May I use this forum to express my gratitude to the vigilant Glasgow Airport security personel who narrowly foiled a potentialy horrible terrorist atrocity last week.
As an airline captain I am very concious that security is a team effort. It's in my interest that all the links in the security chain are pulling together in our efforts to keep the "baddies" off the aircraft. After all, we pilots are usually the first to arrive at the scene of a crash, and that is a fate we constantly strive to avoid. With this in mind, I naively proceeded in uniform to my aircraft in the assumption that we crews were "on side" with security.
Imagine, then, my horror when a sharp-eyed security person identified in my flight bag last Friday a small bottle of Tabasco sauce (used by myself to dull the horrors of airline catering). This item had transited security many times over the past few months by virtue of a shocking application of common sense and intelligent judgment by this guard's colleagues.
As I sat locked inside the flight deck with all the controls, a fire axe and more than 100 tons of fuelled-up airliner in my hands, imagine the chilli-based havoc I could have inflicted with this deadly subtance. Indeed, had the first officer smuggled a similar-sized bottle of ketchup through security, the liquids could have been combined to produce a potentially lethal barbecue marinade.
I consider the 10 minutes that the security team at Glasgow devoted to publically and loudly confiscating this item from my bag to have been another minor victory in the "war on terror".
Thank heavens we are keeping our eye firmly on the ball.
Les Wilson, Parkview House, Knockdon, By Culroy, Ayrshire.
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