An explosive comment at Wick airport

[calish6]

I wonder if the sherriff in Wick would lock you up for a month if you joked about having a bomb or two in your hand baggage ?
Not that I am going to do such a silly thing, mind you!!

She was a silly little girl was she not ?

any thoughts out there from you sensible people ?

[jjc]

I seem to remember hearing last year that UK check-in staff take it quite seriously too. I believe that if you make such a joke here you are asked once - and only once - to retract the statement. If you refuse to do so then security are called and you are carted off.

I don’t agree with our current culture of fear – it seems like you could start a panic just by shouting “Boo!” – and I do everything I can to avoid perpetuating it, but you need to recognise that the culture exists and people are now in the habit of seriously over reacting.

I suppose the degree of humour in her ‘joke’ depends upon the person she tells it to… Having a very sarcastic sense of humour myself I can say with some authority that not everybody understands the difference that a subtle inflection of the voice can make to the meaning of a sentence.

Yes, a very silly girl indeed… but more importantly, a sad indication of the level of paranoia which we now accept in our daily lives.

[calish6]

It was A stupid thing for her to say, and to say it 3 times, but I believe that the first comment was a genuine if not misguided attempt at humor.
Not a good idea, especially in a country that is in such a heightened state of alert. Unfortunatley, a large security guard, with a big gun strapped to his side, with a deep and authoritive voice said, Can you repeat that comment !
I think in that situation she was probably just being honest about what she had said and was too nervous to think quick enough to retract her statement before it went too far.

I may be wrong, but I think the authority's should be spending more time stopping people with bullets in thier pockets, rather than imprisoning stupid little girls who pose no more a threat to national security than an angry Gerbil

[Caledonia]

Pardon me if anyone has already pointed it out, but we all know she will be home in the week, or at least in the month.

It is just a case of taking all matters seriously.

They have nothing to lose. They get to make a bold statement and scare the crap out of anyone who might think of such a sill jape, and then they get to act the benevolent authority letting the poor girl go home.

I am going to blow up Dounreay tomorrow.

(Great medium format shot from Sandside that is begging to become a huge landscape.)

:D

[trinkie]

Coming back from Orkney two years ago, I was not allowed on the plane wearing
a little brooch ......which was eventually taken from me and I have never seen it again !!
Yes, I have written plenty of times and filled in endless forms.

So, grannies be warned - No dangerous weapons in Orkney please!

[Riffman]

Well here is an interesting story:

Coming back from Austira last summer, I had forgotten that I had left a pair of scissors in my hand luggage, the bag went through Vienna security, and as I had to change planes at Brussels, their security too; but when i arrived in gatwick to transfer to yet another flight ( last one this time) they found them in my bag!!! It is amazing how hit and miss it all is.

I say that because going out to austria, I had a multitool in my hand luggage that made it through Gatwick customs but, not Brussels. unlike here in the UK, the brussels customs were very friendly and said that it was a prohibited item and that they would have to confiscate it. Grudgingly I handed it over. Then I was given huge reams of paperwork to fill in, i didn't see why, until one of the security staff said that if i returned to the airport i could collect my knife from security. They would hold on to it for a month.

So in the end i got it back. Why can't we do that here? Last time I went through Gatwick, the security staff had filled a huge glas box with all their spoils. Things like, £100 leathermans, and swiss army knifes. Not very fair if you ask me.

IMHO i think we are being too alarmist.

Just my thoughts,

Riffman

[squidge]

Flying from Aberdeen to Wick on my way back from a meeting i had my employers badge pinned to my lapel. It was a badge which clearly stated my name and job title. In aberdeen I had to hand it over at check in. Like if i was going to stab someone with it i would advertise who i was and what i did!!! :roll:

[jjc]

IMHO i think we are being too alarmist.

Couldn’t agree more… and the alarmism is being, somewhat cynically, driven by our politicians and media.

That the media would like for us to be gripped by fear is understandable – more fear = more money for them.

The politicians on the other hand…

Let’s just say I find it somewhat transparent that Bush upped the US ‘national threat level’ – the name speaks volumes in itself – for Christmas and then, just a few weeks after it was lowered again (once the point had been made), he delivered a State of the Union Address filled with statements like:
The terrorists continue to plot against America and the civilised world. And by our will and courage, this danger will be defeated.The subject of terrorism took up around half of his speech. A rousing way to kick-start his re-election campaign, no?

As for Blair… well the new Civil Contingency Bill will pretty much let him change our laws as he wants so he isn’t doing too badly out of our new-found fear, is he? (the next thing will be compulsory ID cards)

I’m not saying that terrorism poses no threat to us, but there is reasonable reaction and over-reaction. On a different messageboard (run by the BBC) people are seriously calling for all Muslims to be deported as a ‘terrorist threat’ and for Islam to be legislated against…

We’re going too far and it’s all going to end in trouble.

Sorry – rant over (for now)

[FairyFi]

What happened? what did the girl say? And who was it?
(sorry not keeping up with the times here?)

[jjc]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/shropshire/3417433.stm

[calish6]

Hear about the woman at Newcastle airport this afternoon ?
Now that was incredibily stupid.
Shouting 5 times that she had a bomb, just because she was late for check-in.

She deserves to be locked up !

[George Brims]

I would like to point out that using the "B" word at an airport has been frowned upon for a long time. At Los Angeles International, the security people used to detain an average of one person a day, year-round, before the Sept 11 attacks. You would at least miss your plane because of being taken away for questioning, and your carrier might well refuse to re-book you on another one. At the very least that British girl in FLorida should be fined for displaying a feeble sense of humour in public.