Hope No-ones Intending To Fly This Week....

A colleague flew from Gatwick to Gib on Thurs evening and he said it was ok - bit of a delay but generally ok. Passengers on flights into the UK can still take hand luggage too (unless you are on a connecting flight out of the UK) so there isn't as much hassle as departing the country. Gibraltar aren't having to step up security at their airport at least - and it's owned by the RAF so it's generally one of the first places to step up security if need be. Crikey, once they took a hair clip from me at Gib airport - told me it was a dangerous weapon!
 
My parents flew back today and were only delayed an hour but hand luggage was still in clear plastic bags and (this was fun with them both being partially sighted and photophobic) extra glasses or sunglasses are ok but no glasses cases allowed!
 
Soba having taken two under 5s, we did count clouds and see what shape they can take. Its amazing what you can see in a cloud if you look, granted we were only going to paris but it might help. Clouds look so much better above
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Isty.

Any tips for youngsters are always welcome and the one you mentioned sounds spot on! I will definitely use that one,many thanks. :)

I flew back one my own from England yesterday from Leeds Bradford to Aldergrove and to be fair it wasn't bad from my perspective. Although the security through departures had really long queues and took ages it was okay. My flight was on time so that was a bonus too. Nearly forgot to mention, although nothing can be carried through security as in drinks, sweets, ciggies and reading material you can buy items in the departure lounges so that's not too bad as long as you don't mind paying the earth for them!
The only spooky moment i did have is as we were just coming in to land the plane then started to climb again, rapidly! The pilot came on the speakers and told us that the plane in front had flames coming from it's under carriage and the fire brigade were now on the runway awaiting it. :o I was a little ruffled to say the least but after another three low flying curcuits we landed. Must say though, Northern Ireland from the sky is beautiful and was a welcome distraction.
Oh and the plane that was on fire and all passengers were okay, happy days.
 
My son just rang to say he'd had a trouble-free, on-time flight from Bristol to Dublin and was now at home. What strange times. 20 years ago, I would probably have been worrying until I heard from him. ;)
 
Saw my partner in crime this morning who moved back over here last Thursday - she flew from Luton & had no problems.
 
Threat level downgraded

From yahoo.com

Britain downgrades security alert status

By ROBERT BARR, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 3 minutes ago

LONDON - The British government downgraded its terror threat level from critical to severe Monday, saying intelligence suggested an attack was no longer imminent after security forces foiled an alleged plot to bring down packed trans-Atlantic planes heading to the United States.

The critical level was declared last week when police rounded up 23 people suspected of involvement in the terror plot. Police questioned all but one of the suspects Sunday, but authorities remained silent on what, if anything, they have learned.

"I want to stress ... that the change in the threat level does not mean that the threat has gone away," Home Secretary John Reid said Monday.

"There is still a very serious threat of an attack. The threat level is at severe, indicating the high likelihood of an attempted terrorist attack at some stage, and I urge the public to remain vigilant," he added.

With the reduction in the threat level, the Department of Transport said passengers would be allowed to carry a single, briefcase-sized bag aboard aircraft, and that books, laptop computers and iPods would be permitted again. However, Heathrow and other major airports said they would not adopt the relaxed regulations until Tuesda
 
The British Airways plane on which I flew from Sydney to Heathrow ten days ago passed over Afghanistan and Iran, at 36,000 feet. Does anyone find that surprising?
 
Considering the itchy trigger-finger of the Americans, and their inability to tell friendly from enemy craft, yes. You made it back alive.
 
Perhaps someone on the previous flight left it there on accident.

Hardly see it as a reason to turn a plane round unless it was wired up to a bottle of Volvic.
 
Originally posted by Grey@Aug 14 2006, 10:29 AM
The British Airways plane on which I flew from Sydney to Heathrow ten days ago passed over Afghanistan and Iran, at 36,000 feet. Does anyone find that surprising?
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No. I'd find it surprising if it had passed over Vladivostock and Valparaiso
 
Originally posted by BrianH+Aug 15 2006, 01:24 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (BrianH @ Aug 15 2006, 01:24 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Grey@Aug 14 2006, 10:29 AM
The British Airways plane on which I flew from Sydney to Heathrow ten days ago passed over Afghanistan and Iran, at 36,000 feet. Does anyone find that surprising?
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No. I'd find it surprising if it had passed over Vladivostock and Valparaiso [/b][/quote]
Well yes, especially if it flew over both places on the same flight.
 
Originally posted by krizon@Aug 14 2006, 10:33 AM
Considering the itchy trigger-finger of the Americans, and their inability to tell friendly from enemy craft, yes. You made it back alive.
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I think its the US Navy that has a history of shooting down passenger jets. The USS Vincentze comes to mind, which in itself set off a chain reaction that ended over Lockerbie (and we all know who really did it - and it wasn't Libya :ph34r: )
 
Shush Brian...... Don't give the game away :ph34r:

I actually think its one of the most scandalous stitch ups in history, (well certainly recent history) and all for the sake of appearance money in the first Gulf War..... The clues are there :ph34r: And hands up if you knew the Swiss are involved
 
Nice to see many people come out saying we should use profiling and also one "sir" who's name escapes me saying the communities should take more responsibility and help sort these things out. Plus all the silly PC getting in the way of common sense and this is how the world is, young Asian men are trying to do us harm, so if you Asian be prepared to put under more scrutiny, it's the way the world is, tough!

I imagine these people are racist and stupid as well.
 
What I'm increasingly curious to discover is why 5 years after 9/11 our own intelligence service have only just realised that explosive can be masked as liquid? and only after an Asian Intelligence Agency pointed it out to them. They are after all supposed to employ some of best brains to enage in just this very type of scenario building activity, so surely this one shouldn't have required a giant leap of imagination to spot the potential weakness.

I'd have thought it was a pretty straight forward one to be honest.

Q: What form can explosives take?
Q: What can we disguise it as then?

Although I'm loathed to credit the Daily Express in particular (as even they abandoned their Diana obsession for a few weeks in 2001) but the threat posed by water born anthrax and distributed by crop sprayers was widely reported in October 2001 (as I inderstand it, it was also a very real threat) so the idea of using water/ liquid shouldn't have come as a surprise. The response of asking people to drink it, just highlights to me that we weren't prepared as this smacks of an ill thought out and desperate measure, which any discerning terrorist would easily be able to get around.

Out of interest Craig, have you abandoned repatriation yet in favour of profiling, or are you still advocating both?
 
I received an email from BA this morning saying that a full schedule will be resumed at Gatwick as of tomorrow. The hand luggage restrictions were eased slightly on Tuesday as well which is good.
 
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