6 ms·

I had this at Gatwick last year... "Hey idiot, get your goddamn bags off the (expletive) belt! Hurry the hell up!" At which point another passenger decided to

I had this at Gatwick last year... "Hey idiot, get your goddamn bags off the (expletive) belt! Hurry the hell up!" At which point another passenger decided to take advantage of the confusion and tried to steal my phone... "God (expletive) damn you! Are you trying to make my (expletive) life hard?! Just take your bags and go, you're holding up my line!" Approached the airport, "we do not comment on security matters". "How can I take this complaint further?" "You'll need to ask your solicitor to contact our legal department." And then there was Stockholm Arlanda... (On the way in) "Good morning Sir. Welcome to Stockholm." And on the way out... "Sir, is this your bag? Can you please turn the laptop on for me?" 'Do you need me to log in, it's for work...' "Oh no, I just need to see it turn on."

dijit 8y ago
The laptop thing is actually common. Confirming the functionality of laptops (especially larger or older ones) is within the guidelines Just making sure it's not a bomb. Easy to bypass though, just like all security theatre.
kmlx 8y ago
Helsinki: "why am i being checked?" smiles looking stupid "no really, why am i being checked" "i don't know, i just work here" "so you just follow orders blindly? can someone explain what's going on" no one could explain anything because Helsinki airport is a piece of..., same as Gatwick or Luton. regarding TSA, since I don't have facebook, snapchat, instagram it's always scary talking to them.
- ATsch 8y ago
  > since I don't have facebook, snapchat, instagram it's always scary talking to them. why?
  - NullPrefix 8y ago
    Stasi thinks he's hiding his real accounts
  - Markoff 8y ago
    because they assume everyone has at least some account and if you say you don't have any, they will think you don't want to provide it
  - pvaldes 8y ago
    There could be a problem also with legit accounts with the same name as you or, even worse, fake accounts created with your name for some reason (from bots to exgirlfriend revenge to I'll reserve this name "just-in-case"). You don't know that those accounts exist, but they can take a quick look and think that you are a lier. They do not have the time or the desire to verify that. I remember a twitter "pvaldes" account created minutes after declinate to upload a photo of my face to a popular freelancer platform. The account showed a naked guy seen from behind showing his bottom in a pool, a location similar to mine, and not much more. Maybe is still opened, I really don't care. So, probably a better answer would be "I had seen accounts in facefook/twitter/whatever with my name but aren't mine. As you can see, are mostly inactive or is clear that I'm not the same person shown in those party photos". A solution is not forcing yourself to pass by this cattle-treatment if the country is so unfriendly to foreigners.
- Tor3 8y ago
  > Helsinki: "why am i being checked?" smiles looking stupid "no really, why am i being checked"[..] In Helsinki, and in a lot of European countries, there's a little gadget in the security check which will randomly select someone for a manual search. It takes the security officer out of the equation.
  - philpem 8y ago
    If it's actually dice-roll random, I can see that working pretty well. It's actually fairly common to use "random coin-flip" type machines in retail -- you do random bag-checks of staff, and they push the button on the machine. Either "search" or "no search" lights up. The probability is set according to the risk factor of the store, anywhere between "nobody gets searched, this is just to scare you" and "everyone gets searched, no buts". In my experience, it usually gets set to about 15% probability. Just enough that a few people get searched every week, not enough that everyone has to stay behind for an hour waiting for bag searches.
rypskar 8y ago
In Norway we can click on smiley faces after security to say how the experience was, going from good to bad, there was an article in the news the other day about how they used the results from this survey for setting bonuses for the agents working in the different airports
- Broken_Hippo 8y ago
  I am American, living in Norway. I got searched while coming home from Amsterdam. Its OK, I understand, it is Amsterdam, after all, and they want to make sure I'm not smuggling stuff. And I pack very lightly, which doesn't help matters at all. I've never been treated so well while being searched. The guy was kind and polite and smiled a little. I also learned that in his opinion, Americans were usually pretty easy to deal with, but more nervous in general. He thought it was because we (Americans) were used to a more authoritarian-acting police.
  - seanmcdirmid 8y ago
    I used to get searched all the time in Seattle because I was coming in from Beijing and must have looked suspicious or something. Anyways, I was never treated poorly in the red line by immigrations and customs. Just one point of anecdata, Seattle is a sleepy place and the airline staff is usually a bit nicer. I’ve never had to go through an extended customs search in another country, however.
    - Fnoord 8y ago
      > because I was coming in from Beijing > and must have looked suspicious or something Can it not be that you were coming from Beijing?
      - seanmcdirmid 8y ago
        No, my Chinese colleagues on the same (direct) flights were never searched, just me.
test1235 8y ago
just to clarify ... a member of gatwick airport security staff said that you? >"Hey idiot, get your goddamn bags off the (expletive) belt! Hurry the hell up!" >"God (expletive) damn you! Are you trying to make my (expletive) life hard?! Just take your bags and go, you're holding up my line!" That all sounds so un-british I can't imagine this playing out. Which part of security were you in? I've flown through heathrow, gatwick and other uk airports loads of times and never seen anything approaching that level of rudeness.
- owenversteeg 8y ago
  Really? I've gone through a good number of British airports and I've seen similar scenes play out (typically not directed at me, though.) British security/police seem to take their power a bit too far very often, in my experience. They have absolutely no problem with a little shouting. Of the first-world immigration officials I've had to interact with I'd rank them perhaps second worst, for general cluelessness and authoritarian behavior. The typical British "don't say or do anything, just tut" behavior does apply often: Public displays of racism? Civil liberties being taken away? A simple tut will do. But if you're British immigration, then shouting incorrect or confusing instructions is just part of the job. The number of times I've seen this is too high, and that's not even including the number of patronizing and wrong instructions I've gotten, either. For example, getting shouted at that I should have presented my American passport when I presented my Dutch passport (...what?)
  - PietdeVries 8y ago
    "British security/police seem to take their power a bit too far very often"... And that is the actual problem here as well. At the airport you end up in a "your rights end here" zone. According to the original story, the questioned person had no right to a laywer as he was not arrested. But he was also not free to go. So there you are: stuck between a rock and a hard place... Sure, you have every right not to unlock your phone. But you will go nowhere, miss your flight, your connecting flight, etc. And all the officers just go home when their shift is over and forget your case ever happened...
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
kitd 8y ago
I assume your quotes aren't verbatim, because those are some very un-British colloquialisms. Having said that, I know that TSA agents have worked at Heathrow and Gatwick before. Maybe he/she was one of those.
- philpem 8y ago
  It's not a direct quote. One because I can't remember the exact words verbatim (this was last year) and two because the ones I could remember, I translated to American for the benefit of the HN audience :)
ed_balls 8y ago
I think that the primary reason is psychology. People wanna feel safe. I was flying to Gatwick from Bilbao (EuroPython) and I walked into the plane like into a train. I was stunned. No one has checked my bag, no scanners. What is the point of all this fuss with security in UK if I could just pick another airport as a my entry point?

