Gatwick today (security)

Flew on the VS43 today (15th August) and the BAA security check was horrific.

Every passenger had the contents of their bag taken out and everthing check, so far this is ok except there were no where near enough staff so only 2 passengers were being done at a time.

The madness started when they would not let you take a magazine or book onto he aircraft without a receipt but would allow a laptop!

There was clearly no rules again today and the departure was delayed by 3 1/2 hours as it took so long to screen everyone.

After about an hour one of the crew arrived with a bag containing all the confiscated books and were handed them back. The magazines never appeared.

I am all for security but it does not seem that anyone knows what is required and that is extremely frustrating.

Not good.

I thought books were now OK? Just the smaller bag and no liquids.

Yeah, that's what I thought too. Maybe that IS the case, but the staff don't know????[:(]

Probably a case of baad communication from BAA. Shame really as they took 24 hours to communicate baadly.

Was this at the main security search comb (for all passengers), or the secondary security check at the gate?

The only reason I ask is because you said the crew went and got the confiscated books back. How they would have sorted just the books from your flight at the main checkpoint.

The main checkpoint at Gatwick is run by BAA.

If it's the latter, that is conducted by a screening contractor working on behalf of the airline (ex-UK, it's usually Group4-Securicor for Virgin), and so if it was the secondary screen, your beef is then definitely with VS, and not with BAA.

Cheers,
Mike

It was the final check as we bored where the problems were.

Did I miss something here, or does the BAA/LGW or VAA explicitly say that if you have a book you must be able to produce the receipt?

I thought all that I'd seen says that you can take on books purchased air-side but nothing about then having to show the receipt???

If VAA are arbitrarily now making it up as they go along, what's stopping them from saying that you have to produce a reciept for anything, otherwise you'll lose it??? Laptops, MP3's etc. If its not explicitly stated officially somewhere this is ridiculous and open to abuse by any Airport "staff", and is not acceptable.

Come on BAA and VAA be 100% clear on this.

Originally posted by manymiles
It was the final check as we bored where the problems were.

Can't say I'm surprised - as I explained, that check is done by people working under contract to VS (G4S in the UK).

However, a doubt a complaint will do any good, as we're not allowed to complain about being treated like scum "in the interest of security" anymore, and all that will happen is that varying amounts of finger pointing will try to apportion blame on the BAA, MI5, DfT, Santa Claus, etc., etc., before you're finally fobbed off.

It does smack of poor briefing about the current regulations, and sounds like utter chaos.

As I said, I'm not surprised, as I've had issues before with the VS contracted security both in the UK and the US.

One particular incident that sticks in my mind was leaving JFK a few years ago, where the contracted security staff doing the secondary screening at the gate weren't uniformed, weren't displaying their airside passes, and were downright surly and rude (even by NY standards!). When I challenged them about this, I was threatened with denied boarding! Obviously it's okay for them to flout the rules!

Cheers,
Mike