Blog Marco

Qantas pilots delayed QF20 flight from Manila to Sydney via Brisbane the other day. How? They refused to remove their shoes for a security check at Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). The Australian pilots reportedly had argued with airport officials that they were being mistreated. The plane carrying 200 passengers left 70 minutes late after the two pilots yielded for the security check.

Security at the airport has been stepped up since the discovery of the plot to bomb planes flying from Britain to the US. In the last week, a local newspaper had reported that a security consultant was able to smuggle in C-4 explosives attached to the soles of hs shoes on a flight bound for southern Philippines. The consultant also claimed to have put together a bomb inside the plane's toilet. Were the Qantas pilots in the right for refusing security checks? Who gives? I think they should have submitted and they made such a big fuss for nothing, wasting 200 people's time. So what does that amount to? 200 people * 70 minutes is 14,000 minutes which is a total of 9.72 days of lost time for these people. ARGH!

Anyway, here are my other articles about Qantas or are related to Qantas: RAAF Richmond Site Visit 27th September 2005, Bumped into General Cosgrove at the Airport in Beijing, Qantas A380 - Sydney Flyover November, A380 Sydney Flyover, Qantas Business Class.

Update 5pm: The Qantas pilots for the QF20 flight who didn't submit to security measures in the NAIA airport in Manila, Philippines have been stood down pending an investigation into the matter according to executive general manager of Qantas Airways, John Borghetti.

I've been to the Philippines recently and I've got to admit their security measures are tight. In "Border Security" on Channel 7, people are sometimes asked for a frisk search on their body by customs officials. They are given a document in the passenger's language to read about their rights. These body frisks are only for people who Customs think have something illegal hidden on the passenger's body. In NAIA - people have no choice. I think just heading home on the same QF20 flight i had to be frisked twice without being asked for any special permission. It's just normal there. You get frisked for handguns whenever you enter a shopping mall in Philippines. So, frisked twice, you're baggage gets x-rayed on the way into the airport and then the hand carry luggage is searched by hand inside the terminal. Then you also walk though a metal detector and get frisked twice (I think a few years ago, people were frisked three times). There is no escape.

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