dijit 8y ago

The laptop thing is actually common. Confirming the functionality of laptops (especially larger or older ones) is within the guidelines Just making sure it's not a bomb. Easy to bypass though, just like all security theatre.

kmlx 8y ago

Helsinki: "why am i being checked?" smiles looking stupid "no really, why am i being checked" "i don't know, i just work here" "so you just follow orders blindly? can someone explain what's going on" no one could explain anything because Helsinki airport is a piece of..., same as Gatwick or Luton. regarding TSA, since I don't have facebook, snapchat, instagram it's always scary talking to them.

ATsch 8y ago
> since I don't have facebook, snapchat, instagram it's always scary talking to them. why?
- NullPrefix 8y ago
  Stasi thinks he's hiding his real accounts
- Markoff 8y ago
  because they assume everyone has at least some account and if you say you don't have any, they will think you don't want to provide it
- pvaldes 8y ago
  There could be a problem also with legit accounts with the same name as you or, even worse, fake accounts created with your name for some reason (from bots to exgirlfriend revenge to I'll reserve this name "just-in-case"). You don't know that those accounts exist, but they can take a quick look and think that you are a lier. They do not have the time or the desire to verify that. I remember a twitter "pvaldes" account created minutes after declinate to upload a photo of my face to a popular freelancer platform. The account showed a naked guy seen from behind showing his bottom in a pool, a location similar to mine, and not much more. Maybe is still opened, I really don't care. So, probably a better answer would be "I had seen accounts in facefook/twitter/whatever with my name but aren't mine. As you can see, are mostly inactive or is clear that I'm not the same person shown in those party photos". A solution is not forcing yourself to pass by this cattle-treatment if the country is so unfriendly to foreigners.
Tor3 8y ago
> Helsinki: "why am i being checked?" smiles looking stupid "no really, why am i being checked"[..] In Helsinki, and in a lot of European countries, there's a little gadget in the security check which will randomly select someone for a manual search. It takes the security officer out of the equation.
- philpem 8y ago
  If it's actually dice-roll random, I can see that working pretty well. It's actually fairly common to use "random coin-flip" type machines in retail -- you do random bag-checks of staff, and they push the button on the machine. Either "search" or "no search" lights up. The probability is set according to the risk factor of the store, anywhere between "nobody gets searched, this is just to scare you" and "everyone gets searched, no buts". In my experience, it usually gets set to about 15% probability. Just enough that a few people get searched every week, not enough that everyone has to stay behind for an hour waiting for bag searches.

