Airport security to be tightened up after lapses

Errors at airport security inspections appear to be more common than has hitherto been believed.
      On Sunday Helsingin Sanomat carried an article on a man who had a 50 cl water bottle in his carry-on luggage when he flew from the United States to Helsinki. The bottle passed two security checks.
      Based on the security regulations of airlines, the bottle should have been spotted by the X-ray scanners that checked the man’s hand luggage, whereupon it should have been confiscated.
      The Finnish airport services operator Finavia regarded the case as very rare.
     
However, many readers who contacted Helsingin Sanomat said that they had accidentally carried in their hand luggage for example a knife, a corkscrew, a jack-knife, perfumes, and water bottles.
      Such cases have occurred mainly on foreign flights. Moreover, some of the incidents have taken place on US flights, even though the country has very thorough security inspections.
      Frequently passengers have forgotten forbidden items in their carry-on luggage. However, one of the readers had taken half a litre of water into a plane in order to test the security inspection.
      In Rome and Delhi, the attention of the security inspectors had been attracted by a babbling baby, while the forbidden water bottles passed the security check.
     
Risto Nisula from Riihimäki says that he has been flying on at least ten domestic flights for more than a year, with a forgotten carpet knife in his bag.
      ”At the end of last year, I noticed the knife after a security check in Oulu. The security inspectors spotted everything else but not the knife”, Nisula notes.
      ”I can only laugh when I remember how once in Poland I had to remove from my hand luggage an inflatable children’s plastic sword and leave it at the airport”, Nisula recalls.
     
Security chief Tuomo Kivikari from Finavia is not willing to comment further on these cases.
      ”We do not make statements about any quality issues. We discuss them only with the authorities. To some extent they are confidential information which we are not willing to reveal”, Kivikari argues.
      Kivikari stresses that the security level of the inspections at Finavia’s airports is in compliance with the quality requirements set by the European Commission as well as those enacted by the national and inernational authorities.
     
According to security chief Tuomo Kivikari, the new Transport Safety Agency TraFi is currently considering the tightening up of rules and regulations.
      The new rules would state that from May onwards all passengers would have to show their tickets already at the security check, while today, the tickets must be presented only on boarding the aircraft.
      For security guidelines for air passengers, see Finavia’s website: http://www.finavia.fi/for-travellers/securityguidelines


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Christmas tarts and other goodies fall foul of airport security checks (14.12.2007)
  Frozen Christmas ham does not cut the mustard with airport security officers (3.12.2008)

Links:
  Finavia
  Finnish Transport Safety Agency Trafi