Lax security at Dublin airport

MT

I was speaking to a friend yesterday who'd recently flown to Denmark and back with Ryanair. A startling difference that she couldn't help but remark upon were the contrasting attitudes to flight security at the airports. In Denmark - she didn't say which airport but I've checked and Ryanair fly into Billund - no containers of liquid were allowed to be taken onto the plane, baggage for each of their four family members was checked and weighed separately. There were other things too that she didn't elaborate on but all in all the Danish were very thorough and by the book.

Dublin, on the other hand, was another story. Everything was very laid back and unconcerned - a couldn't-care-less attitude might be a more apt description. Seemingly, they weren't stopped from taking pretty much whatever they wanted onto the plane - bottles of whatever liquid you fancied - baggage was just lumped together for the family - neither being weighed or checked separately. She said there were other things too but didn't go into them as it was only a passing conversation at a social event.

Do you think her experience and impressions are the norm from traveling through Dublin or just an unsettlingly lax one-off incident? Or is it the Danes that are the exception – maybe they just do things more thoroughly than elsewhere.

BendiBus

tbh, unless your friend is an aviation security expert I don't think their opinion counts for much. Many overt security measures are purely for show anyway and contribute nothing whatsoever to passenger safety.

As for security at Dublin airport, the overt measures are much the same as anywhere else. I've seen people stopped for having liquids with them. I've had my hand baggage hand searched after xray from time to time.

I've also (accidentally) carried bottles of liquid through security at the totally anal Gatwick without it being spotted.

Bottom line is no airport is perfect and whatever one sees (or thinks one sees) on a single occasion signifies little or nothing.

Checking in & weighing luggage has nothing to do with security once it's all reconciled with the passengers who've boarded. It's more to do with Ryanair extracting as much money as possible from unwitting passengers. Maybe DUB checkin staff are more flexible (and less well disposed towards Michael O'Leary!) than their Danish counterparts.

Having re-read your post are you saying people were stopped taking liquids on board at the gate rather than at security? If so then the Danish were going a bit too far. If it was bought airside then it should be allowed on board.

Chris_533976

Lumping baggage together is quick and easy. They probobly have a setting on their computers to count.

Baggage limit = 15kg.

First bag, max 15kg, weighs 13kg. So the second bag should take the scale to no more than 28kg. Easy.


That said, some of the security guards at Dublin were paying no attention to the x-ray images of the scanned baggage the other day when I was there. Though thats a general problem at all airports IIRC.

constellation

MT wrote:

I was speaking to a friend yesterday who'd recently flown to Denmark and back with Ryanair. A startling difference that she couldn't help but remark upon were the contrasting attitudes to flight security at the airports. In Denmark - she didn't say which airport but I've checked and Ryanair fly into Billund - no containers of liquid were allowed to be taken onto the plane, baggage for each of their four family members was checked and weighed separately. There were other things too that she didn't elaborate on but all in all the Danish were very thorough and by the book.

A few random observations.

Firstly, semtex is a solid and not a liquid (tell no one!). Secondly, there has never been any convincing evidence of a threat from a liquid bomb - although, I confess, the chemistry is beyond me. Thirdly, if security screeners were really doing their job they would be looking at the passengers - not their names nor personal items - but the passengers themselves ("behavioural profiling" is the phrase they use). And lastly, do you know how they get the liquids from the landside to airside? They x-ray it. Go figure.

KdjaCL

Bilund is a tiny airport that closes at 7 o clock most nights.

There is no Q at the departure gates ever, you can find yourself and the people on your flight are the only people in the airport a lot fo the time.


kdjac

jimmycrackcorm

What has baggage of family members being grouped together got to do wiht security?

John R

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

What has baggage of family members being grouped together got to do wiht security?

Absolutely nothing at all.

The OP just proves how much the fabricated terrorist threat hysteria and general security paranoia bullshít has been accepted at face value by the average punter who is now seeing security holes and Osama Bin Laden everytime they get within ten miles of an airport.

There has been NO evidence put forward that binary liquid explosives are an actual threat, the idea that two inert liquids can be brought on-board in coke bottles and sloshed together to make a deadly bomb is simply un-true.

L1011

Billund Airport's main purpose is exporting Lego. I'm sure the airport staff want to keep people in the terminal as long as possible for the small amount of passenger flights it gets for some level of company ... it has 33% less passengers than Cork, for example. Not realistic to compare measures at the tiny airports that Ryanair use across Europe to any of the major airports.

Del2005

Has the UK not changed their rules on liquids recently. They will now allow you to take liquids bought airside onto planes, and also allow transiting passengers to carry duty free through also. As others have said most of the security at airports is just show.

All you checked bagged is screened in Dublin airport, they don't do it infront of you as they have space to do it offline.

If terrorists want to blow a plane out of the sky they will and nothing will stop them. Hell the baggage handlers are among the biggests thiefs in the world, note how much gear got "lost" when they banned all hand baggage. So if they are willing to steal to their hearts content it wouldn't be too hard to pay one of them a couple of grand to place something on a plane.

