Nightmare for families at UK airports as new 100ml security scanners flag kids medicine like Calpol as ‘an explosive’
FAMILIES face fresh nightmares at UK airports as the troubled new security scanners reject vital medicine.
Calpol and other liquid nurofens are being flagged by the new high-tech CT scanners being introduced across the UK as potentially ‘an explosive’.
Despite being under 100ml and completely legal to take through UK security, the Artificial Intelligence software in the next-generational CT systems is unable to confirm these are just every-day household medicines.
The multi-million pound new kit instantly rejects and families are forced to wait in lengthy queues for them to be checked by security staff.
A security source said: “Calpol and other liquid nurofens are instantly being rejected. It’s causing huge queues as families always travel with the medicine.
“It’s only recently that we’ve been able to hand them back to passengers – before that we’d have to throw them away and tell families to buy more in the departure lounge.
“The new scanners haven’t sped up the time it takes to get through security – they’ve made it far worse as so many more passenger bags are having to be checked for innocent liquids.”
It comes as the entire scheme was thrown into chaos with the reintrouction of the 100ml liquid rule – the one thing the new scanners were meant to get rid of.
The government told all UK airports they had to have the scanners installed by June this year. They were at first feted as a revolution for the nightmare that is airport security.
With no 100ml limit and no need to remove electronics from your bags, it was meant to speed up the process.
Six smaller regional airports met the deadline – including London City, Teeside, Newcastle, Leeds Bradford, Southend and Teeside and allowed passengers to travel with unlimited liquids.
But major airports including Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester were given until NEXT year to switch to the new scanners due to the complex nature of installing them while still processing millions of passengers.
And then back in June, the government announced the 100ml liquid rule was back.
While you no longer have to remove anything from your bag, inconsistencies in the software have seen innocent items flagged as potentially dangerous.
Sources initially said some sun creams were being flagged as banned substances.
But the failure to recognise a medicine used by tens of millions of families on a daily basis to cope with their children’s minor illnesses, has led to huge delays and thousands of innocent bottles of the liquid medicine being thrown away.
The situation will be made worse because airports across the EU – also installing the new scanners – re-introduced the 100ml liquid restrictions this month
There is not currently any plans to drop the new rules while the glitches in the system are addressed both here in the UK and abroad.
A Department For Transport spokesperson told Sun Travel: “The new security equipment being rolled out at UK airports enhances security for passengers.
“Passengers should continue to check security requirements with airports before they travel and come prepared with liquids no larger than 100mL in hand baggage.”
Why was the 100ml rule introduced?
The rule about liquids on planes was started in 2006, after British police stopped a terrorist plan to blow up planes flying across the Atlantic.
The terrorists wanted to bring liquid explosives onto the planes by hiding them in soft drink bottles in their hand luggage.
If they had succeeded, it would have been the worst terror attack since 9/11.
The Sun’s Head of Travel Lisa Minot describes watching the new airport scanners struggle with children’s medicine firsthand this week…
WE’D already been queueing for 30minutes in a very busy airport security hall when it was finally my turn.
The airport had the new CT scanners in place and we were told NOT to remove anything from our luggage.
My cabin bag sailed through with ease – my rucksack, however, was sent for further searches.
I knew there were no liquids in it – just a laptop – and I groaned inwardly as I realised my bag was at the end of a queue of 10 bags still waiting to be checked.
Standing by the desk where one solitary security officer was going through the bags, a disturbing pattern began to emerge.
As each bag was flagged, a family was called forward and a bottle of Calpol – all under 100ml and perfectly legal – was removed from their luggage and tipped into a bin.
It didn’t happen once as I stood there for another 25-odd minutes. Three different families had three identical bottles of Calpol taken away.
A fourth, elderly gentleman had a different branded bottle of liquid nurofen removed from his luggage an thrown away.
By the time my rucksack was scanned – there was nothing wrong with it, the CT scanner had just ‘forgotten to take its picture’ according to the security officer – I had watched four passengers have liquids removed that should not have been causing an issue.
While it is right that the 100ml rules are reintroduced, until these glitches in the software are resolved it will be of huge frustration to airports who have spent hundreds of millions upgrading their systems only to be back to square one.