<p>Kind of hard to Fed-Ex a laptop and phone when you travel daily as many business people do. Of course, we can no longer lock our suitcases so phones and computers might start walking away from the airports!</p>
<p>I wonder how the British authorities uncovered this plot, which supposedly, they had been monitoring for months. The suspects are said to have been British born Pakistanis. In other words, British citizens. </p>
<p>In this country, concerns over citizens’ privacy involving possible illegal wire tapping, bank records subpoenas, etc., have been the cause of heated debate. I wonder if the Brits have similar issues. How well do their laws address issues of privacy and civil liberties? This is apparently the third or fourth major terrorist plot uncovered in Great Britain in the last year or so. How are they managing to stay one step ahead of the terrorists?</p>
<p>Is it still a matter of privacy or safety?</p>
<p>So if I (or anyone really) travel somewhere on a vacation like in the next year or two or whenever and need to take my laptop and digital camera on a plane(laptop for loading the 800 to like 1200 photos onto since you cannot store than many on a digital camera at once) I’m supposed to mail these to a hotel?? Because buying several hundred disposable cameras is ridiculous (I think x-rays can damage those anyway??).</p>
<p>The electronics thing is coming from UK to US - not inter-US travel - but if one goes transatlantic - would be a very good idea to pack electronics with alot of thought.</p>
<p>So if someone had to put electronics in their luggage and it was stolen or damaged, can they sue and win?</p>
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<p>Well phone tapped evidence is not allowed to be used in court in the UK. They want everyone to have an id card, similar to many other European countries, but this has met with a lot of resistance (and the vast majority of people have either a passport or driving licence anyway)
<a href=“http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/A2319176[/url]”>http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/A2319176</a>
Then there is this stop and search policy with the police have and it’s applied to ethinic minorities more often. But the thing is, every incident of this nature IS carried out by ethinic minorities so the profiling seems to be working.
<a href=“http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/5178304.stm[/url]”>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/5178304.stm</a></p>
<p>Terrorism isn’t a new thing in the UK. A plane was blown out of the air over Scotland in the 1980s for example. It’s been going on forever but Americans did not care before September 11th.</p>
<p>Everyone can travel without electronics. It is for your own safety. If that means you have to take fewer photographs, hard luck.</p>
<p>cupcake:
Many of us do not travel for pleasure. I can do without a camera, but life would be very much harder without a laptop.
I lived in the UK when the main source of terrorism was the IRA. I guess you could call the Irish and ethnic minority, but profiling would be harder.</p>
<p>If it got to the point that no one could carry laptops, we’d figure out new ways to do business, I bet. We used to, right? businesses could have visitor computers; you access your stuff over the internet, etc, etc. We’re resourceful people; we’ll figure it out.</p>
<p>My fiance has to fly next week to help a former professor of his with an experiment. He’s an aero/astro guy, and for the experiment he needs to take his very delicate, very expensive R/C controller.</p>
<p>He’s okay with checking it, since it has a protective box of its own, but he’s worried what the TSA guys will think of it when they see it – I mean, it looks like something you’d use to set off a bomb. </p>
<p>What are the possibilities here? Could the TSA confiscate his controller without notifying him?</p>
<p>Anyone have any information about how the Canadian aviation authorities are treating these latest threats?</p>
<p>Here you go, dudedad.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.gtaa.com/Index.aspx?Sid=Node12&Tpl=6&PRESSID=649[/url]”>http://www.gtaa.com/Index.aspx?Sid=Node12&Tpl=6&PRESSID=649</a></p>
<p>mollie – I’ll bet the professor and the department have done this many times before. Have your fiancee (congratulations!) make sure that someone with experience does the packing, so that the box markings are appropriate. Maybe check with the department secretary to see if there are any phone calls that should be made, or “open box” inspections that can be arranged.</p>
<p>Thank you alwaysamom. Looks similar to current US regs.</p>
<p>Can the RC controller be shipped ahead via UPS or FED-Ex? That would see be the best option IMO. It wouldn’t be subject to the manhandling of careless airport baggage handlers and wouldn’t likely be mistaken for an explosive device and subject to search/damage.</p>
<p>So, how many cheap cameras do I have to buy next time I travel to take 800+ photos?</p>
<p>Wait a minute, why do we send carryon luggage through the x-ray machines then? Doesn’t that check for bombs and stuff?</p>
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I am thinking that’s going to be the best option. He’s not going to be happy about it – it will mean he can’t fly his beloved planes for a day or two before he leaves! 
– but I think it will be very much worth it in terms of peace of mind.</p>
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<p>I’m almost thinking that with all of the delays now, it would be a lot more efficient to adopt a security policy more like Israel’s main airline, El Al. Its pretty excessive to search for anything that might possibly be used as a weapon, especially in clusters before you even get to the gate. Makes a lot more sense to hire one official per gate to “interview” and individually search everybody. I also don’t understand the government’s involvement exactly. Why not have the airlines hire their own security officials? Seems like it makes a lot more sense to me.</p>