Why do we have to surrender all the water before entering the airport even if we prove that is in fact a drinking water by taking a sip?

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But once inside the airport terminal, we can always buy some water and no one will check anymore if you bring the water inside the plane.

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21 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Former TSA agent here, you have to surrender your water because bad people pretend to bring water on board but it actually an explosive and they use it to kill everybody on board while its in mid-flight. My favorite explanation is that they pour a flammable liquid on toilet paper, and due to nature of airplanes and PRESSURIZED AIR, this method would turn the whole passenger cabin into a inferno in a moment and if somehow you don’t die from fire the smoke will choke you to death like it does to the pilots. This is a thing they have done.

We do not allow people to prove its water by taking a sip because it doesn’t magically prove your water is water and the reason being is because if we allowed water on board this way the bad people would bring “disposable people” along with them to drink it so the main baddie can continue the mission. This ALSO something the bad people have done.

I hope this explanation sooths your frustration in navigating thru a checkpoint. Happy travels.

Anonymous 0 Comments

There are actually a few airports now trialling new technology to allow you to take liquids. I found this out at Heathrow last year when I downed about 3/4 litre of drink, I had about 100ml left in a reusable litre bottle and I asked for somewhere I could dispose the liquid and they said no need I was being scanned on a new machine that needed nothing removed (including the liquids from travel – like travel minis, shampoo, perfume etc.). Looking forward to that being the new standard tbh. I’m sure they’ll find something else to examine instead.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The last time this was asked, it was concluded that it’s not for security but for giving people the false sense of security. Aka. “security theater”

Anonymous 0 Comments

Performative airport security.

They have to “do stuff” conspicuously to show that they take security seriously..

Anonymous 0 Comments

Some possible, less cynical answers:

* nobody is forced to drink something that might put them at risk (e.g. minor being forced to smuggle something on board)

* it’s more reliable to have a blanket ban rather than a case-by-case drinkability test

Anonymous 0 Comments

The dummest part is the the 100ml limit. So I can just pack 5x 100ml bottles of my explosive substance and just combine them in my empty 500ml bottle after security?

Anonymous 0 Comments

A long time ago (right after 9/11) there was a credible threat about liquid explosives. See, what makes hidden explosives difficult is that combining the innocent stuff together is pretty complicated and hard to do on an airplane. A lot of bomb attempts were thwarted when other passengers saw what the attacker was trying to do. But with liquids it’s really quite simple and fast. Just mix, and boom.

This was quietly demonstrated to the appropriate officials: two drinking bottles full of innocent seemingly liquids (one was probably peroxide; which means the other could be one of dozens of options) when mixed would easily take down the whole plane.

They didn’t want to ban these SPECIFIC liquids and give terrorists any ideas, so they just banned ALL liquids. That way they don’t have to give the secret away. And enforcing these bans needs to be performed by someone who isn’t going to understand the issue anyway, so it’s safest just to say “no liquids” and leave it at that. It’s infuriating to passengers, but OTOH you don’t want your front line agents making judgment calls when you have absolutely no intention of explaining the threat to them.

So, no liquids. Easy to enforce, no explanation given. Done.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because airline security is to make you FEEL safe, not actually your safety.
If you look at actual risks vs their measures, it’s clear. They also ignore any easy methods to reduce the impact on travellers.
The point is to make it difficult, because we think difficult means effective.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I heard a TSA agent say you can bring in a frozen water bottle. Because explosives can’t freeze.