See http://tinyurl.com/y7frxe
So, passengers are restricted as to what they can carry on a plane.
Luggage is x-rayed but certain cargo on passenger flights is being sent without being subjected to checks or X-rays.
That cheers me up no end.

Hi M,

Heard the story on BBC News last night.

Sheer fear mongering.

Have you found other sources regarding "two people in the US have even managed to post themselves home by airmail ..."?

I didn't.

How can it be fear mongering when it has already been used for drug smuggling God knows what else it has been used for

As for the folk who shipped themselves home - perfectly true, I remember the folk on flyertalk talking about the cases couple of years ago.

It's the same situation as with ship born freight - very little is actually checked so the odds of getting stuff into a country illegally are very high

A bloke tried to ship himself home in 2003

See http://tinyurl.com/yks2mn
He strikes me as a candidate for a Darwin award, but it did happen.
According to the BBC, a man was caught smuggling cocaine by buying a "known shipper" certificate from a bent employee.

Does anyone remember the supposed procedure for checked baggage accompanying you on a flight and if, for some reason, you weren't <b>ON</b> the flight, that baggage was to be removed?

When I returned from Europe a couple of weeks ago and arrived at the luggage carousel the checked bags were already there. When I inquired I was told, &quot;Oh, that came in on an earlier flight.&quot;


Apparently someone thinks that the bomb detectors have gotten foolproof.

Sorry, Ira, I don't agree that it's &quot;fear-mongering&quot;. This has been known to be a big loophole amongst many loopholes in our homeland security, but nobody has paid attention. So long as people see the visible security efforts, they seem to be happy, if annoyed at the inconvenience. Unfortunately, those visible efforts are about all that has happened since 9/11. Oh, and the war in Iraq which has made us all safer. Right.