There was mention of Airport security after 9/11, and I wanted to throw my 2
cents in...
When I left America, I wanted my film and camera hand checked, no x-ray, as
my B&W 800's came out half erased last time, despite the moron at the gate
who said nothing will happen to my film. The Lady at the LAX international
terminal said there is no hand checking, and I have to put it through the
xray. I said no, I wanted to talk to her boss... He came, and of course, I
lied, when he asked me what I had in there. I told him I had 800 and 1600
speed film, and so he nodded and had (get this) 2 armed army guys with
M16-A2's stand next to me, while they flipped through my camera bag. They
opened every film container, and stared through every lens... Finally they
let me go through, so.... my film made it through without being xrayed...
On the way back from Taiwan, same thing, I asked for a hand check... They
said ok, and that went without a hitch... Especially since I had a bag of
12 rolls of film..That was at the checkpoint. At the gate, (I flew China
Airlines) China Airlines had setup their own checkpoint, and again I asked
for it to be hand checked. The "boy" (yes, he was a boy, like 18 I
think...) didn't know what the hell he was doing, and I showed him a few
containers of film, and my camera, and he waved me through. So while it
"looks" like more security, there isn't any real security added..
If any of you are travelling to Asia anytime soon, there has been event
where someone hid a knife in his shoes, and was caught, and so there are a
few airlines that are reportedly making passengers take off their shoes to
prove that they don't have something underneath hidden in the shoes. China
airlines was NOT such an airline, but a few have done so in the recent days,
I saw on the news... So... That's my airport report, if you want your
camerabag hand checked, and they say that don't do that, that's BULLSHIT..
They will...
But what i recommend is taking a felt tipped pen, and writing "1600" on the
side of the film container, then they will hand check it.. That is what the
manager at LAX told me is the new policy, only if they specify that they
have 800 or 1600 or slower film, will they hand inspect.
Hope that helps someone from getting their film xrayed and ruined.
Albert.
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