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Darwin Awards
2011 Slush Pile

This item was recently submitted by a reader.
Should I include it in the archive?
Vote to tell me what *you* think!

Gatwick security

2011 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

A Canadian tourist in Britain says security personnel at Gatwick Airport wouldn’t let her board a plane with a plastic toy soldier holding a four-inch rifle, saying the resin “firearm” was a threat to passenger safety.

Julie Lloyd, 60, had purchased the figurine of a crouching army signaler holding a pint-sized SA80 replica rifle during a trip to England as a gift for her husband, who recently retired as a signaler from the Canadian army.

At first, it wasn’t the replica rifle that caught security’s attention when Ms. Lloyd put her handbag through the airport scanners, but the thin, metal antenna that accompanied the figurine’s backpack radio. But once security personnel took one look at the nine-inch soldier and his little gun, the trouble started.

“They told me it was a gun and that I was not allowed to take it on the plane,” Ms. Lloyd recounted from her home in Oakville, Ont., Thursday. “I showed them politely that it had no moveable parts and no hole down the gun barrel. But they kept saying it was a gun.”

When Ms. Lloyd insisted that the figurine — worth about $300 — would not be complete without the gun, a security supervisor was called in. But he too ruled the “weapon” could not be taken on board Ms. Lloyd’s return flight to Canada.

Instead, Ms. Lloyd was told it would be no problem to remove the gun from the figure and mail it to herself. When Ms. Lloyd found that none of the airport post boxes had letter slits wide enough for the a hastily purchased envelope containing the gun, one of the security guards that wouldn’t let her take the toy on the plane offered to mail it for her.

It arrived on the Lloyds’ front porch four days later.

“I personally feel that the security doesn’t have good enough training, probably because they’re not paid very well,” said Ms. Lloyd.

Ms. Lloyd purchased the figuring during an April, 2009, trip, but the story is making news now because the Royal Signals Museum at Blandford Camp in Dorset, where she bought the souvenir, went public with the story after learning about it from Ms. Lloyd this past autumn. She says she’s already been interviewed by several newspapers in the U.K., and has been invited on a popular breakfast talk show.

A Gatwick Airport spokeswoman told England’s Daily Mail newspaper that firearms, including items with the appearance of firearms, are prohibited on aircraft.

“There are lots of other reasons an item could be prevented from going through security, such as large items that do not fit in overhead lockers on the aircraft,” she said.

Aviation security expert Peter St. John said Gatwick security personnel seem to subscribe to a system whereby rules are interpreted literally and judgment plays almost no part.

“It’s excessive,” Mr. St. John said. “Maybe there’s a laser from this toy that’s going to kill you too. The British are usually better than that.

“It’s the kind of thing you expect to happen in U.S. and Canada. We’ve thrown billions at airport security without making any noticeable difference.”

Ms. Lloyd says she was just happy to be able to present her husband, Ken, with the complete figurine at his retirement ceremony last summer.

“It was just fantastic because I opened it at the farewell ceremony and everyone crowded around because they’d never seen anything like it before,” Mr. Lloyd said. “And it had the gun.”

National Post

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/soldiers+tiny+barred+from+airplane/4181074/story.html#ixzz1CL1voqpG

Submitted on 01/29/2011

Submitted by: Claude Garneau
Reference: National Post · Friday, Jan. 28, 2011

Copyright © 2011 DarwinAwards.com

>> Moderator Scores <<

Bruce said:
Definitely Toss: Other
Thanks, Claude, but I'm not sure why this was even submitted since it doesn't fit into any of our posted rules. You and I and many others may consider some of the current airline security regulations to be absurd but that has nothing to do with Darwin Awards, and neither does a woman trying to carry a toy gun onto an aircraft. Please make sure submissions adhere to all the posted rules.


Candi said:
Definitely Toss: Other
What Bruce said.


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