Airport controls - safety or just annoying?
Of course, it isn’t necessary to remind oneself of the horrible terrorist attacks on 11th September 2001 in New York, because we still see the terrible pictures. From that day on the security checks at the international airports were drastically increased. Nevertheless, as the years have gone by, there have occurred a lot of security breaches and the incident at the airport in Munich last week – where they detected explosive traces on a passenger’s laptop and who escaped unnoticed, has shown us that there is a lot of work to be done in order to guarantee passenger safety. But unfortunately the security politics seem to be wrong and the organisation of the airport controls has to be improved drastically.
“Please, open your bag” We have all heard this famous sentence and we all are familiar to the stressful situations at the airports. The security check can be a nightmare: first you take off your jacket, then you put your hand luggage on the conveyor belt, of course while taking out your laptop, millions of other things fall out of your bag; take off the necklace, empty the trouser pockets, oh, you’ve almost forgotten your belt. You don’t carry any liquids and you’ve already prepared carefully the little tiny plastic bags with your cosmetics. You look at the crowd behind you, and seeing the increasing queue you’re getting even more nervous. But come on, you’ve almost managed everything.
Put your things correctly in the little boxes on the conveyor belt and head for the metal detector. Calm down, breath profoundly and…BEEEEEP. God damn it! In the next two seconds, a security officer stands next to you frisking you for weapons. Nothing was found, ok, good, perfect. “Please, take off your shoes!” That can’t be true! You notice that your hand luggage is interrupting the traffic, but you can’t do anything instead of waiting there barefooted. Your pulse is getting faster and faster, your heart is beating like hell, everyone is staring at you. It isn’t surprising that you really feel like a terrorist in this moment. In such a mad rush passengers can only ask themselves: Airport controls: safety or just annoying?
Well, everyone should contribute for guaranteeing the passengers safety. So, this includes unfortunately as well those annoying airport controls. Furthermore, all passengers of the EU have to deal with tighter security controls, because all the representatives of the 27 EU member states came to the agreement to increase the security checks at international airports. There is a plan to assign more “sky marshals”, undercover security officers who are on board. Data protection will also be affected; hence telephone or credit cards numbers can be transmitted to the authorities.
Nevertheless, the main debate is about the disputed body scanner, where the member states haven’t yet come to an agreement. In Germany, for example, control of this body scanner is up to the passengers’ good faith. But there is still a long awaited report about possible dangers for health or violation of privacy by the European Commission.
Be that as it may, of course we don’t want any further terror attacks, so we should support the security officers in their work. (Apart from the body scanners, which certainly are too much) Relax and take the security control easy, show the officer your nicest smile and you’ll see, how calmly everything can proceed. Unless you have something to hide of course!
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Thursday, January 28, 2010
Airport controls - safety or just annoying
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