It's not the size that counts … Tuesday, August 29, 2006

(On security and hand luggage) "You don't need much to depressurize an aircraft. Limiting the size of hand luggage, if this is in relation to security, it's of little or no consequence. The individual factor of the size of the bag is pointless almost," he said. "At a time when there's a high terror alert we can see why it's being done, but reducing the size of luggage, I'm not sure why they are doing that. The size doesn't make a huge amount of difference."

This is not about aircraft security - we all have our own opinions - it's about searching for all possibilities before letting the mind snap shut.

I think that if I were in charge of inspecting passengers for nasty items, size (of carry-on luggage) would make a great deal of difference.

A simple thought experiment should suffice:

Imagine that anyone can take on board whatever they want six-foot long wooden crates etc. Not a good idea, agreed? Right.

Now imagine the other extreme - everyone must board the airplane stark naked after spending 24 hours in a laxative camp. Also not a good idea. I agree. Going overboard, you might say.

Now imagine something in between. Fully dressed, but with a purse no larger than twelve inches by six inches by six inches. It's not too costly and not too slow to have each passenger tip the contents of the purse onto a tray for a quick and cursory inspection by a staff member.

95% of the purses will be passed in five seconds: A passport, a plastic comb, two aspirin in a sealed pouch.

5% of the purses will warrant more detailed inspection - what is in the tube? What is in the jar? Let's unscrew the ball-point pen (or replace your cheap plastic pen with one of ours), and this can be done at a side station equipped with senior staff, a sniffer dog, a super x-ray machine, what have you. Whatever it takes to vet that 5%.

But note that 95% of the passengers have suffered no longer a delay than they had previously.

A purse twelve inches on a cube holds four times as much, and takes longer to search. A small purse fits on a dinner-tray: take your dinner-tray over there.

Size does matter.

Reducing the size of carry-on luggage significantly reduces the time to do a thorough search, and significantly increases the chance of discovery, and that means it significantly decreases the chance of a nasty.

Size Does Matter. Stretch Your Mind!

Search