We were flying from London Heathrow (one of the busiest airports in the world or something) with Scandinavian Airlines. According to both SAS policy and UK government, knitting needles are permissible in the cabin. I know, I checked. (And I've now found that the Heathrow website explicitly says that knitting needles are allowed. I've bookmarked that for when I next travel from Heathrow)
The conversation at the gate went along these lines:
- Do you have anything sharp in your hand luggage ?
- Knitting needles ?
- Ooh, I don’t know about those. (Consults with colleagues, who also doesn’t know) I don’t think they are
- The Civil Aviation Authority say they're allowed (I may have made this bit up)
- Yeah, but it depends if security will allow it. They’re sharp.
- No, they’re not. (I wanted to point out that they’re 3.75mm more likely to bruise somebody than pierce their skin, although far more dangerous as a garrotte. After the time I told Easyjet check in staff all the ways that bras could be used for nefarious purposes, I’ve learned to keep thoughts like this to myself)
- No, security are sharp. They’ll be on it. I’d suggest putting it in your hold luggage. You don’t want to lose your needles, do you ?
This did very little, but annoy me at the thought of security guards confiscating items which are allowed, and made my husband more jumpy at me having knitting needles in my hand luggage for the journey home.
We then went through security – where I set off the scanner thing, was put in the tube thing for a body scan, had to take my shoes off to be scanned and was then asked to swap my shoes for my phone – so that the phone could be swabbed for drugs. I suspect that the presence of knitting needles
would have stopped me from leaving the country entirely.
Thank goodness, the Swedish are more relaxed and sensible about these things…..
No comments:
Post a Comment