Passengers' plight at ZIA
This is a clarification of ABM Zakaria's letter published on March 19. I am grateful to Mr. Zakaria for his kind comments. The following lines will make the picture somewhat clear for the prospective passengers, as well as the public at large. The DEFRA bulletin as stated may be OK in the UK, but not necessarily everywhere which is not a British colony. It may allow frozen fish (presumably raw fish?) or cooked food items in carry-on bags in the UK, but definitely not allowed in Germany, the USA and Thailand based on my travel experiences. Just imagine the dripping water when the ice melts at the cabin temperature, particularly in a long flight! Won't the smell of raw fish seep through and pollute the cabin atmosphere? A few days back, the Thai delicacy that I had in my cabin bag, although allowed at the entry security check, was removed and dumped at the final pre-boarding check of hand baggage at Bangkok airport. So to put it somewhat literally; "what is sauce for the goose, (in this matter) is not necessarily sauce for the gander"! Further Mr. Zakaria's statement: “Once the items are cleared at the entry gate; they should usually be allowed at the boarding gate, and objections if any may be raised at the entry point.” This is not the fact. The first security on entering the check-in area has an anti-terrorist objective, to ensure that no explosives and timing devices, arms and ammunition are carried in the checked baggage. Carry-on baggage which if checked here (not necessarily), as the passenger may make purchases at duty-free shops in the airport, is left for the final pre-boarding security inspection. At this point, food, anything sharp or metallic, even shaving kit, opened bottles of perfumes, cream etc. may all be removed, depending on the regulations of the airlines and the particular airport! This protocol also applies during transit while boarding a connecting flight! This basic procedure is followed at almost all airports, for both local or overseas flights. I can still recall an incident some years ago on a Chittagong to Dhaka Biman flight. Someone, who turned out to be a Biman staff, was carrying cooked dried fish (shutki) in his hand carry-on bag. This had to be offloaded at the insistence of fellow passengers (self included), as we refused to fly with the smelly hand baggage, and the cabin had to be sprayed with perfume, resulting in the flight being delayed--officially may be for "technical reasons"! May be the ZIA staff overact and could be overbearing (after all politeness and courtesy is not our normal virtue), but believe me the pre-boarding security at Bangkok is far more strict. It results in a longer queue, while the disposal bins have their fair share of goodies including foods, shaving kits, hair oil creams and lotions of various sizes and description!
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