UKC

Quick draws in hand luggage

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 Joint 14 Jan 2015
Anyone carried quick draws in hand luggage recently? (Or other sport climbing stuff) that got through security ok?
 pff 14 Jan 2015
In reply to Joint:
Carried a dozen of them on, comin back through Treviso last June. Security made me open the bag after the x-ray and I had to explain in piggin italian "pora arrimpicare" which in my head means "for climbing". I dunno what it meant in his head, but he left us bring them on.
 JayPee630 14 Jan 2015
In reply to Joint:

It's random, depends on airline, airport and person checking, so it's a risky strategy as you might lose them all.
 GrahamD 14 Jan 2015
In reply to Joint:

Entirely at the discretion of airport security. Some you'll win, some you'll lose.
 nutme 14 Jan 2015
Never been taken away quick draws. I climb in Spain and use EasyJet and RyanAir to get where. Usually I am caring harness, helmet, biners, slings, quick draws, via ferrata line yard and tele walking poles.

Only thing I had problems with were walking poles. Lost 3 of those in ~60 flights.
 Babika 14 Jan 2015
In reply to Joint:

Was fine last year with quick draws, rocks and friends in the hand luggage at Birmingham. It ground the scanning machine to a halt briefly and the guy looked up to see who it belonged to....I waved and he said "I guess you're not going to Holland"

I think as others have said there is no hard and fast rule, it depends how arsey the checkers are feeling and probably whether you look like terrorist material
 Simon Caldwell 14 Jan 2015
In reply to Joint:

Do a forum search, you'll find dozens of threads.

Brief summary: it's nothing to do with the airline, everything to do with security. You may get away with it, you may not. Is it worth the risk? Depends if you can afford the excess baggage fees (which if it's a budget airline are likely to be high). And of course if you're running late there may not be time to go back to check-in and you'll end up on holiday without any climbing kit.
 thommi 14 Jan 2015
In reply to Simon Caldwell:

We had no problem with draws and stuff leaving stanstead to lourdes but they did not like my ice axe spanner and spare hammer that id forgotten was in the bag. They confiscated these and I had to pay six pounds on my return to collect them off airport services. Dont know what the theory there was... maybe they thought I was going to start trying to dismantle the plane!! like I said though, quick draws rope etc was fine!
 Pina 14 Jan 2015
In reply to Joint:

Also depends on which airport security you're dealing with. Geneva for example are always pretty lax, I got through with a knife I'd forgotten in my bag just last week. The security guy asked if I had a knife then gave me a nod and I was on my way.
 GrahamD 14 Jan 2015
In reply to Babika:

> I think as others have said there is no hard and fast rule, it depends how arsey the checkers are feeling and probably whether you look like terrorist material

Its nothing to do with being arsey. Its whether someone who has some degree of responsibility for flight safety who is trying to process as many passengers as they can can see any legitimate reason why you are trying to take unidentifiable bits of metal work on board a plane.

 Thrudge 15 Jan 2015
In reply to GrahamD:

Hard to see how a quickdraw would qualify as a weapon, or even a potential weapon. You could classify a Toby jug as a potential weapon, and arguably a more dangerous one - broken ceramic is wickedly sharp. A rolled up newspaper is a better weapon than a quickdraw.
 GrahamD 15 Jan 2015
In reply to Tony Naylor:

Luckily I don't have to deal with the public on a daily basis, each of whom want to tell me why their particular bit of unrecognisable metalwork is really for their particular esoteric hobby and can in no way be used as part of something more sinister once on board.

 Thrudge 15 Jan 2015
In reply to GrahamD:

Hmm. That would tend to imply that security bods who do let quickdraws through are somehow missing a trick, being a bit lax. They don't know what a quickdraw is, but they let it through anyway. Doesn't seem very plausible.

A prize to the first UKCer to build something sinister out of a handful of quickdraws.
 Skipinder 15 Jan 2015
In reply to Tony Naylor:

Some kind of bizarre nipple clamp?
 Thrudge 16 Jan 2015
In reply to Skipinder:

Ah. Now that would explain it. Security saw I was using quickdraws as nipple tassels and were worried that I might get overenthusiastic and twirl them around in a manner so pneumatic as to take someone's eye out.
 GrahamD 16 Jan 2015
In reply to Tony Naylor:

> Hmm. That would tend to imply that security bods who do let quickdraws through are somehow missing a trick, being a bit lax. They don't know what a quickdraw is, but they let it through anyway. Doesn't seem very plausible.

It implies that, against the odds, some security people do know what a quickdraw is and can therefore make a snap judgement that its ok to take.

Others might be being a bit more relaxed (or lax)

Others haven't a scooby what a quickdraw is and why you would want it on a plane so quite rightly tell you you can't take the stuff.
 iamniccage 16 Jan 2015
In reply to Joint:

flew out to spain recently with quickdraws in hand luggage - uk security fine.

Flew back - got turned around by security who said they could be a weapon - knuckle dusters apparently - and had to get them checked in otherwise they would all be destroyed.

On a different occassion though i have been through fine. think it is luck of the draw as to what security people you get. luckily flight was not full so was able to get them checked in for free.

 eltankos 16 Jan 2015
In reply to iamniccage:
"luck of the draw"

Punarrific
 joeruckus 16 Jan 2015
In reply to Joint:
I've flown with quickdraws quite a lot (in fact a whole rack in my hand luggage), and never had a problem. On a couple of occasions I've realised I left a nut key in there too, and that *definitely* looks like a weapon, but it's gone through fine. If you're off for a bit of sport climbing on a low-cost airline then I'd say most of the airports involved are used to it.

The only time I've had anything confiscated was a small cycling multi-tool: a set of allan keys. I guess they thought I might unscrew the aircraft one bit at a time, starting with the meal tray. The guy at security said that there's a restriction on carrying 'tools', and I know we're not supposed to try to argue about it, but I patiently explained that I hadn't seen any such restriction in all the literature about allan keys, and it's true, there's no restriction on things that are simply classified as 'tools' - they have different advice for different tools.

The most up-to-date list of baggage restrictions from gov.uk is here:
https://www.gov.uk/hand-luggage-restrictions
Under 'sporting equipment' there's no mention of anything particularly related to climbing protection.

But yeah, in the end it's partly at the discretion of the particular security guy, and arguing isn't going to help your case. If something's detected that they don't want you carrying through, most (UK) security zones permit you to either check the item in as hold-luggage (for a fee), or, if it's small enough, to post it to an address, so I guess if you're super concerned you could carry a large SAE or jiffybag so you can post 'em back. You'd have to make sure you'd allowed time before the flight to be able to do it though.
Post edited at 16:04

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