Chaos at 02:00 10 August 2006 - threats to blow up aircraft

What a night at work on the 9th to 10th August!

I was working nights and just enjoying a quiet shift, not much happening when we received a call at 02:00 from the UK Department of Transport about a change in airport security procedures across the UK.

We were told, in a lengthy fax, that the Police had made several arrests that night and had foiled an imminent terrorist attack on approx 20 aircraft departing the UK for the USA. We were then told that all pax departing the UK would not be allowed any handluggage except for a few items which would have to go in a clear plastic bag. Everything else would have to go in the hold.

We were told we weren't allowed to tell pax the reasons for this security change because arrests were still being made and the police didn't want the media finding out until later... it took Sky News until 05:30 to catch wind of this story... a good 3 and a half hours after we knew.

Each airport authority was pretty much left to it's own devices.... Bristol were spot-on and had it all organized in about 30 minutes. Belfast seemed to know nothing about it for around a hour after everyone else and London Gatwick was, predictably, a nightmare!

Hopefully these extra security measures won't put people off of flying... it is still the safest form of transport. Industry staff are suffering enough from high oil prices which are keeping down wages. The last thing we need is a large amount of people not travelling. The only thing that can mean is more redundancies.

At the end of the day... flying is much safer now and more secure than prior to 11 September 2001... so fingers crossed that people see that and don't let even more of the industry collapse.