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We have passport control, the metal detector machines you walk through. If it goes off you get searched ect.
On the way into the country, once you have been through all the security things in the states, you just have the passport checked and collect your bags and away you go.
Non of the eye search things, non of the other things that you get when arriving in the states. Its a doddle here to get through security.
Of course, the UK and other European countries have never allowed just anyone to wander thro security into the Departure areas like they used to in the USA. You cannot get past security unless you have a valid boarding pass and ID. They used to make you take your shoes off at Heathrow Terminal 3 but I can't remember doing it in Terminal 5 when I flew out of there last July.
And I don't think the security guards in the UK carry sub-machine guns like they do in Germany or other European countries. Mind you, if you do get patted down, do NOT make a fuss. As my boss discovered in UK last year, the security agents there will not care one iota about your civil rights or the fact you're not a UK citizen or any of that nonsense.
well in britain the terror threat level has been moved up to its second highest level yesterday, so i would imagine the security measures will be strict to say the least at the moment
well in britain the terror threat level has been moved up to its second highest level yesterday, so i would imagine the security measures will be strict to say the least at the moment
even if their terror level is raised, I somehow don't believe that the Europeans are as UPTIGHT about everything. Just look at our history. 9-11 appears to be an excuse to implement all of this control over the american lemmings.
The only time I have ever had to take my shoes off before flying was when transiting though JFK in 2007, and I have flown in and out of UK airports when there's been a terror alert, though I haven't flown for the last 18 months. When transiting through a US airport as a foreigner even if your final destination is elsewhere you still have to go through security and answer all sorts of questions, which took me nearly an hour starting from when I landed. I believe nowadays you would have to have a biometric scan or apply for something online in advance which I didn't have to do then. I also had to fill in a green form asking me if I was a terrorist or if I as an Englishman born in 1986 was involved in the Holocaust. I'm open to correction on this, but I think an American transiting through the UK en route to elsewhere would only have to go through security at the final destination.
A cousin of mine is a research scientist and he got taken in for questioning and held in the cells overnight in Atlanta (and missed his connection) just for being a single male traveller going to the US out of tourist season a couple of months after 9/11. Flying in the UK is not exactly fun but not as big a hassle as in the US.
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