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Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Safe and secure?
I have just had an unusual experience, one that is so out of the ordinary it has left me wondering what happened. I have just checked in and boarded a flight to Tel Aviv, Israel, and it was an entirely normal, usual process. I am amazed.

This blog is being written on board BA165 en route to TLV (Miles going into American Airlines). The check-in at LHR Terminal 4 was at the usual Club World check-in desk -- no separate area with armed policemen around. There was no secondary security, additional searches, nothing beyond the main scanner and body search when going airside into the departure lounge. And worst of all, I don't know whether I am delighted or worried at the lack of extra measures.

Normally, flying to Israel involves a much stricter security regime for obvious reasons. El Al's security involves questioning of passengers and is legendary. Other airlines aren't much different in terms of searches. Earlier this year I flew Lufthansa from Frankfurt to TLV. I was impressed at the numerous security checks before boarding (which itself took place in a more secure gate area) -- one of which included a mandatory body search similar to those restrictions now in place from FRA to the U.S.

So this morning, when my colleague and I arrived at LHR for the 0830 flight we made sure we got to the gate early and got ourselves ready for searches.

Not a bit of it. Not an extra policeman in sight. Not an extra security person on the jetway, asking for another look into my briefcase. Nothing.

I can hear BAA, which runs LHR, already saying, that the main security between landside and airside is robust enough to deal with all issues and I am sure they are right. But some flights are more high profile than others, hence why there are additional measures in place, for instance, for flights to the U.S.? I had just assumed (wrongly, it seems) that Tel Aviv was one such flight.

The last part of this blog is being written on the return leg -- when I had been suitably grilled by Ben Gurion Airport security, my check-in baggage x-rayed and my hand baggage searched (but no body search.)

And I am still left wondering, should I be worried about what happened at LHR on Saturday, that something was being missed? Or should I be pleased that the overall security is so strong that even high-profile security flights like Tel-Aviv don't require anything more. I don't know.

Quick additional thought -- I used the ATM at Ben Gurion Airport, and of course asked to do the transaction in English. No problem there. But why when it then prints the receipt does it do so in Hebrew? Surely the technology exists so that the machine says to itself, "Hey up, this customer has chosen English on the screen; we must make sure we print the receipt in English too?" Can anyone who works in banking explain why this doesn't happen? It seems like common sense to me!
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