No Hand Luggage today from UK airports

[Houseplant]

Fantastic, I fly to Cyprus on Sunday.

Are they increasing weight allowance for checked-in baggage?

[Fiona]

Chris it could just be UK airports so you might not have the same restrictions. I think they have specific information regarding UK - US flights.

[SoggyFox]

Originally Posted by Lou

The argument given by "the security expert" is that hold luggage has a very strict procedure, hand luggage is less so, but the thing with hand luggage is that something could be assembled on the plane. Maybe even two terrorists travelling together, each taking different parts of the device. This would be harder to pick up.

i see where your coming from there and i suppose its theoretically possible. So i take it theres no way of checking for explosives at the security check points, the way its always been portrayed is that most terrorists use pretty basic explosives and normally have to use large quantities due to the explosive being simple.

I did have a morbid thought last time i flew, that wouldn't it be easy to get 20-30 mobile phones into your hand luggage and set them off mid flight to disrupt the planes systems. Theres probably good reason why it wouldn't work but it occured to me having seen the request to turn them off during the flight/take off.

having reread my post i wonder if this was what the terrorist intended, some sort of electronic attack on a plane.

[Richie]

Originally Posted by SoggyFox

i see where your coming from there and i suppose its theoretically possible. So i take it theres no way of checking for explosives at the security check points, the way its always been portrayed is that most terrorists use pretty basic explosives and normally have to use large quantities due to the explosive being simple.

.

According to man on the radio this morning there are explosive sniffers used to screen hold baggage (and in government buildings) but these are not yet used for hand luggage.

I've had my lap top sniffed by a hand held machine at Brum airport - they were selecting at random.

[Ding Dang Doo]

Originally Posted by Sipadan

Fantastic, I fly to Cyprus on Sunday.

Are they increasing weight allowance for checked-in baggage?

This was one of my first thoughts too...

anyone heard anything about this? You are not allowed laptops etc, they weigh a fair bit... those who choose to carry regs etc as hand luggage...

I've got kids... the stuff we take on the plane for them as hand luggage would seriously take us over the limit.

BUT... I'm glad that every precaution is being taken by the security people...


Pete

[RonProwse]

Originally Posted by Kent Tooling

They are even having to taste the baby milk to prove that this is not a liquid devise.

They are getting a fellow passenger to taste it, lets hope its not breast milk!

[Pro Dive Europe]

Copied from my post on the Overseas board.

I have been asked to pass this on to our customers,

Please advise your customers travelling to and from the United Kingdom.

Please advise divers that suspicious equipment such as Dive computers may be confiscated. Please ensure all equipment if placed in hold baggage prior to arrival at the airport. Flights to and from the UK are expecting delays of at least four-six hours.


Scuba equipment: computers, regulators, knives must be in the hold and will be confiscated if the passenger tries to take them on hand luggage.

[Scuttler]

Originally Posted by SoggyFox

i see where your coming from there and i suppose its theoretically possible. So i take it theres no way of checking for explosives at the security check points, the way its always been portrayed is that most terrorists use pretty basic explosives and normally have to use large quantities due to the explosive being simple.

I did have a morbid thought last time i flew, that wouldn't it be easy to get 20-30 mobile phones into your hand luggage and set them off mid flight to disrupt the planes systems. Theres probably good reason why it wouldn't work but it occured to me having seen the request to turn them off during the flight/take off.

having reread my post i wonder if this was what the terrorist intended, some sort of electronic attack on a plane.

The risk from mobile communications devices is threefold.

Firstly there is a theoretical risk of "cosmic radiation" interference. When I used to work on inertial navigation systems and we switched to solid state memory devices we saw an increase of memory scrambles (crashes) which we isolated to a single bit being switched from a zero to a one or vice versa. This was isolated to "cosmic radiation". As mobile telecoms and electronic gadgets carried by the passenger increased so too did the number of single bit event failures. Laboratory experiments could reproduce this but not with any degree of success.

Secondly (us I understand it) when a mobile phone tries to connect to a network it sends out a signal which is an authentication signal. If it doesn't receive a authentication handshake then it increases the power and retransmits. The theory is that it is possible that this could interfere with systems on the aircraft such as GPS, ILS, VOR/DME. All of which are critical devices. Once again it's a hypothesis rather than something that has been proven reliably.

Finally, when the mobile device is trying to connect to a network and doing it's authentication handshake routine or receiving a text if you are in a car or on another telephone sometimes you'll here the "morse code" effect of the transmission. The pilots hears this on his headphones. If it happens when ATC are telling him to do something then it's possible the interference will prevent him hearing the instruction.

It's interesting to note that there are often mobiles inadvertently left on in every flight. I doubt a terrorist armed with 1000 phones would really cause any great problems!!!!

[CotoChris]

Originally Posted by Fiona

Chris it could just be UK airports so you might not have the same restrictions. I think they have specific information regarding UK - US flights.

Called the airline. Heightened security and flights to the States have extra security checks. My flight stops off halfway in the Atlantic (in the Azores) where we'll get off and may have further security checks. Apparently the Americans are being extra careful with any inbound flights.

As long as I can pack my travel Scrabble!

[CotoChris]

Originally Posted by Scuttler

Finally, when the mobile device is trying to connect to a network and doing it's authentication handshake routine or receiving a text if you are in a car or on another telephone sometimes you'll here the "morse code" effect of the transmission. The pilots hears this on his headphones. If it happens when ATC are telling him to do something then it's possible the interference will prevent him hearing the instruction.

When I went on a dive trip to the Azores this June as the flight was approaching the islnad the captain announced "Will the stupid idiot who turned on the mobile phone turn the damn thing off straight away. It's affecting our navegation equipment and need it for landing!" A literal translation. At that moment everyone went silent as we entered the clouds.