This time last year, holidaymakers boarded their aircraft with little thought of security . . . then came September 11th. Flying has changed, but is it more than a ban on nail scissors? writes Emmet Malone.
In the post-September 11th world, the mundane can become the threatening. The most harmless items and gestures can, in a certain context, disturb people and raise alarm among security authorities.
At Dublin Airport this summer, as thousands of travellers jet off, this unsettling phenomenon has been observable on muggy midsummer days.
Security officers opened up big metal boxes which stand just inside the boarding area. Out flowed hundreds of small metal or sharp items, scissors, needles, corkscrews, bottle openers, kitchen knives, even nail files.
All of them have been confiscated in recent months as holidaymakers made their way to the departure gates. So many items have been confiscated by Aer Rianta search officers that a company has been hired to smelt down several tonnes of the items since September 11th.
That day of infamy has had numerous geo-political and cultural effects, but one of the least expected surely is the transformation of an elderly lady's knitting needle into a potentially deadly weapon, worth confiscating and destroying.
Since 9/11 the whole aviation industry has been in turmoil and security on board planes and at airports remains, patchy at best, and downright troubling at worst.
Mr Todd Curtis, editor of the airsafe.com website, told The Irish Times, that the aviation industry was failing to deal with the post-September 11th fallout.
"At present, it is not taking a lead position in making changes, and as a result will be compelled to adapt to a series of changes that in the end may have a questionable effect," he says.
Starting your trip at Dublin or other Aer Rianta airports, security is low profile as you would expect in Ireland, where since the Northern ceasefires there has been a sense of reduced threat. But Mr Pat Bracken, airport police inspector, says since September 11th the whole security operation at the airports has been reorganised.
He says the events in New York and the Pentagon have prompted Aer Rianta's search unit to outlaw a whole range of items. However, the public do not seem to be getting the message, and one well-travelled lady had to have her knitting needles confiscated three times before the penny dropped.
It is hard to believe, but before September 11th knives with blades under three centimetres were allowed in a passenger's hand baggage. Now no knives of any kind are allowed. Even people with conventional table knives, to be used on a self-catering holiday, have had to hand them over.
It is the same in Europe and the US, with all airport authorities making it quite clear that box cutters (the weapon of choice of the 9/11 hijackers) are most definitely out.
Aer Rianta believe their X-ray and metal detectors at the departure area still provide the most effective way to screen out dangerous weapons. The machines are checked every day, Mr Bracken points out, and Aer Rianta search officers are entitled to question any suspicious characters who possess dubious items. If the answers are unsatisfactory, the police are called in. As for your main baggage, which you hand over at check-in, things are less clear. The handling of this luggage is the responsibility of the airlines, who often sub-contract out the service to other companies. Most alarming is the lack of clarity around X-ray checking of all bags, with airport sources suggesting there are only random checks.
"Whole baggage screening" (X-ray screening) has, under an EU reform, to be introduced throughout Europe by next January, but until then the system seems far from reassuring. Aer Lingus declined to comment, but said it complied with all regulations of the Irish Aviation Authority on security checks and with all international conventions.
The position of American flights out of Ireland is slightly different. A company called ICTS is involved in profiling and questioning passengers who fly out with airlines like Continental and Delta. Luggage of all shapes and sizes can be opened and searched before you even check in.
Understandably the airlines and airport authorities do not like to discuss, at least publicly, their security arrangements. As one airport source said: "If we tell everyone about what we are doing, it would defeat the purpose of the measures entirely."
On board, things differ depending on whether you are travelling in Europe or the US. In Europe the airlines seem relatively happy with what they've got, although airlines, including Aer Lingus, have reinforced their cockpit doors since September 11th. But the US airlines and the US aviation industry generally wants to go further. President Bush has ordered a huge increase in the number of air or sky marshals on board US aircraft. These plain-clothes officers are armed and are supposed to pounce if hijackers try to take over the plane.
The US House of Representatives also recently voted to arm pilots in a move to further reassure the public. This has not met with universal acceptance, with some worrying that already overburdened pilots could find themselves in all kinds of dilemmas during serious disturbances which may not technically be hijackings. There is also a question about where the guns would be stored.
European airlines have so far decided not to go down this road and to the alarm of many European travellers the so-called "shoe bomber", Richard Reid, was able to board an aircraft at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris only weeks after 9/11.
The main weakness of the American system - which will unfortunately confront holidaymakers again this summer - is that security is the responsibility of the airlines, whose main job is often to keep costs down.
