It may have been me that confiscated it

Really? It always seems so much quicker than US.

It's probably because they weren't getting out the vets gloves like they do over here...

I don't like being irradiated either.

It's better now, but when I worked back in terminal 3 8 or so years ago, during the manic periods during the summer, it wasn't uncommon to have to queue for about an hour just to reach the point where you present your boarding card. It used to be total chaos.

Lucky escape... good job it wasn't Daddies!


Apparently you don't need to be checked if you're... I'll tell the tale.
I was behind a couple probably late 50's, early 60's in age. Amsterdam airport flying out to the US. The Dutch security guy asked them to remove belts etc.. they caused a bit of a fuss and reluctantly took off belts, then something else, then jackets. All the time grumbling at each other and the security.
They were then asked about fluids in their bags and replied : "Only personal items". Asked how much: "Not much". Security guy asked them to open their bags.. they grumbled a lot more and louder. Eventually opened their bags and took out maybe 2 litres of fluids from each of the two bags.
They were told they'd be confiscated. The whole process had took a good 5+ minutes by now and the murmurs of "Oh ffs!" in various accents could clearly be heard.
When they were asked to move to another table to sort it out the chap exclaimed in a broad southern drawl: " But we're American ya know!"

Imagine that!

I have got back to find a knife I did not know was in my bag made it through, just not the HP.

At the risk of generalizing, Americans along with Scandinavians were by far the worst people to deal with. I used to hate it when a yank used to tell me that his huge bag of camera film in his nuclear grade lead bag wasn't going through the X-Ray. Ask me and I'll get it hand searched. Tell me, and it's going through the perfectly safe for film x-Ray machine. I used to wish our machines were fitted with a fry button sometimes.

My wife and I were flying Amsterdam to Montreal, 2007 I think it was. She inadvertently left her penknife in her carry on. It was a good sized knife, with a blade about three inches long. The security guy found it, consulted his supervisor, and gave it back to her, to take on the flight.

Mrs 1234

I just flew Terminal 3 to Ottawa a fortnight ago. A Monday in March, it was a quiet day, when I got in to the security area, there were maybe twenty people in front of me in my line. It took forever to get through. For some reason, the staff seemed much too diffident in telling the people what they needed to do. Plus, there were a lot of women in front of me with multiple bags and layers and layers of clothes etc.

I scoped it out, saw what was required, put my light jacket, watch, and wallet and small change in my backpack. I was ready to go through. But some people seemed to take five minutes to fill multiple plastic boxes with all their worldly possessions...

I was also quite surprised to see a woman being hand searched by a male officer.

OMG. That is in fact her, but that's her other knife.

That is the main reason why it takes so long. It used to do my head in standing at the front of the x-Ray machine telling people to empty their pockets seeing people plonk their bags down then proceed to empty the entire contents out of their pockets. Like you, by the time I reach the front of the machine, I'm ready to go.
Are you sure that was a proper woman? When you searching, you mean a body search? That shouldn't be happening. I did however search 2 ladies, well, girls actually during my time

But as others have pointed out complete theatrical bullshit. It might catch someone doing it the same way as its been done before, but it won't catch the guy with a bomb sewn into his gut. It didn't catch the shoe bomber with either. What's catching the Bastards is intelligence, not the stage actors at security.