Enough Security Is Enough

The above title was the headline of an article from the Lufthansa airline magazine, which I read on my recent trip to Munich. (More details about that trip will be forthcoming within a week or so.) If an American airline executive made such a public statement, he'd earn himself a one-way trip to Gitmo. But in Europe, it represents a measured, common-sense response to the post-9/11 security hysteria.

At Frankfurt Airport, all passengers on flights bound for the USA had needed to pass through a special security checkpoint with x-ray inspection of hand luggage and a rather thorough wanding and patdown affectionately known as the "Frankfurt Feel-Up." Certain passengers would also be pulled for a manual inspection of their bags and/or their shoes. This secondary inspection was mandatory for all passengers, regardless of whether they were connecting or originating in Frankfurt (and hence had already passed through security control in Frankfurt). While I never received a satisfactory response for why a second checkpoint was needed, the two generally-accepted possible explanations are that there are special rules for U.S. bound flights and that connecting passengers needed to be screened at the airport of embarkation for the U.S. and the only way to do so was to re-screen everybody.

The article explained that the Frankfurt airport gate assignments were being reconfigured so that passengers who originated in Frankfurt or any other Schengen-zone country did not need to go through the Frankfurt Feel-Up. Whatever officials were in charge of such policy (and I don't know if they are U.S. officials, EU officials, airline officials, or airport officials) came to the realization that . Only those passengers connecting from outside the EU, who would arrive at the gates for U.S. flights via the SkyTrain, continue to face the Feel-Up (and given that some these passengers come from Africa, the Middle East, and India, it's a good idea).

Another pleasant security development I discovered during my trip was that the rule requiring duty-free liquids to be delivered to the gate of U.S.-bound flights has been relaxed. Among the EU countries, duty-free liquids packaged in a sealed, tamper-proof bag with a receipt from that day are considered secure. For some reason, the U.S. decided it needed its own, slightly different rule, just to make people's live more complicated. At Munich, however, I purchased my duty-free wine, beer, and mustard and took it through the special checkpoint for U.S. flights with no problems.

I commend the relevant officials (whoever they might be) for this step in the direction of a common-sense security procedure. Eventually, I'd like to see a Grand Unified Security Policy, in which all industrialized nations would recognize each other's security procedures as satisfactory and unify rules regarding liquids. Hopefully, someday, we'll get there.