New (as of 2019) airport CT scanners

Agulliver

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Yes, it only guarantees safety flying out of the UK. But it is more realistic to mail my films back on the last day of a trip than to mail them to myself at a hotel, guessing at the arrival date or relying on expensive guaranteed overnight services.

And if the UK authorities have taken notice, we have some reason to hope others will too.
 

AgX

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Agulliver said:
Yes, it only guarantees safety flying out of the UK.
Click to expand...

And then only in the meaning of leaving a UK airport.
At the foreign airport then customs may await you with their modern scanners, searching for contrabande.
 

BrianShaw

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Small gains can eventually add up to big winnings!
 

Agulliver

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AgX said:
And then only in the meaning of leaving a UK airport.
At the foreign airport then customs may await you with their modern scanners, searching for contrabande.
Click to expand...

I have never, in something like 150 commercial flights, had my hand baggage scanned by x-rays at a destination airport.

Nor have I ever heard of it happening to people who travel for business hundreds if not thousands of times in their lives.
 

AgX

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Here in Germany you could find x-ray equipment for arrival checks even at an obscure general aviation airfield without any line carries already in the 80's. And german custom authority was most eager the last decade on presenting their arrival baggage and incomming parcel imaging activities in the media. But yes, Germany is not the world.
 

Steve Goldstein

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I've encountered scan-on-arrival more than once but the one I can specifically recall was upon arrival in Arequipa, Peru, on a flight from Lima. Agricultural exports are hugely important to the Peruvian economy and they have strict rules about the transport of fruits and vegetables within the country. There was no problem with hand check for my film, in fact when they saw what was in the clear plastic bag I was holding they waved me through. The rest of my luggage, checked and carry-on, went through X-ray.
 

BrianShaw

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Agulliver said:
I have never, in something like 150 commercial flights, had my hand baggage scanned by x-rays at a destination airport.

Nor have I ever heard of it happening to people who travel for business hundreds if not thousands of times in their lives.
Click to expand...
Only once have I seen that… in the US. Perhaps 20 years ago… a very small number of passengers were interviewed and had baggage sent through x-ray by agriculture inspection. In my case it was self-inflicted as I answered one of the questions on the arrival card admitting to be in possession of meat products. I remember offering to show the inspector the “meat product “ (it was dried baby food containing chicken) but they wanted to X-ray instead. When asked why they were staying they said “to see if there are any microbes”. Hilarious! But only once have I ever seen that.
 
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destroya

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it happens in the puerto vallarta airport in mexico. last time I had to give a $20 bribe to not have my film scanned. for some reason no bribe needed when flying home. this was about 4 years ago though
 

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I used to travel from the US to Chile fairly often, and the Chileans put all entering baggage (after arrival and collecting your checked bag) through an X-ray for agricultural inspection. There are plenty of signs before warning you to declare fruit/vegetable products to avoid fines. If you're a foreigner they're more likely to take it away and scold you than fine you, I think, but they do mean business. I don't remember ever taking film out of my bag for this X-ray, and I never got any film fogging (it was probably like the old generation of carry-on scanners), but I'm sure they would have allowed hand inspection, or you could just put the film in your coat pocket. They only cared about fruit/vegetable matter. I thought they mostly were looking for fresh fruit, but friends of mine have gotten scolded for dried products and even IIRC had sealed energy-bars confiscated. Agriculture is a big part of their economy and they don't want any imported bugs.

I'm pretty sure I've seen an agricultural inspection X-ray at an airport in Hawaii for similar fruit/vegetable reasons. I only remember this happening on exit, oddly enough - probably people trying to smuggle pineapples back to the mainland or something equally stupid.
 

Agulliver

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The one time I flew London to San Francisco I witnessed an unsuspecting middle aged woman absolutely get herself chewed out and fined by officers for bringing in an apple.

In her defence, we Europeans don't think about such things and haven't since the 1980s. In the airport staff defence, there were plenty of signs explaining that bringing in fruit, even from other states, was banned and that you'd be sniffed by dogs etc. Seems grossly out of proportion to all risk (ie protectionism - which is incredibly funny in a capitalist country)....but the rules were clearly posted so the woman had no right to complain. And it was complaining which got her in more trouble. They'd quite happily have confiscated the apple and let her pass.

But...no x-raying of incoming hand bags....random hand checks and sniffer dogs. I would imagine fruit is, to a dog, very easy to detect. It seems such actions occasionally happen but are very rare. And are currently not likely in countries which actually have the new CT scanners.

Still waiting to hear from the DfT myself but I don't expect a quick response. Government departments and cabinet ministers here do generally reply to requests but can take a couple of weeks.
 

AgX

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The prohibition of self importing certain vegetabile goods as fruits or vegetables is long existing in Germany. Something customs happily show in the media too. But agree it is hard to understans. When same is to be found in domestic stores.
 

BrianShaw

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It’s mostly about inadvertent importation of pests and disease that can harm crops. Officially imported goods are subject to inspection etc. to (theoretically) minimize the chances.

And I just have to say this… in 45 years of traveling by air, land, and sea I don’t think i can ever recall anyone getting “chewed out”. I’ve seen situations where it seemed warranted but always seen professionalism prevail.
 
