[rbhoffman]

The whole air security apparatus in the US and the UK is ridiculous. Mr Broughton is correct–the effort is to be politically correct and to rely on technology instead of human intelligence. As a US frequent flyer, I’m used to this kind of misguided thinking but Britain has a tradition of emphasizing human intel. The only effective way to run this is to profile–and obviously pilots should be passed through, probably the rest of the air crews since they will have been pre-screened anyway. Instead of doing this sensibly, both countries waste huge amounts of money they don’t have any more and inconvenience the frequently travelling public.

[westalan80]

There should be “NO” exceptions, leniency or flexibilities for anyone at the airport, be it the crew, pilot, authorities or public. Threat is always there, you never know for whatever reasons anyone could be involved in criminal acts nowadays

[Tim2soza]

Absolutely not, for their safety and ours.

[LuganoPirate]

Have to agree with Disgusted on this one.

Great to have you posting again by the way.

[canucklad]

I can’t believe that the majority of pilots would be in agreement with this, consider this scenario….

A terrorist group blackmail a pilot ( kidnap their family etc) to smuggle a device airside, another terrorist meets the pilot airside and they go their seperate ways !!

I do agree that there needs to be an international agreement on screening…in fact there needs to be some sort of consistency. and common sense. Shoes off 1 week, ok the next.–pictures taken at LHR but not at EDI??

[craigwatson]

Canucklad your scenario has some very large flaws. The can do that now, just blackmail you to open the cockpit door.

There is no sane reason for flight crew to be security screened, except for 1 thing, they should have to go through the drug detector, to ensure no smuggling is taking place, as has happened many times in the past and im sure is still happening.

If your flight crew has any ulterior motives they will not have to bring an illegal objects through security, they already have the best weapon at their disposal.

To many crews that are flying YOU and your family are starting their trips stressed out, angry, frustrated, and delayed for no other reason than plain idiocy.

[canucklad]

I agree Craig that flight crew and for that matter all airside workers should have a dedicated common sense screening process that removes stress from their working lives but at the same time maintains our protection from lunatics.

I will add that., we are probably at our highest risk level when we believe we’ve got security pretty much covered. The dedcated terrorist/lunatic is probably working out how to beat the system. I assume like a deadly game of chess the people responsible for our security,pro-actively put a terrorist hat on and try and find ways of circumnavigating the systems.

Allowing a certain group through increases the chance of those same people being exploited. It would be folly to allow pilots and their loved ones to become a loop hole in the process

My scenario suggested a handover airside anf the terrorist commiting an outrage on a different flight as a passenger not requiring access to the flightdeck.

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