Let’s face it; unless you’re a pigeon or an £11 sandwich, an airport is nobody’s favourite place to be. And for me, personally, passing through security is often the worst part of the experience.
While 100ml liquid restrictions are being phased out (good news for fellow shampoo brand loyalists), some pre-flight chores remain mandatory in many airports; including removing your laptop from your bag before your luggage gets scanned.
Aside from the (admittedly mild) inconvenience, I’m always confused as to why I have to take it out in the first place. Thankfully, Doug Drury, a professor and head of aviation at CQUniversity Australia, recently spoke to The Conversation about the topic ― so my disproportionate bafflement is soon to be soothed.
Of course, most of us can agree that security checks are important
As flustered as I might get at the security check, I think almost all of us understand why they’re in place. As Drury wrote, pre-9/11 protocols meant you could bring almost anything (including a knife with a blade of up to four inches) on US flights with your hand luggage.
In fact, airport restrictions worldwide were generally unbelievably lax, from a post-9/11 perspective. “Security largely consisted of walking through an airport metal detector to check for weapons such as guns or knives that might facilitate a hijacking,” wrote Complete Background Screening.
Security checks have (of course, rightly) been amped up since. Shoes are removed. Liquids are checked. And, of course, electrical items like laptops are removed from bags.
The reason for this, Drury explains, is because many X-ray scanners at airport security checks aren’t able to ‘see’ through the gadget’s large and dense battery, among other components of the device. “The same goes for power cords and other devices such as tablets and cameras,” Drury says.
If security can’t see what’s in the bag, they can’t judge if it’s safe. So, it makes sense that we have to remove it for clearer vision ― and may sometimes be asked to open the laptop and switch it on to prove it’s a real computer.
While some new, advanced X-ray machines are now able to ‘see’ through the tech, Drury says that “amping up the technology won’t remove the lag caused by airport screenings. Ultimately, the reason these are a major choke point is because of the speed at which staff scan the imagery (which dictates the speed of the conveyor belt).”
Scratch everything I said about checking bag hassle earlier...