Posted on Friday, April 13, 2007 9:00 PM
You know, despite flying my 100.000th kilometre last week (a number reached in two years and nine months), I'm not a frequent flyer, and therefore I don't have to deal with airport security on a weekly basis, but nevertheless, I grow rather tired of the security measures that have been forced upon us by a certain country.
Until August 2006, it was perfectly fine to haul a bottle or two of whatever tickles your fancy into the cabin to prevent dehydration from the plane's air-conditioning. (when you're flying cheap within Europe, you won't get a complementary drink, and paying €2~€5 for a pint of water is pushing my limits), and taking a bottle of sake home with you on your way back from Japan went without a hitch.
That is, until some government officials allegedly found a binary liquid explosive which some terrorist tried to smuggle aboard an aeroplane, undoubtedly to do very nasty things with it.
Or is it?
Numerous studies have proven that making a binary compound isn't that hard: mix some fertilizer and petrol together, and you have something which can seriously go bang. Something created from two liquids isn't that hard either (the compound used in
Die Hard with a Vengeance is believed to be based on something called PLX; start with two relatively harmless liquids, put them together and off you go).
The trouble is; all these things are easily detected by scanners and in every way undrinkable, and the stuff that's harder to detect is extremely volatile, unless certain conditions are met. (this is not rocket science, ask any chemistry teacher and Google, and
this article over at The Register gives you an idea of how hard it is.
In other words, timing your results is rather difficult, and there are easier ways for a terrorist to do his business.
But despite all that, The People need reassurance, and thus as a result, you're basically strip-searched at the airport if your expression is wrong, you'll have to unpack everything which even remotely looks like a laptop computer, you'll have to put that fantastic bottle of Scotch or sake in your suitcase where it can break and you can't even bring a nail clipper along.
(however, when we passed security at Narita, I spotted nail clippers for sale at one of the tax-free shops on the way to the gate; go figure)
All in all very frustrating.