side pocket of a rucksack.
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And hypodermics with vials of clear poison...oops, I mean essential medication. Never ever even been asked about these.
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A friend works airside at Heathrow, he was stopped going through security one day because he had a yogurt in his lunch box. He's a copper, one of the firearms team.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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And then they give you metal knifes and forks on the plane
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| johnE wrote: |
| And then they give you metal knifes and forks on the plane |
But these knives have a blunt end and are not a puncture threat.
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