[IP] First Hand Experiences at London Gatwick
Begin forwarded message:
From:
Date: August 11, 2006 1:55:36 AM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: First Hand Experiences at London Gatwick
Hi Dave,
Please share anonymously with IP if you’d like.
I was one of the (un)lucky ones who flew from London to the United
States today and can confirm all of the experiences being discussed
on IP first hand. I flew out of London Gatwick and arrived at the
airport just past 8 am for a flight that was scheduled to depart at
11.55 am Gatwick departures was a zoo, and it took about 45 minutes
to get from the front door of Gatwick to the check-in counter for my
flight with Continental Airlines.
The employees at Continental were instructing everyone to check
everything, and basically you were only allowed to take onboard a
small wallet, passport, and plane ticket. Essential medications and
baby products were also being permitted, but everything else --
including books, electrical equipment (laptops, iPod, mobile phones,
Blackberry, etc.), eyeglasses cases -- needed to be checked.
The security screening lines to get to the departure lounges were
lengthy, but were moving quite well given the absence of any luggage.
The security personnel were doing quite a thorough search of all
passengers, including a pat down search, and scrutinizing fairly
closely the now limited belongings that people were trying to bring
onto the airplanes.
In the departure lounge, the shops were being given specific
instructions that no liquid substances of any sort were to be sold to
passengers departing for the US, and any beverages purchased needed
to be consumed prior to boarding the airplane. Ironically, you were
able to purchase books, newspapers, food, and other goods to bring
onto the airplane that you were not able to bring through security.
WH Smith (a newsagent in the U.K.) was doing rather brisk business as
a result.
The flight that I was on was Continental 67 from Gatwick to
Cleveland, Ohio. Upon arrival at the gate, all passengers were
subjected to another thorough pat down search. Boarding for the
flight commenced approximately 30 minutes after the scheduled
departure time -- at the time I was thinking that the delay was going
to be much greater -- but this is when things got interesting.
We continued to sit at the gate, and the captain explained that the
delay was a result of a check by the UK and US governments of the
passenger manifest. As I understand it, flights to the US from the UK
were no longer being cleared to depart once the passenger manifest
had been transmitted to the US / DHS / TSA; instead, as of today, the
passenger manife
sts needed to be pre-cleared by the US and UK governments even before
the flight was allowed to leave the gate.
Two hours into this waiting routine, airport authorities boarded the
plane and offloaded a passenger. After the passenger was offloaded,
we were all asked to disembark the airplane, so that a full sweep of
the aircraft could be performed. Once at the gate area, having
checked our mobile phones previously, a rather long queue quickly
formed at the single BT public payphone at the gate.
We reboarded the plane at about 4 pm, and our flight departed for the
States at 6 pm -- a full 6 hours after our scheduled departure time.
With the books and magazines I had purchased from WH Smith, I was
able to keep myself occupied for the 8 hour flight, but it was a
surreal experience traveling on a long international flight without
laptop, noise canceling headphones, onboard luggage and other
creature comforts that I normally bring with me to make international
flights bearable and productive.
We arrived at Cleveland at 9 pm, and I had long missed by onward
connection to San Francisco. Here’s to hoping that the airports
tomorrow are a bit less of a zoo than they were today.
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/