Cholmondley_Warner

Oils can be used as the basis of powerful explosives as they have huge amounts of energy within them. It is easy to mix oil and other ingredients (well one really) to make highly effective explosive.

It's suprising what does make a good explosive. The london tube bombs were mainly chapati flour and hair products.

hetismij

Actually the flash point of Olive oil is considerably lower than most vegetable oils that are used for cooking, which is the main reason it is not used for deep fat frying (apart from the flavour and expense of course).
I suspect the reason is that the machinery used to scan bags cannot tell the difference between a cooking oil and a liquid explosive, due to the viscosity of it.
I haven't noticed any other airlines which have the ban however.

iris1745

Hi All; I think if you review on the BA web site that DalaiLlama provided, 'duty free liquids', bought within the EU, you shoud be able to buy whatever the 'duty free shop' sells, including olive oil. Then from a flight outside the EU and once in the 'air' on BA, you can buy whatever is in the sale book, including olive oil. However, it does need to be defined, 'cooking oil', 'olive oil' and 'duty free liquids'. Hopefully, crckwc will receive an answer from BA. ENJOY Iris

Robespierre

I'd lodge a protest, and use the BA <u>Holidays in France</u> printout as the cornerstone of my case.

Actually, I wouldn't, because I haven't, and probably never will, fly them again since they held our PHX-LHR flight on the ground for <i>five hours</i> without apology, explanation, or compensation.

They also flew a 747 from LAX to England on three engines because it was cheaper than having it fixed in the US.

I don't think they've got their business under control.

Underhill

Fortunately we are flying only Heathrow-Nice-Heathrow; the rest of our trip will be on AA, which seems to have no problem with olive oil.

Robespierre

But if you're flying BA, the oil will never get to LHR. Am I missing something?

Underhill

Not at all. I'm hoping that the issue will be resolved if and when I get a response to my message to BA. I suppose I could mail the oil to our Heathrow hotel, if all else fails.

lilaki

OMG! we packed a delicious bottle of provence olive oil in our checked luggage on our BA flight out of lyon in october. my biggest concern was how to get it home safely ... i never even thought that it would be confiscated!!!

pointofnoreturn

A few years ago, when I was flying home from London to Montreal, there was something dripping out of an overhead bin on top of an older man sitting right in front of me. I pointed it out to him and it was some yellowish fluid that was coming out of the overhead bin.

We couldn't find anything in the bin but the fluid was travelling down from another part of the plane but we were positive it was olive oil because of the smell and viscosity. Unfortunately, the FA didn't want to bother opening up all the overhead bins down the aisle to find the broken bottle so she just taped the &quot;hole&quot; as a solution. Sadly, the olive oil was still dripping on the poor man for the remainder of the flight.

Let that be a lesson - always make sure that bottles that are carried on are secured and protected with bubblewrap.

walkinaround

&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;
Oils can be used as the basis of powerful explosives
....
Any idea of how to make napalm?
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;

if this were american airlines instead of BA, we britons would be having such a laugh at the 'paranoid' americans. but since it's ba, we are dreaming up all kinds of justifications.

i'm glad ba is keeping us safe from the bad people making napalm and 'powerful explosives' out of their extra virgin.

Underhill

We wrap any liquids in bubble wrap and then put the whole thing inside a zip-top baggie. The one time we didn't a jar of pesto sauce broke, and that piece of luggage is still redolent of basil.

Michael

<i>i'm glad ba is keeping us safe from the bad people making napalm and 'powerful explosives' out of their extra virgin.</i>

As if someone is going to mix the stuff while it's in the hold.

wannagetaway

Guess I won't be flying BA on my next flight to Italy...best price or not!

Robespierre

Several online references state that olive oil, among numerous other vegetable oils, is subject to spontaneous combustion. Should a container of oil inside luggage be broken, any clothing in the suitcase would be saturated with it and, if exposed to oxygen (the hold is pressurized to about 9,000 feet), might catch fire.

Cowboy1968

Could someone please verify this last information VERY VERY quickly because I just spilled some olive oil from my salad on my pants and want to avoid to become the victim of spontaneous combus.. BOOM!

Cholmondley_Warner

You may mock, but napalm has a give away in its name - it's a mixture of Naphthalene and palm oil hence napalm. It's ludicrously easy to make (it's just too volatile to be used easily - but if you're on a suicide mission that hardly matters does it). You can do something similar with olive oil and another substance.

But I don't understand why there's a problem with it being in the hold.

Heimdall

So I guess we won't be hearing from Cowboy 1968 again?

Thanks, Cowboy, that gave me a good laugh!

Cowboy1968

Just a bunch of hysteria.. if you think about what you can do if you got one agent and combined it with another agent, you will end up with an endless list of harmless goods which become harmful once mixed or combined with others.

If security was an issue, one would ban alcohol and not oil, because oil without alcohol does nothing (except it will blow up the suitcase when spilled, a common problem on Tren Italia.. they lose several cars per year due to that pesky olive oil during the summer months) while alcohol without oil (or rather: a thickener) can still have massive harmful effects once ignited.

Though what I fear is a pre-emptive strike against Spain and Italy for producing billions of liters of weapons of mass destruction. Al-Bertolli is everywhere.. watch your pasta..

Cholmondley_Warner

Just a bunch of hysteria.. &gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;

Of course it is - just like 99.99% of the war on Terror bollocks.

I was just pointing out that within the Alice in Wonderland world of War on Turr there is a logic to fearing olive oil.

Personally I'm not scared of olive oil. Not even the stuff with chilies in it. But then I'm not scared of monsters under my bed or other chimeras...

walkinaround

gee when i pour olive oil into a simmering pan it just spreads out and start bubbling a little.

but when i pour 70% (140 proof) alcohol in such a pan it will flame up in a big poof ball of flames. no problem carrying up to 140 proof alcohol on board (up to 5L per person!!!)...and i can even put it in my CARRY-ON while harmless olive oil can't even be in my checked bags.

this makes a whole lot of sense. how laughable.