Airport Insecurity

Countless ounces of ink (though no more than three ounces at a time) have been wasted criticizing the stopgap window-dressing methods of airline security. I do tend to agree with all the criticism out there, believing that air travel is a calculated risk and the current security measures exceed the risk-reward efficiency threshold. Proper counterterrorism intelligence and a heightened state of vigilance by airline personnel can do basically the same thing as Gestapo-style strip searches, but with much less hassle.

But leaving to the side whether the rules, as they are presently conceived, make sense, I wish to highlight some nonsensical inconsistencies between Transportation Security Administration policies and those employed by airport security agencies in the rest of the world. Soon after the current three ounce restrictions on the size of carry-on liquid containers was approved, the TSA bumped up the limit to 3.4 ounces, so that the 100ml standard used by countries that have gotten with the program and adopted the metric system (i.e. the rest of the civilized world) would be acceptable in the USA. But while the TSA opted to round up, the EU security agencies rounded down. So, while your 3.39 ounce bottle of face wash passes muster in the USA, it would be confiscated in the EU. (To complicate matters, the imperial fluid ounce still in use in the UK, concurrently with the metric system, is slightly larger than the American fluid ounce.)

The rules for duty-free alcohol are even more convaluted. When you fly from the USA to Europe, you can carry-on duty free alcohol (which is delivered to the plane as you board, since American airports do not have sterile international departure zones). But if you try to connect within the EU, the alcohol will be confiscated when you reclear security. In Europe, they have come up with the novel idea that you don't claim your luggage until you reach your final destination, so you don't even have the option to stash the booze in your checked luggage before you catch your next flight. When you fly within the EU, duty-free booze you purchase is sealed in a tamper-proof bag, so that the authorities can know your Smirnoff vodka is no Molotov cocktail. But the US does not recognize the EU's tamper-proof bags, and further requires that duty-free purchased at the transatlantic departure airport be delivered to the gate -- a measure otherwise unnecessary in European airports, since they have a passport controlled departures area. Then, when you get back to the USA, you must put that liquor in your checked luggage since it is considered contraband as a carry-on. I don't even know what other developed countries require these days (Canada tends to follow the USA, Japan does its own thing, Israel laughs at the entire carnival).

We all know that when it comes to foreign relations, the USA government is extremely pigheaded and will not depart from their predetermined course of action no matter how much sense it might make. What drives me even more nuts than the nonsensical rules in general are the nonsensical minute differences in policies between nations and the unwillingness to set up a standardized international system. An internationally-recognized tamper-proof bag for purchased liquids and a common metric volume limit for liquids hardly seem like unreasonable requests. We live in a global society and international travel is more accessible than ever. Ridiculous and variable transportation security policies are an unnecessary roadblock.