egph From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2006, 205 posts, RR: 0 Posted (2 years 10 months 1 week 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 2461 times:
Hey all,
I know airport security details can sometimes be quite secretive so if I am questions which I shouldn't really be asking do delete this!
Today on a flight from Edinburgh Airport to Dublin whilst passing through security my bag went through the X-ray and when it came out the other end, there seemed to be a problem as the staff wanted to do another check. This check involved taking what appeared to be a short stick, maybe 2 ft long and wiping it over the bag and then placing a piece of paper from the end of said stick in a machine that looked like a large cube, after about 15 seconds the guy took the paper out, checked it and gave me the all clear. Does anyone know what this machine is and what it checks for?
KELPkid From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 5934 posts, RR: 4 Reply 3, posted (2 years 10 months 1 week 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 2443 times:
Quoting YWG (Reply 1):
It's a check for explosive residue. So assuming you made a bomb, you probably touched the bag and transferred it
Or, if you fired a gun since the last time you took a shower, or handled fireworks... Seriously, more people get "violated" by the TSA in the week following the 4th of July here in the USA. It doesn't take much to trigger a positive result for the explosive residue test...
Celebrating the birth of KELPkidJR on August 5, 2009 :-)
egph From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2006, 205 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (2 years 10 months 1 week 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 2441 times:
OK thanks guys, I am a very curious person and really didn't want to ask the security operative at the time!
So for this test to be carried out does there need to be suspicion from the X-ray or is it random as I have never seen this carried out before! For the record I have not touched any explosive or firework in my life and not fired a gun in my life, hope never to do so!
ajd1992 From UK - England, joined Jul 2006, 2645 posts, RR: 6 Reply 5, posted (2 years 10 months 1 week 17 hours ago) and read 2311 times:
You don't need to have touched anything like that to be swabbed positive for it.
I've had my stuff swabbed positive on numerous occasions because something in my shampoo is also used in explosives (It's common, apparently), and if you shower before you fly (as you should) and touch your stuff, it comes up as you've been handling explosives.
They usually laugh it off, but when you have a bag full of wires and a laptop, they do get suspicious and pull you to one side.
MingToo From Zimbabwe, joined Jun 2009, 464 posts, RR: 1 Reply 7, posted (2 years 10 months 1 week 16 hours ago) and read 2289 times:
They use the same device on the Eurotunnel between the UK and France. Not on the passenger service, but on the car shuttle. They do it to all vehicles by swabbing the steering wheel.
They tend to do 5 or 6 at a time with the same swab then go off to check it. More efficient I guess and then presumably they would do it one at time after a positive.
MD11Engineer From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 13341 posts, RR: 64 Reply 8, posted (2 years 10 months 1 week 10 hours ago) and read 2201 times:
Quoting ajd1992 (Reply 5): I've had my stuff swabbed positive on numerous occasions because something in my shampoo is also used in explosives (It's common, apparently), and if you shower before you fly (as you should) and touch your stuff, it comes up as you've been handling explosives.
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Seriously, more people get "violated" by the TSA in the week following the 4th of July here in the USA. It doesn't take much to trigger a positive result for the explosive residue test...
From UK - England, joined Jul 2006, 2645 posts, 
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From Zimbabwe, joined Jun 2009, 464 posts, 
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