First Hand Experiences at London Gatwick

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:
From:
Date: August 11, 2006 1:55:36 AM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: First Hand Experiences at London Gatwick

Hi Dave,

Please share anonymously with IP if you’d like.

I was one of the (un)lucky ones who flew from London to the United  
States today and can confirm all of the experiences being discussed  
on IP first hand. I flew out of London Gatwick and arrived at the  
airport just past 8 am for a flight that was scheduled to depart at  
11.55 am Gatwick departures was a zoo, and it took about 45 minutes  
to get from the front door of Gatwick to the check-in counter for my  
flight with Continental Airlines.

The employees at Continental were instructing everyone to check  
everything, and basically you were only allowed to take onboard a  
small wallet, passport, and plane ticket. Essential medications and  
baby products were also being permitted, but everything else --  
including books, electrical equipment (laptops, iPod, mobile phones,  
Blackberry, etc.), eyeglasses cases -- needed to be checked.

The security screening lines to get to the departure lounges were  
lengthy, but were moving quite well given the absence of any luggage.  
The security personnel were doing quite a thorough search of all  
passengers, including a pat down search, and scrutinizing fairly  
closely the now limited belongings that people were trying to bring  
onto the airplanes.

In the departure lounge, the shops were being given specific  
instructions that no liquid substances of any sort were to be sold to  
passengers departing for the US, and any beverages purchased needed  
to be consumed prior to boarding the airplane. Ironically, you were  
able to purchase books, newspapers, food, and other goods to bring  
onto the airplane that you were not able to bring through security.  
WH Smith (a newsagent in the U.K.) was doing rather brisk business as  
a result.

The flight that I was on was Continental 67 from Gatwick to  
Cleveland, Ohio. Upon arrival at the gate, all passengers were  
subjected to another thorough pat down search. Boarding for the  
flight commenced approximately 30 minutes after the scheduled  
departure time -- at the time I was thinking that the delay was going  
to be much greater -- but this is when things got interesting.

We continued to sit at the gate, and the captain explained that the  
delay was a result of a check by the UK and US governments of the  
passenger manifest. As I understand it, flights to the US from the UK  
were no longer being cleared to depart once the passenger manifest  
had been transmitted to the US / DHS / TSA; instead, as of today, the  
passenger manife
sts needed to be pre-cleared by the US and UK governments even before  
the flight was allowed to leave the gate.

Two hours into this waiting routine, airport authorities boarded the  
plane and offloaded a passenger. After the passenger was offloaded,  
we were all asked to disembark the airplane, so that a full sweep of  
the aircraft could be performed. Once at the gate area, having  
checked our mobile phones previously, a rather long queue quickly  
formed at the single BT public payphone at the gate.

We reboarded the plane at about 4 pm, and our flight departed for the  
States at 6 pm -- a full 6 hours after our scheduled departure time.  
With the books and magazines I had purchased from WH Smith, I was  
able to keep myself occupied for the 8 hour flight, but it was a  
surreal experience traveling on a long international flight without  
laptop, noise canceling headphones, onboard luggage and other  
creature comforts that I normally bring with me to make international  
flights bearable and productive.

We arrived at Cleveland at 9 pm, and I had long missed by onward  
connection to San Francisco. Here’s to hoping that the airports  
tomorrow are a bit less of a zoo than they were today.


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