Also there was a Dispatches or Horizon show a while ago that showed the Heathrow airport had huge security issues with the cargo side of the airport. There where cargo hangers open to everyone where you could walk from the unsecured side to airside with no challange.

So one persons walk though Dublin makes them think it's not safe, there is a lot of overt and covert security in Dublin as at all airports. And after they got slated recently for their lax security I'd say they are on the ball.

BrianD

Sounds like your friend may never have flown before!

I'd imagine that in Billund you can see all the operations of the check in happen before your eyes while in Dublin most of it is not visible to passengers.

Are you sure the bottles of liquids weren't items purchased in the shopping areas 'airside'? They can be brought on board.

Given that Billund is a small airport they can take the time to weigh all bags while in Dublin they need a higher throughput so don't have the luxury. Just because they are not individually weighed (as Ryanair would love) doesn't mean that they aren't screened.

Personally, I have found the security screening at Dublin over the top and have even missed a flight as a result of the entire line having to take off their shoes and glasses!

monument

BendiBus wrote:

Many overt security measures are purely for show anyway and contribute nothing whatsoever to passenger safety.

End of story.

Carawaystick

if you could explain how you know what "the Book" is MT, enlighten us. As the EU deems its citizens unworthy of knowing the contents of Directive EC NO 1546/2006 as part of their stazi-esque machinations.

Victor

Chris_533976 wrote:

That said, some of the security guards at Dublin were paying no attention to the x-ray images of the scanned baggage the other day when I was there. Though thats a general problem at all airports IIRC.

There is the boredom issue. However, they aren't looking at a raw feed of the x-ray imagery. There is a computer analysing the imagery looking for inappropriate images (gun outlines, pointy bits of metal, etc.)

MT

Yeah, from what you guys have said here it seems that Billund is the exception - and pretty anal about things too. According to the friend I was speaking to you were even stopped from carrying on liquids bought airside. But I suppose they have the time to get this carried away when it's only a small cargo airport with low passenger numbers.

As for why the bags being checked separately was noteworthy, well it was one of the differences she relayed to me and I thought it might have been tied into an additional security measure. Seems that wasn't the case.

My 'by the book' comment was just a figure of speech to summarise the way in which she thought their behaviour was so thorough and detailed. As for her flight experience, well her husband is Danish so she must fly to Denmark fairly often - though maybe it's always through Billund. Does Aer Lingus do a connection with Copenhagen?

MT

To answer my own question, Aer Lingus resumed its service from Dublin to Copenhagen in 2004 - link. Elsewhere on that site there's news that flights will run daily from the 28th October.

godtabh

I think its the luck of the draw on the day who you get scanning you.

I'm just back from a camping trip in Iceland. Had to go via stanstead. On the way over when going through the x-ray machine they saw pegs in my bag and made me check my tent. On the way back I left the pegs in my hand luggage by mistake and go threw no problem.

monkey tennis

What's next, people will be complaining that they didn't get cavity-searched on their way through the airport?

godtabh

monkey tennis wrote:

What's next, people will be complaining that they didn't get cavity-searched on their way through the airport?

Why is it fun?

ntlbell

It just needs to be consistent here's some nonsese from travelling to manchester yesterday

in a clear bag i had 3 bottles two 100ml bottles and 1 half full 125ml bottle and they make me throw the 75ml's away.

in my hand luggage i had a full pack of razor blades...

so i can't carry hair gel but i can harry razor blades....

ok!

Rob_l

this is wrong I was stopped coming through security checks with a sealed can of coke i had bought outside the security section

dublin is on a par with other euro airports well after the last time they were caught being lax they are anyways

jimmychin

personally i think that the security measures bought in are way over the top.

having said that, there is an eu regulation that stipulates that all liquids should be in containers less than 100ml and placed in a clear small plastic bag which needs to be removed from your hand luggage and placed seperately through the x-ray machines.

as i said, this is such a waste of time !

however, i have flown out of dublin 4 times in the last month, to london and central europe and each time, i only travelled with hand luggage and kept my liquids in my case - strolled through dublin.

coming back from they were much stricter!

so i have to agree with the OP that IMO dublin are lax with security

jimmychin

there is a lot of overt and covert security in Dublin as at all airports

Dublin airport covert operations ! don't make me laugh !

MOH

Dublin's a joke. They're inconsistent every time you go through.

And the whole shoe thing was ridiculous.

BendiBus

jimmychin wrote:

Dublin airport covert operations ! don't make me laugh !

How do you know?

MOH wrote:

And the whole shoe thing was ridiculous.

They still do it at Gatwick.

Victor

ntlbell wrote:

in a clear bag i had 3 bottles two 100ml bottles and 1 half full 125ml bottle and they make me throw the 75ml's away.

The contianer has to be 100ml or less.

in my hand luggage i had a full pack of razor blades...

Safety raxors are allowed.

Rob_l wrote:

this is wrong I was stopped coming through security checks with a sealed can of coke i had bought outside the security section

So what if it is sealed? How do they know if it was seal in the Coca-Cola plant or your garden shed?