Airport Security Observation

[jonniebkk]

This incident occurred at Penang International Airport but is related to travel in general so don't know if it should be posted here in Travel or in the SE Asia forum. Anyway, here goes:

I returned from a visa run to Penang this weekend and like I always do, I bought a bottle of wine at the airport duty free shop. [Penfolds cabernet savignon about B 1500 vs. B 4500 at Villa.] The shop is after all the security checkpoints in the departures area. I decided to buy a new wine bottle opener and decided on one of those models where you pierce the cork with a pointed needle and pump air into the bottle thus increasing the inter-bottle air pressure and dislodging the cork.

The metal needle attached to the pump mechanism is about 2-2.5 inches long and pointed. It is basically a quite long needle, with its own handle. This implement was placed in a regular shopping purchase bag and I carried it and the wine on board the plane with me. Now, it occurred to me that this little innocuous implement could be used as quite a formidable weapon if one was so inclined. This would be especially so if a number of people purchased one before boarding a flight.

Seems to me that in an age when you can't take on nail clippers or fillers (let alone bottles of water) this is somewhat of a security lapse.

PS: As this shop also is a cigar shop, they also sell high-power butane cigar lighters. I assume they just give these to purchasers to carry on board the plane too. Could do a good amount of damage to the inside of a plane very quickly with one of those too

[dave_boo]

Aren't most of the materials used inside of modern airplanes flame resistant? Or is that just wishful thinking on my part?

[jonniebkk]

Maybe...but planes seem to go up in smoke pretty readily when they hit the ground unexpectedly.