rypskar 8y ago

In Norway we can click on smiley faces after security to say how the experience was, going from good to bad, there was an article in the news the other day about how they used the results from this survey for setting bonuses for the agents working in the different airports

Broken_Hippo 8y ago
I am American, living in Norway. I got searched while coming home from Amsterdam. Its OK, I understand, it is Amsterdam, after all, and they want to make sure I'm not smuggling stuff. And I pack very lightly, which doesn't help matters at all. I've never been treated so well while being searched. The guy was kind and polite and smiled a little. I also learned that in his opinion, Americans were usually pretty easy to deal with, but more nervous in general. He thought it was because we (Americans) were used to a more authoritarian-acting police.
- seanmcdirmid 8y ago
  I used to get searched all the time in Seattle because I was coming in from Beijing and must have looked suspicious or something. Anyways, I was never treated poorly in the red line by immigrations and customs. Just one point of anecdata, Seattle is a sleepy place and the airline staff is usually a bit nicer. I’ve never had to go through an extended customs search in another country, however.
  - Fnoord 8y ago
    > because I was coming in from Beijing > and must have looked suspicious or something Can it not be that you were coming from Beijing?
    - seanmcdirmid 8y ago
      No, my Chinese colleagues on the same (direct) flights were never searched, just me.

test1235 8y ago

just to clarify ... a member of gatwick airport security staff said that you? >"Hey idiot, get your goddamn bags off the (expletive) belt! Hurry the hell up!" >"God (expletive) damn you! Are you trying to make my (expletive) life hard?! Just take your bags and go, you're holding up my line!" That all sounds so un-british I can't imagine this playing out. Which part of security were you in? I've flown through heathrow, gatwick and other uk airports loads of times and never seen anything approaching that level of rudeness.

owenversteeg 8y ago
Really? I've gone through a good number of British airports and I've seen similar scenes play out (typically not directed at me, though.) British security/police seem to take their power a bit too far very often, in my experience. They have absolutely no problem with a little shouting. Of the first-world immigration officials I've had to interact with I'd rank them perhaps second worst, for general cluelessness and authoritarian behavior. The typical British "don't say or do anything, just tut" behavior does apply often: Public displays of racism? Civil liberties being taken away? A simple tut will do. But if you're British immigration, then shouting incorrect or confusing instructions is just part of the job. The number of times I've seen this is too high, and that's not even including the number of patronizing and wrong instructions I've gotten, either. For example, getting shouted at that I should have presented my American passport when I presented my Dutch passport (...what?)
- PietdeVries 8y ago
  "British security/police seem to take their power a bit too far very often"... And that is the actual problem here as well. At the airport you end up in a "your rights end here" zone. According to the original story, the questioned person had no right to a laywer as he was not arrested. But he was also not free to go. So there you are: stuck between a rock and a hard place... Sure, you have every right not to unlock your phone. But you will go nowhere, miss your flight, your connecting flight, etc. And all the officers just go home when their shift is over and forget your case ever happened...
AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago

kitd 8y ago

I assume your quotes aren't verbatim, because those are some very un-British colloquialisms. Having said that, I know that TSA agents have worked at Heathrow and Gatwick before. Maybe he/she was one of those.

philpem 8y ago
It's not a direct quote. One because I can't remember the exact words verbatim (this was last year) and two because the ones I could remember, I translated to American for the benefit of the HN audience :)

ed_balls 8y ago

I think that the primary reason is psychology. People wanna feel safe. I was flying to Gatwick from Bilbao (EuroPython) and I walked into the plane like into a train. I was stunned. No one has checked my bag, no scanners. What is the point of all this fuss with security in UK if I could just pick another airport as a my entry point?