Step forward, our first inductee for 2011, Gatwick Airport security staff:
Airport officials ordered a holidaymaker carrying a toy soldier onto a plane to remove its three-inch gun — because it was a safety threat.
Ken Lloyd was stunned when he was told he could not go on the plane with the nine-inch model soldier because it was carrying a ‘firearm’.
The Canadian tourist and his wife had bought the toy, which holds a replica SA80 rifle, during a visit to the Royal Signals Museum at Blandford Camp in Dorset.
Well caught, security super-heroes! Here’s the vicious piece of deadly weaponry they bravely prevented from being smuggled aboard the plane:
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jim Pook and Adrian MacNair, Nicholas Russon. Nicholas Russon said: New entrant into the "Security Theatre Kabuki Hall of Fame" – http://is.gd/wsyfNM […]
Pingback by Tweets that mention New entrant into the “Security Theatre Kabuki Hall of Fame” « Quotulatiousness -- Topsy.com — January 27, 2011 @ 21:09
Oh sure, it’s all fun and games until someone gets their eye poked out with a 3″ long replica firearm.
Thanks, airline security!
Comment by apotheosis — January 27, 2011 @ 21:36
It makes no one safer to claim that the nine inch soldier did not intend to use the weapon. The fact is he was threatening to use it, and the threat itself is enough to justify the action taken.
Well done.
Comment by nicholas — January 29, 2011 @ 20:48