My encounter with Airport security

Soldato
Joined
29 Sep 2005
Posts
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My "encounter" (non-event) with Airport security

Little story of my encounter with Airport security/surveillance which left me a bit peeved and concerned by their processes. I was off on a stag do before Christmas to Budapest and I've never had any issues flying before. Those who know me will vouch that I'm as clean as they come. All of the guys had gone through security except my friend's brother who I waited for as he has dyspraxia and isn't very fast in those situations. Whilst I was waiting with all of my cleared baggage and person, a lady asked me to come to one side while they randomly swabbed my hand luggage.

I obliged and at first found it funny that I would be selected, but understood I was just standing around at the time. To my surprise, the swab test came back positive for "substances of an explosive nature" she explained. Suddenly it dawned on me that in her confusion about what happens next in the procedure, that I could be here a while..

The manager is brought down from somewhere to take it to the next step, which is taking all of my documents (passports, flight tickets etc) and asking me questions about my job (office!) while they swab the bag again. He doesn't explain what the form is, what it is for and what they are recording, but I know it's all my personal information. He remains quiet and holds his tongue when I politely inquire to what he is doing with the information and what happens to me next.

The bag swab comes back negative and after listening to my concerns, the lady is now on my side hinting at me to raise my concerns with the manager. I stated that there is a flaw with the system, that my bag was visibly covered in dust from the security trays and that if that tray was touched by a substance and then my bag or anyone's bag goes in there, surely each bag that touches the tray will swab positive.

I was sent on my way, so even if it did swab positive I was still heading for the flight. What concerns me is that I am 100% innocent and now I'm probably elevated on surveillance somewhere on a list of people where they track everything I type (hello if you read this), my phones, who I know, where I travel etc. All of this due to a flaw in the process and poor processes.

I just wanted to share this and get your thoughts! I didn't hear anything after this, they probably watched a rather destroyed human being return from Budapest on the Sunday and knew I wasn't too much trouble outside of a bar!
 
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What airport Booner?

It was Stansted. Bag wasn't searched after being tested positive, I'd already been through security at this point.

I guess my concerns were less about them doing their job, but more to do with what happens with my information. I've had bags searched before and to be honest I really don't have a problem with being thorough, it was just the lack of knowing what was actually happening to my details that worried me after it clearly came back negative after a second attempt. Also the flaw in the system in that the bags all touch the same trays?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not having a pop at them - just wanted some opinions back on it.
 
This.

You need to leave your bubble more often. Being put on a list for failing an airport scan...dear god :o.

Smarten up.

Lol I was leaving my bubble, hence why I was at an airport! I do get around, honest.

Also I'm white/British to whoever brought up race. It was more where does my information go? Seeing as it was a negative swab and they still keep lots of details on record, just wondered what people's thoughts were on if that happened to them.
 
False positives are very common in almost all tests/detection. Does the OP think all forms of cancer diagnosis should be stopped just because the occasional result comes back as positive when in fact the person does not have cancer?

Nope, it's more that they do a swab test on a bag which goes in a contaminated tray, can read false on the second reading and then lots of my details go into the unknown with no knowledge of why they are kept or what is done with them.

I have no problem with random testing if the method/data collection makes sense.
 
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