Airport security woes and weirdness

[lardyboy]

We all have to go through the same security measures at every airport around the world. Every airport is supposed to be the same, there are rules after all, but there are differences wherever you go. What are the weirdest things that have happened to you at airport security?

Lots of things have happened to me, from having to deconstruct Christmas crackers to remove the 'explosives' when trying to board a flight out of Belfast to going through a US supplied magnetic scanner in the Seychelles, not long after 9-11 and the security team kept changing the sensitivity on the machine so that it didn't keep going off at the slightest thing like fillings in teeth and eventually switching it off as the queue was getting too long.

Please share your stories

[2point]

We went through 'security' in the Gambia.

It was a magnetic hoop thing that I'm sure ran off a car battery. The inspection table was literally a block of concrete. Any checked luggage that was 'inspected' had a big white chalk 'X' put on it.

This was in 1987 I think.

It was so hot the plane couldn't take off, we had to wait on the plane (with the window blinds down and the aircon off) until the outside temp dropped. Took over 2 hours.

[Sew109]

I remember we had to refuel in the early 90's on the way I think to Singapore I think in Abu Dhabi and we all had to get off the plane and line up on the runway where there sprayed us with some disinfectant before we could enter the terminal building

[YorkshireT]

In Orlando in 2019 they got us in a room, ran a dog around in the middle, and the whole room was then cleared. Never seen that before.

[novocastrian]

Originally Posted by Sew109

I remember we had to refuel in the early 90's on the way I think to Singapore I think in Abu Dhabi and we all had to get off the plane and line up on the runway where there sprayed us with some disinfectant before we could enter the terminal building

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we had the same coming back from Goa in Abu Dhabi although the flight crew walked the length of the plane spraying everyone with what smelled like dettol/fabreze combo

then we had to get off & wait in the terminal whilst refueling... the duty free shop sold gold bars & fridge freezers !

[Firekat]

Not security, but I remember having to be weighed along with our luggage before boarding a sea plane to an island in the Maldives.

[Sandra & co]

The aeroplane was sprayed when we landed in Australia when I was kid, we had to sit there and get sprayed. The customs office robbed my mums bag in Lisbon airport, they were too busy chatting but I saw him take it and told them. Another customers officer talked to him in Portuguese and he brought it back. Security let me and my daughter through at Detroit airport but my husband and sons had to have extra checks, seems a bit sexist but we thought it was funny. My son was about 13 and had the same name as a wanted man, they had to go away and cross him off at check in at Heathrow.

[Sew109]

Oh I nearly forgot my probably funniest security story although I did not think that at the time.

We had been in West Coast for month after getting married and were flying back from Vegas I went though the scanner with shorts, tshirt and flip flops on, removed belt and I beeped. The lady took me to one side and scanned me with a hand scanner and I beeped and emptied my pockets and nothing. There was no mail on duty so after being put in the air blowing scan thing I was put in this sort of glass cube between the luggage scanners awaiting the male security guard. This guy turned up as big as a house and I was getting al ready for the "bend over sir" and he told me he would pat me down and touch any sensitive areas with the back of his hand. Anyway he went through my shorts and found two spent cartridges that had somehow got into the lining and gave them back to me and said "sir next time please check more carefully" . Thank goodness this was in Vegas and not Heathrow !

[lardyboy]

In Zanzibar, they seem to have a money making scheme which involves security meeting you at check-in and taking your luggage into an office in the check-in hall. There are several fierce looking women, all in head scarves and robes, looking fierce at you, suppose it's supposed to be intimidating. One of them told us it was $50 dollars, for what we never found out, so I just shrugged and said, I've spent all my money on holiday - we were heading home so I really didn't care if they took our suitcases, would have made the journey home easier - their faces all looked suddenly less threatening and just disappointed. We we escorted back to check-in and nothing more was said. I honestly still have no idea as to what went on

[Tinks2014]

My funniest story was at Heathrow . We had just moved back from Zimbabwe in 1980. My dad who loved nothing more than embarrassing his 16 year old daughter had a spear and a rifle wrapped up in paper. When he picked it up off the luggage belt we had to go to briefly to security . 😃