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MattKing

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Many years ago, I worked as a Canadian Customs officer, at a US/Canada border crossing.
We had lists of agricultural products that we had to watch for.
The problem isn't with an apple that came from a grocery store. It is with an apple where you can't tell where it came from - an agriculturally inspected orchard, or the traveler's cousin's backyard apple tree with its charmingly tasty and pest or disease infected apples.
The restrictions are generally only there when the apple is being imported to a country that has an apple industry of its own, although it wouldn't surprise me if the EU members may cooperate to protect all their crops.
For that reason, Canada had no restrictions on importing oranges, but the US officers handling traffic the other way did have restrictions on oranges going the other way - the US citrus production industry is/was huge, and back then Canada imported a lot of oranges from other parts of the world that did have pest or disease issues that the US had under control.
I'll always remember having a car arrive at the entry point with a woman and a bunch of kids in it. They were desperately trying to finish eating all their blueberries before I had to tell them that they couldn't bring them in. I paused for a moment before telling them that there were no current restrictions on blueberries at the time .
 

abruzzi

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Agulliver said:
I have never, in something like 150 commercial flights, had my hand baggage scanned by x-rays at a destination airport.
Click to expand...

It does happen at layover airports, if your incoming flight went through security in another country and you’re getting back on a plane. I flew to Rome and had a layover at Heathrow, all my baggage—hand and checked—had to go back through security. Tokyo Narita, Chicago O’Hare, New York JFK, Dallas Fort Worth, probably some others I don’t remember.

EDIT: oh and I forgot—my baggage did get xray’d at my destination airport in Moscow, Russia and Leon, Mexico, though in the Moscow case, it seems like I was singled out, but in Mexico, everyone went through the x-ray machine, and I was singled out for hand inspection as well (as soon as the xray guy saw 30 rolls of 120 film.)
 

Agulliver

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I strongly suspect the ban on importation of fruit is more about protectionism than crop safety.....especially within the EU where supposedly there is totally free movement of people and goods...

I've made many journeys where I travelled from London to a US hub airport and then transferred some hours later to one or two internal flights. Never had my hand baggage x-rayed a second time but it is common to have the hold baggage retrieved, go through customs (at the airport in which I enter the USA) and then rechecked and presumably re x-rayed.
 

abruzzi

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That surprises me, because it has happened to me 100% of the time I travel internationally. The only time it doesn't happen to me on layovers is when the first flight was internal to the country--i.e. El Paso to Dallas to Paris, I didn't have to repass security in Dallas on the way out, but on the return--Paris to Dallas to El Paso, I did have to go back through security since, presumably, Paris is in a different country than Dallas.
 

AgX

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Agulliver said:
I strongly suspect the ban on importation of fruit is more about protectionism than crop safety.....especially within the EU where supposedly there is totally free movement of people and goods...
Click to expand...

It is about crop safety.

And there is no free movement between EU member states. Especially the Netherlands for many years completely ignored the Schengen treaty on free movement for EU citizens.

Then it became somewhat better with the Netherlands. But with the refugees/immigrants crisis of 2015 all EU member states have put interest again on intra-EU borders.
 

wiltw

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Agulliver said:
The one time I flew London to San Francisco I witnessed an unsuspecting middle aged woman absolutely get herself chewed out and fined by officers for bringing in an apple.
Click to expand...

Due to the magnitude of produce grown in California and exported to other states and countries, California is extremely protective that its crops not be invaded by foreign pests...even driving from Nevada and entering CA, there is an agricultural inspection stop. Everyone would be in a world of hurt if CA agriculture production and export suffered due to outside pests!
 

mrosenlof

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This is not correct unless you cleared US customs from your departure airport. It's common in Canada, and maybe others, but I've never cleared US customs in London. Once you come into contact with any hold baggage, you have lost your "cleared by security" status and need to be re-screened.

I've cleared US customs in Toronto and then flown to Denver via Chicago. The Chicago transfer happens without re-screening.
 

wiltw

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Agulliver said:
I have never, in something like 150 commercial flights, had my hand baggage scanned by x-rays at a destination airport.

Nor have I ever heard of it happening to people who travel for business hundreds if not thousands of times in their lives.
Click to expand...

I have run into the arrival at an International terminal, then connecting to flight within the EU, where the connection gate is not accessible to the traveller without entering Security inspection. It might be due to the fact that the connection is in a different terminal building.

I have also travelled from an EU airport to another EU airport, but needed to claim my luggage and it goes thru inspection...I hand carried it from where I picked it up and then passed it thru to the final international flight home.
 

pentaxuser

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We've veered a little away from the problem of CT scanners but this is understandable, given the thread's length and the recent welcome announcement by Ilford of its actions to try and solve our film problem. We are in effect "awaiting developments"

However to sound a pessimistic note, I imagine that for those "authorities" for whom hand inspection is perceived as an unwelcome burden the crisis in Afghanistan may only serve as a switch which turns on the amber light for caution as opposed to a green light for GO in terms of progress.

pentaxuser
 

MattKing

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Agulliver said:
I strongly suspect the ban on importation of fruit is more about protectionism than crop safety.
Click to expand...
I can't comment about the EU, and things may very well have changed since I worked taking apples from people, but I can say that the control measures changed regularly as pest and disease problems waxed and waned. We actually were working under powers delegated by regulation from Agriculture Canada's empowering legislation. Those regulations changed regularly as crop conditions changed.
When I worked, I was supposed to seize any quince I encountered. I'm still wondering what quince look like.
 

MattKing

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And on the subject of x-rays at your destination, most likely they are employed most often for purposes like detection of contraband, not detection of dangerous items, and most generally would be used after secondary investigatory referral.
That is how they catch people trying to sneak in a recently killed chicken in their carry-on!
 

pentaxuser

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