Flying? Do NOT pack your bag like this!

Today a whole terminal of Manchester airport (UK) was shut down for a few hours and flights were diverted/folks were evacuated,at great cost all because someone packed their bag in such a way that the scanners raised a red flag.

The offening items?
A phone,USB charger,and a bottle of juice.

Sounds silly,but heres what it looked like according to(sorry)the daily mail:



Now that does look suspicious to me,although I thought these new scanners showed different colors for the dangerous stuff.
Sure caused havoc though:

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: 'Police received reports of a suspect package going through security in the departures area of the terminal.
'The terminal was evacuated. The package was then examined by bomb disposal officers and it was confirmed that it posed no threat to the public.
'Officers have spoken to the man who owns the package but no offences have been committed.' Airport officials earlier said disruptions were expected to flights arriving and departing from Terminal 1 but Terminals 2 and 3 were unaffected.
Police said the suspect luggage contained a bottle of gripe water positioned next to a phone charger. Superintendent Dave Hull said: 'Security officers were absolutely right to raise their concerns about the image. 'While, thankfully, there was no risk to the public, we needed to carry out thorough inquiries to be absolutely sure this was the case.
'We will always take action which safeguards public safety. However when the terminal was evacuated we also had to act swiftly to try and minimise disruption. 'This incident shows how important it is for passengers to follow the rules when taking their hand luggage through security. Had the liquids been taken out, this incident would not have taken place.

www.dailymail.co.uk...



I bet the person responsible was pretty cheesed off,having shut down the airport terminal...

Officers spoke to the 30-year-old man who owns the bag but said no offences had been committed.

www.bbc.co.uk...

So folks,be careful how you pack your bags.

reply to post by Silcone Synapse

be careful how you pack your bags.

I would expect there to be quite a few people who would deliberately pack suspicious looking things. It's not often one gets to shut down an airport terminal.

reply to post by LordBucket


So whos at fault here-the airport computers/workers who check the scanners or the luggage packer?

Or maybe this was one of those tests that they keep quiet about,but that they must do in order to test airport security.

I still think the scanners in question(milimetre wave?)should be able to distinguish between water and explosives-otherwise they are just a complete waste of money,and potentially of lives too.
If they can make a mistake once,they can do it again.
Not a good system by the looks of it.
Should be upgraded.

I dont know, thats a strange looking juice bottle. But I suppose they should know if something is on top of another item rather than attached to it.
I imagine that its a better be safe than sorry scenario. If it was an explosive and this picture came after it had gone off, im sure we would all be asking why they didnt take a closer look or evacuate.


edit - Just sseen that it was gripe water not juice. And your right about the scanners, if they have them they must surely be able to ditinguish between them. (saying that I do not know the contents of gripe water).

reply to post by Silcone Synapse

So whos at fault here-the airport computers/workers
who check the scanners or the luggage packer?

I suggest that we're at fault. If instead of avoiding packing suspicous-looking articles, we all made a point of doing so, we would very quickly overwhelm their ability to continually check everyone. They're not going to shut down an airport every thirty seconds.

I've been pulled aside twice. Once because I accidentally packed a nail kit in my carry on, second because I took a bunch of electroncs in my carry on.

In the first, becasue it was locked they had me open my bag at a table, watching my every move, had me step back, then they went through it, including my dirty underwear and socks ( ). They found the kit and pointed it out to me. Next, they walked me over to the ticket counter and had me check it instead.

In the second, I heard them say something about my bag and they stopped the conveyor. I was pulled aside and they inspected everything, including any battery slots in any devices with them and did an explosives test with a wipe. It was negative of course and they let me take it onto the plane.

My mother got pulled aside once because of the way she arranged some hairspray bottles in her bag and it triggered the bomb alert.

But in no case was the airport shut down or anyone evacuated.

Authorities have an irritating way of justifying their errors after the fact to avoid saying "we were mistaken". Instead, it's always "there was certainly jusification for doing X". Authority does not make mistakes; remember that kids.

If there were no scanners and no searching there would have been no problem at all.

Then people would be able to travel freely, so some intelligence agency would have to blow up some planes to justify this kind of destruction of freedom.

Purely engineered herding - this is electric fences for people - stop wandering around freely, do what your told - obey, pay tax and be a good drone ..

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


Thanks for the discordian idea dude!

because of spacing this is actually line THREE!

Is it bad that I feel like packing like that now?

Originally posted by 547000
Is it bad that I feel like packing like that now?

Don't do it-you will get get the latex glove treatment,and you do not want that.
Pack your wires,juice and phone in your hand luggage,all seperate,and ready to show the airport people.

As Agememnon said it is quite degrading and such,but better to be aware of the situation than cause a scene IMHO.
Sad state of affairs really,that we are trained to be suspicious of our fellow brothers and sisters.
Even sadder that there is sometimes good reason to be so.

That is really funny because I am flying tomorrow morning and I am packing two laptops, two cellphones, hairspray, aerosol deodorant and some network cables in my baggage. If you guys read anything about Newark airport being shut down then you'll know it was me.

I just would like to add an update, my luggage had a "home land security" paper in it and I was wanded (correct term?) and my laptop bag emptied entirely during the screening process. I guess the only good conclusion is that american screeners do not panic as the English ones.

Originally posted by Silcone Synapse

Originally posted by 547000
Is it bad that I feel like packing like that now?

Don't do it-you will get get the latex glove treatment,and you do not want that.

I have just seen the light in what you're saying and don't want to do it anymore.